Music
At Woodlands Primary School, music is a key part of our curriculum with an aim to inspire creativity and self-expression. We strive to nurture a sense of achievement and self-confidence in our pupils so that they want to share their passions and connect with others. Educators at Woodlands are committed to develop pupils’ curiosity in the subject; ensuring they understand the importance and value of music in the wider community.
We are very proud to announce that Woodlands were recently awarded the Bronze award from Telford Wrekin Music for excellence in our music provision! We are currently working towards the Silver Award!
Our curriculum is carefully designed to ensure key knowledge and skills progress in a logical and sequenced way, thus enabling pupils to revisit previously taught content and to build upon it year on year. We use carefully structured progression documents to ensure that substantive and disciplinary knowledge and skills are clearly outlined and sequenced, thus enabling the children to know and remember more, as they move through school.
music curriculum framework.pdf
We believe that music is for everyone! Teachers ensure that the breadth of content and skills needed to progress through a child’s musical journey at Woodlands is delivered with confidence and enthusiasm and that pupils are given many opportunities to apply these.
The national curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:
- perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians
- learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence
- understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.
Pupils take part in stimulating lessons, across a range of genres, allowing them to develop a love of music and increase their confidence and imagination. They are taught the interrelated dimensions of music through listening to and appraising a wide variety of musical styles; we have a different musical style each week and style indicators are discussed to ensure our children are knowing and remembering more.
Click on the link below to see the styles of music taught at Woodlands:
At Woodlands, teachers are empowered to teach whole class recorder ensuring lessons are differentiated and those children with additional needs are supported appropriately. Pupils are free to demonstrate their composition, performance and improvisation skills and to learn staff notation.
To progress this further, pupils in years 4 and 5 are offered free, small group tuition on a range of brass and woodwind instruments.
In addition to this, a love of music is encouraged through weekly singing assemblies for each Key Stage. These assemblies are cross curricular and address important topics, such as bullying and recycling, through specific motivating songs. Our songs also recognise important religious festivals, across different cultures. Here at Woodlands, we pride ourselves on our fantastic Key Stage Two choir who regularly perform in concerts, both at school and within the local community and take part in ‘Young Voices’ in Birmingham each year.
National Plan For Music Education
The National Plan for Music Education is a clear plan of where the DFE would like music teaching to go. The key messages from the plan are:
- To enable all children to learn to sing, play an instrument and create music together and progress their musical interests by accessing high-quality curricular and co-curricular music.
- A huge emphasis on an inclusive music curriculum.
- Opportunities to progress beyond their school education.
At Woodlands, music is becoming a key part of our curriculum with an aim to inspire creativity and self-expression through both curricular and extracurricular opportunities. Teachers feel empowered to teach music through the use Charanga music school which enables them to adapt their teaching to meet the needs of the children in the class. The introduction of WCET (Whole Class Ensemble Teaching) of recorders across the school means that children are learning the interrelated dimensions of music in addition to the core skills of listening and appraising, performing, composing and improvising and sets a clear path for progression as the child moves through their primary years. Every child should have the opportunity to learn music instrument, not just an elite of musicians.
Charanga music school was adopted to give the ownership of music teaching back to the teachers who know their children best, as opposed to an external teacher with no relationship with the children coming in to teach one year group, once a week usually an instrument which the children found technically difficult (guitar for example) causing behaviour issues and would not be in a position to continue once the lessons finished at the end of year. It provides teachers with limited musical knowledge the tools to feel confident to teach structured lessons that cover all aspects of the Model Music curriculum and CPD resources to further their understanding (see music curriculum framework attached for more information). Staff voice has shown that teachers find the resources clear and mostly enjoy teaching music as part of a wider curriculum.
Whole class recorder teaching has been introduced as the instruments are easy to play, can travel through the school with them and are easily replaced. WCET has been recognised in the national plan as a key part of a child’s musical learning, it enables them to perform, compose, improvise and learn all of the aspects of music that a child needs to be a musician. A recorder club will be started after half term and children will be offered the opportunity to go to a recorder festival where they will perform with other schools and listen to professional musicians perform. Links with Abraham Derby have been developed and children in upper KS2 are offered the opportunity to learn a brass or woodwind instrument, something they will be able to continue and develop when they move to secondary school.
Children are exposed to a wide range of musical genres daily through the ‘entry music’ (Styles of music document attached), assemblies, singing assemblies and workshops. The school choir offers children the opportunity to go to Young Voices every year where they will perform and listen to high-quality performances from professional musicians. Links to where music can be introduced in other areas of the curriculum have been identified and added to the music framework.
Intent
Our curriculum is carefully designed to ensure key knowledge and skills progress in a logical and sequenced way, thus enabling pupils to revisit previously taught content and to build upon it year on year. We use carefully structured progression documents to ensure that substantive and disciplinary knowledge and skills are clearly outlined and sequenced, thus enabling the children to know and remember more, as they move through school.
Implementation
At Woodlands, teachers are empowered to teach whole class recorder ensuring lessons are differentiated and those children with additional needs are supported appropriately. Pupils are free to demonstrate their composition, performance and improvisation skills and to learn staff notation.
To progress this further, pupils in years 4 and 5 are offered free, small group tuition on a range of brass and woodwind instruments.
In addition to this, a love of music is encouraged through weekly singing assemblies for each Key Stage. These assemblies are cross curricular and address important topics, such as bullying and recycling, through specific motivating songs. Our songs also recognise important religious festivals, across different cultures. Here at Woodlands, we pride ourselves on our fantastic Key Stage Two choir who regularly perform in concerts, both at school and within the local community and take part in ‘Young Voices’ in Birmingham each year.
Impact
Pupils take part in stimulating lessons, across a range of genres, allowing them to develop a love of music and increase their confidence and imagination. They are taught the interrelated dimensions of music through listening to and appraising a wide variety of musical styles; we have a different musical style each week and style indicators are discussed to ensure our children are knowing and remembering more.
