Miss Simpson is our Music Lead.

At Southmead Primary School, our Music Curriculum is designed to be accessible to all so that every child feels engaged and motivated to see the world through the eyes of young musicians.  We believe that all children can achieve in Music – having fun and exploring their own music talents and preferences.  We do not put ceilings on what pupils can achieve and we do not hold pre-conceptions about any pupils’ ability to progress.  We believe through learning music, pupils will develop creatively, culturally and spiritually.

The National Curriculum for Music aims to ensure that all children:

• Perform, listen to, review and evaluate music
• Be taught to sing, create and compose music
• Understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated

At Southmead, we use Charanga to support the teaching of Music from EYFS to Year 6.  Charanga offers an integrated, practical, exploratory and child-led approach to learning music.  The interrelated dimensions of music (Listen and Respond, Explore and Create, Singing and Performing) weave and spiral  through the units covering a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions and music genres, encouraging the development of musical skills as the learning progresses.  Music is taught in a thematic and enjoyable way and links to other curriculum areas wherever possible.

Charanga Musical School Units of Work enable children to understand musical concepts through repetition-based approach to learning.  At Southmead, we believe learning about the same musical concept through different musical activities enables a more secure, deeper learning and mastery of musical skills.  Children are guided, and build upon, the spiral stands of musical learning from EYFS to Year 6 in order for them to have the opportunity to embed deeper learning, knowledge, understanding and skills as well as enjoyment.

At Southmead, the Music Curriculum ensures children Listen and Respond, Explore and Create, Sing and Play and Share and Perform.  This is embedded though classroom activities as well as the weekly singing assemblies, individual music lessons, various concerts and performances and the whole school instrumental lessons in Years 5 and Year 6.  We regularly participate in community events, singing with our school choir and year group events.  We have also established an Infant and Junior Music Festival within our Trust and perform at least annually.

There is Charanga CPD sessions for staff and we ensure that staff are equipped with the necessary professional development to deliver our curriculum.

The elements of Music are taught in the classroom lessons so that children are able to use some of the language of music to dissect it, understand how it is made, played, appreciated and analysed.  In the classroom, children learn how to play different instruments such as glockenspiels, tuned and unturned percussions, guitars and trumpets which facilitate the understanding of the different musical methods, the musical families and the enjoyment and skills of playing an instrument.  It also teaches and provides an opportunity to practice writing and reading musical notation in different forms. They also leanr how to compose, focusing on different layers of music, which supports their understanding when listening, playing and analysing music.

Through the program Charanga, teachers are able to produce inclusive lessons for all children to access the music curriculum in a fun and engaging way, further promoting a love of learning.

Our Music Curriculum is planned to demonstrate progression and build on and embed current skills.  We focus on progression of knowledge and skills in the different musical elements and teaching of vocabulary throughout the Music curriculum.

If children are achieving the knowledge and skills in lessons, then they are deemed to be making good or better progress.

The impact of our Music Curriculum in measures through the following methods:

• Lesson Observations and Subject Monitoring.
• Pupil Voice – discussions and interviews about their learning.
• Governor monitoring with our subject Music link/Curriculum Governor.
• Monitoring of Subject Leader Action Plans.
• Photo and video evidence of the pupils’ practical learning.
• Use of the assessment tool provided within the Charanga Scheme.
• Dedicated Music Leader time.
• Uptake on peripatetic lessons and music clubs.
• Performances during whole school instrumental lessons.

Through pupil discussions and interviews, we also ensure that the Music curriculum is fun and engaging and that children are enjoying their learning – promoting a love of learning.

We use a scheme of work called Charanga Music: 

The award-winning, modern-day resource for primary music — 

• A complete scheme to teach the national curriculum for music
• A growing library of songs, topics, instrument courses and creative apps
• Support for assessment, SEND and personalised teaching and learning

EYFS MUSIC CURRICULUM

Our children are encouraged to explore and play with a wide range of musical instruments within our indoor and outdoor environments. We support children in imaginatively creating sounds with everyday objects and helping them understand that anything and anyone can make music. We have been using the online platform ‘Charanga’ to lead us through a rich variety of types of music, starting with traditional nursery rhymes and working through to finding the pulse and moving in time to funk music, recognising different musical instruments and performing songs and improvising their own parts.