Music

Music

Throughout their time at school, we want all children to have the opportunity to perform, interpret and appreciate a wide variety of music. It is rare that we go through a day without some sort of music making an appearance in our lives. Whilst it is common that we drift towards a certain genre or artist, we want children to understand and celebrate the diversity of music in our world. Throughout their time in Primary school, children will develop their understanding of music and how to make musical judgements, apply their new learning, develop their aural memory, express themselves physically, emotionally and through discussion and create their own musical ideas.  

In order to do this effectively, we have chosen to use Charanga music scheme. Charanga is modelled on the spiral curriculum and aims to build up children’s knowledge and appreciation of music as they move through the school. The Scheme aligns with the National Curriculum’s aims for the subject.  

As a school, we understand that children often express themselves through Music when they are unable to through words. Because of this, we aim for Music to be integrated into the wider curriculum to promote accessible learning for all. We aim to enrich pupils Musical experience through workshops with outside agencies as well as in school activities such as Assemblies and performances. As a Catholic school, Hymn practises and Acts of Worship incorporate music naturally into daily life. Whilst we sing a wide variety of Hymns, our aim is that children can explain why we sing these and the meaning behind the lyrics.  

Through the teaching of Music, we also aim to build skills such as resilience and collaboration. We want children to be ‘Who God created them to be’ and truly thrive as individuals. By encouraging children to take risks in their compositions or just to simply have a go and try their best, we aim for all learners to step out of their comfort zones and set the world on fire. The Charanga scheme promotes this by providing high quality models for children to take inspiration form and use as a target to aim towards.  

As a diverse school, we are proud to celebrate the wide range of cultures within the school community. By choosing specific Charanga units of work for each class, we are ensuring that children are exposed to genres of music that they are unlikely to listen to in their daily lives. Right from KS1, children are exposed to genres such as Blues, Baroque, Latin, Bhangra, Folk and Funk. This continues up the school too. There are units that use songs that may be familiar to children, for example ‘Don’t Stop Believing’. These units take children back to the geographical origins of the song and the era in which it was created, therefore exposing children to knowledge that may otherwise go unlearnt.