Music

At Coltishall Primary School, we believe that music is a unique way of communicating.

It gives children opportunities for personal expression, creativity and enjoyment, while also developing knowledge, discipline and increasingly sophisticated musical skills.

Music also brings people together. Singing, playing and performing with others helps children experience what it means to be part of a musical community.

Music and Our School Values

Music makes an important contribution to our School Values and Learning Dispositions.

Making music together develops patience, tolerance, respect, trust, responsibility and empathy.

Performing and composing also require creativity, cooperation, confidence, quality, resilience and reflection.

These qualities are developed naturally as children rehearse, perform, listen to one another and work together to improve.

Our Approach

Throughout school, children develop the interconnected skills of:

• singing;

• playing instruments;

• listening and responding;

• composing and improvising;

• performing;

• understanding how music is structured and represented.

Children listen to and appreciate music from a wide range of styles, traditions, periods and cultures.

They learn to talk about what they hear, consider why music may have been created and develop increasingly informed opinions about musical performances and compositions.

Music in Key Stage 1

In Key Stage 1, singing is at the heart of the Music curriculum.

Children develop musicianship through singing, listening, composing, performing and exploring rhythm, pulse and pitch.

Teachers draw on a range of high-quality resources, including Charanga, Sing Up and BBC Bring the Noise, alongside school planning.

The emphasis is on children experiencing Music actively: singing, moving, listening, creating and performing.

Whole-Class Instrumental Teaching

A particularly important part of Music at Coltishall is our whole-class instrumental teaching in Key Stage 2.

Children are taught by a specialist music teacher and progressively experience instrumental learning through:

• Years 3 and 4 – recorder

• Year 5 – trumpet

• Year 6 – keyboard

These are not isolated instrumental lessons. Listening, singing, composition, performance and musicianship are woven through each unit so that children develop as rounded musicians.

This means that every child has the opportunity to learn and perform on musical instruments during their time at Coltishall.

Progression

Musical knowledge and skills build progressively through the school.

Children revisit important ideas such as pulse, rhythm, pitch, dynamics, tempo, notation, composition and performance with increasing sophistication.

Our Knowledge Organisers help children make connections with previous learning and identify the musical knowledge and vocabulary that will support each new unit.

As pupils progress, they are expected to listen with increasing discrimination, perform with greater control and confidence and make more deliberate choices when composing music.

Performance

Performance is a regular part of Music at Coltishall.

Children learn that music is something to be shared with others as well as practised in lessons.

They have opportunities to perform as individuals, classes, ensembles and larger groups through concerts, assemblies, celebrations and community events.

Preparing for a performance develops confidence and resilience and gives children a genuine reason to practise, refine and improve their work.

Music Beyond the Classroom

We want children to experience a rich musical life beyond their curriculum lessons.

Our wider provision includes opportunities such as:

• Choir;

• school orchestra;

• instrumental tuition with visiting specialist teachers;

• performances within school and the local community;

• participation in wider musical events and opportunities.

We also take advantage of opportunities provided through organisations such as the Norfolk Music Hub, enabling children to participate in and experience larger-scale musical events and high-quality live performance.

Instrumental Tuition

Children can also choose to learn instruments through visiting specialist teachers.

The range of instruments available depends on tutor availability and demand and may include instruments such as guitar, piano, flute, violin and drums.

These lessons supplement the Music curriculum and enable children who develop a particular musical interest to pursue it further.

Music in the Early Years

Music forms part of everyday life in Reception as well as being explored through planned learning.

Children sing songs, chants and rhymes, move to a pulse, listen and respond to music and explore ways of creating sounds using instruments, their voices and everyday objects.

They begin to experiment with rhythm and sound and experience the enjoyment of making music with other people.

These experiences establish the confidence, listening skills and musical curiosity that children build on throughout school.

A Musical Community

Our aim is for every child to experience the enjoyment of creating, playing, listening to and performing music.

Some children will go on to learn instruments in greater depth, sing in choirs or perform in ensembles. For every child, however, we want Music at Coltishall to provide memorable shared experiences and an understanding that music is something they can participate in and enjoy throughout their lives.