The John Moore Primary School
Little Foxes
Music
Music Curriculum
“Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity.”
(National Curriculum)
At John Moore Primary, we believe a music curriculum should inspire all children to SHARE, STRIVE, SOAR and SPARKLE. It should provide opportunities for children to develop the key skills of listening and appraising, composing and performing while fostering a life-long love and appreciation of music. By exposing children to many diverse and meaningful musical experiences, and embedding music and singing into the everyday life of the school, we believe we can guide children to become confident and reflective musicians.
It is widely recognised that the skills developed through music education are transferable to many other areas of the curriculum. As a school, we understand the significance of music in developing key life skills such as confidence, communication, perseverance, and improved memory. Vitally, music can provide an emotional outlet for children. The act of music-making, listening to music and the opportunity for self-expression can all be extremely beneficial for mental health and wellbeing.
At John Moore, we strive to deliver engaging weekly music lessons in which knowledge and skills are built upon each year until children are able to read, write and perform their own compositions. We believe it is important that children are exposed to good quality live and recorded music. We welcome musicians into our school to perform in assemblies and we also work alongside musicians on community projects such as Musicate. In addition, Children learn about and listen to a wide range of musical styles from different periods of music history through our ‘Composer of the Month’ initiative.
Singing is important in our school. Children enjoy sharing in weekly singing assemblies and learning songs from a range of different countries and cultures. Singing is also used in the classroom to support learning. Children have the opportunity to sparkle in our various seasonal productions and concerts. They are encouraged to set high expectations for themselves and to celebrate their achievements and those of others.
We believe that the provision of out-of-school musical experiences is important in developing musicianship. Children have the opportunity to sing in the KS1 and KS2 choirs and there are various performance opportunities through our links with the local community (for example, The Roses Theatre and Gloucestershire and Cheltenham Music Festivals). We also regularly travel to Birmingham Arena to take part in the amazing Young Voices Concerts. The experience of performing in such a large venue is a memory which will stay with the children forever.
We aim to provide our children with many opportunities to play instruments. We have a range of tuned and un tuned percussion instruments which children use for composing and performing activities in class. In line with the government Wider Opportunities scheme, all children in Years 3 and 4 receive at least 10 weeks of whole-class recorder tuition and children in year 5 receive 10 weeks of keyboard or glockenspiel tuition. Further to this, we provide opportunities for children to learn a wide range of instruments (piano, flute, clarinet, drums, violin and guitar) with specialist peripatetic teachers. As a school, we recognise that the skills developed through learning an instrument are also valuable life skills.
Key Documents
Music National Curriculum Programme of Study