“Music is an essential part of children's education. It stimulates the brain and helps enormously in a child’s whole-person development – physically, emotionally, socially, intellectually and spiritually. ” David Vinden and Cyrilla Roswell.
Intent: Why we teach your child music and what we teach.
We ensure that music is accessible for all children at Elburton Primary. Our focus is on creating a highly enjoyable and motivating learning experience that children find rewarding and they actively engage with. Integrating music into a well-rounded curriculum enhances the overall quality of a child's education, instilling discipline, boosting self-esteem, inspiring creativity, and helping them set and achieve goals.
Teaching music at Elburton Primary aims to nurture, sustain, and celebrate the individual aesthetic and creative potential of every child. It seeks to engage all children and build a skills-based understanding of the core fundamentals of the subject.
Elburton Primary School believes that teaching music is a subject that not only allows children to use and develop their imagination but also enables them to express a wide range of emotions. It also contributes to raising the school's profile in the community and local vicinity, offering excellent opportunities to all children, regardless of their social backgrounds and academic abilities.
Implementation: What our music curriculum looks like and how we teach it.
At Elburton Primary School, we use Charanga, an online music education platform, that provides a thoughtfully structured curriculum aimed at quickly enhancing students' aural memory and technical skills. Each unit focuses on a particular musical genre or theme, with the learning journey broken down into five progressive steps.
Step 1 – Singing
The children learn and perform a focal song for the unit, appraising and comparing other related songs at the start of each lesson.
Step 2 – Playing an Instrument
Children learn to play a piece of music based on the focal song on the glockenspiel. We provide a class set of glockenspiels to ensure each child has ample opportunity to develop their skills.
Step 3 – Improvisation
Using the learned piece as a foundation, children devise their own improvisations, incorporating rhythmic and melodic ideas from the piece.
Step 4 – Composition
The children compose a short piece of music to accompany the song.
Step 5 – Performance
The children and their teacher discuss and decide which elements to include in the final performance, which is filmed to allow for reflection on their achievements and areas for improvement.
Children are also given the opportunity to listen to and appraise the music they hear. During this part of the lesson, they are asked various questions about what they can hear in the music, whether they enjoyed the piece, the genre, and the composition of the song. They are encouraged to use appropriate musical terminology when responding.
Children in Y5 and Y6 will also receive music tuition from a music specialist. They will learn to play the ukulele in Y5 and progress onto playing the guitar in Y6.
Impact: How children show that they know and remember more?
The careful sequencing of the curriculum – and how concepts are gradually built over time – is the progression model. If pupils are keeping up with the curriculum, they are making progress. Formative assessment is prioritised and is focused on whether pupils are keeping up with the curriculum.
In general, this is done through:
- Questioning in lessons. Teachers check understanding so they can fill gaps and address misconceptions as required.
- Pupil conferencing. Subject leads and SLT talk to pupils about what they have learnt.
- Listening and observation of performance in class as an ongoing process. Children often perform in groups to each other and this gives an opportunity for staff to assess children’s achievements and plan in to lessons areas for improvement. Examples of work can be recorded (audio and/or videoed) and put into a music evidence folder.
At Elburton Primary School, students have the opportunity to learn keyboard, ukulele, or guitar with our specialist music teacher. However, even without formal instrumental lessons, there are many ways to foster a love of music and develop your child’s musicality at home.
Listen to a range of genres of music together and share your enjoyment, highlighting the importance of music in our lives.
Discuss pieces of music with your child: How does it make them feel? What instruments do they hear?
Explore local events and workshops suitable for various ages.
If your child is taking instrumental lessons, encourage them to practice regularly at home.
