Music

Curriculum Statement

Harlands has always had a strong musical link within the community, taking part in a range of concerts, undertaking musical trips, and welcoming visiting musicians into school.  The school regularly performs to parents / carers, and the children often perform to each other. 

Intent

At Harlands, we foster children’s development of Music through our Golden Threads of creativity, community and choice.  This ethos ensures that our children will take a positive view of music, and will be able to access the material to cultivate powerful skills and knowledge of the subject.  By the time they leave the school, pupils will be able to meet their aspirations of expressing and empower themselves through music, becoming critical thinkers and appreciating the world around us.

Music at Harlands aims to excite and inspire children through a wide range of activities, so that they can:

• enjoy and have an appreciation for music;
• listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, cultures, styles and traditions;
• can sing and use their voices to create different effects;
• create and compose music, both on their own and with others;
• use a range of musical language;
• make judgements and express personal preferences about the quality and style of music, and
• take part in performances with an awareness of audience.

Implementation

At Harlands there is a progressive curriculum that covers the three primary strands of Music learning – listening and appreciating, composing and performing – for children to develop both develop technical skills and knowledge, whilst also having creating opportunities to produce their own music.

At Harlands, we use Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction to challenge and inspire our pupils through targeted questioning, guided practice, and regular review.  Music is taught to all classes as a discrete subject once a week by a subject specialist.

In the Early Years, children are taught to:

• enjoy singing, being able to perform broadly in tune, showing an awareness of the audience when performing;
• enjoy trying out and changing sounds explore sounds and music through play; and
• recognise changes in timbre, tempo, pitch and dynamics when listening to simple pieces of music.

Key Stage 1 children are taught to:

• use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes;
• play tuned and un-tuned instruments musically;
• listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music; and
• experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.

Key Stage 2 children are taught to:

• play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression;
• improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music;
• listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory;
• use and understand staff and other musical notation;
• appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians; and
• develop an understanding of the history of music.

Differentiation and challenge in class Music lessons is often facilitated through outcome, however there are other opportunities provided throughout the academic year where those more able children can have their moment to shine, particularly through performance.

In addition to curriculum lessons, we also offer:

• weekly thirty-minute assemblies where children come together in larger groups to sing, as well as have the opportunity to perform solo musical items;
• numerous annual musical theatre productions and concerts for all year groups, including nativity plays (EY and KS1), Spring Celebration Concerts (Early Years and Key Stage 1), Key Stage 2 year productions and many more.
• School choir – open to children in Key Stage 2 – where the children rehearse weekly, often working towards performances either for an internal event, or out in the wider community.
• Year 3 Ukelele Club – to give all children the opportunity to learn a musical instrument.
• There is a programme of one-to-one instrumental lessons on offer at the school, run by a team of excellent instrumental teachers.

Impact

We believe that every child has the potential to become a confident and successful musician.   Child develop the ability to:

• forge their own music journey, which allows them to discover areas of strength, as well as areas they might like to improve upon;
• create an enormously rich palette of fundamental abilities, such as self-confidence, interaction with an awareness of others and self-reflection;
• understand the culture and history of music, from ethnicities across the world;
• enjoy music, in as many ways as they choose – either as a listener, creator or performer;
• discuss music and comprehend its parts; and
• sing, feel a pulse, add rhythms and create melodies in a group, enabling them to further develop these skills in the future and continue to enjoy and embrace music in their lives.

Updated April 2022