Intent

Our music curriculum’s intention is first and foremost to help children to feel that they are musical, and to develop a life-long love of music. We focus on developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that children need in order to become confident performers, composers and listeners. Our music curriculum introduces children to music from all around the world and across generations, teaching children to respect and appreciate the music of all traditions and communities.

Children will develop the musical skills of singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising and composing music, and listening and responding to music. They will develop an understanding of the history and cultural context of the music that they listen to and learn how music can be written down. We believe that our curriculum helps our children to develop skills such as team-working, leadership, creative thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and performance skills. We also further enrich our curriculum offer through partnering with the Cumberland Musical Service, which allows our pupils to learn instruments such as Djembe drums and the Ukulele.

Implementation

At Derwent Vale Primary and Nursery School our music curriculum follows the spiral curriculum model where previous knowledge and skills are revisited and built upon. Children progress by doing more simple tasks better and by tacking more complex tasks. During the course of a block of learning the children experience five interwoven strands:

• Performing
• Listening
• Composing
• The history of music
• The inter-related dimensions of music

Each block of learning is for approximately five weeks and are designed to capture children’s imagination and encourage pupils to explore music enthusiastically. Children are taught to sing fluently and expressively, play tuned and untuned instruments accurately and with control. They learn to recognise and name the interrelated dimensions of music – pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics. Lessons are ‘hands-on’ and incorporate movement and dance elements, as well as making cross curricular links with other areas of learning.

Impact

Pupils of Derwent Vale Primary and Nursery School should leave primary school equipped with a range of skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education. The expected impact of our curriculum is that children will:

• Be confident performers, composers and listeners and will be able to express themselves musically at and beyond school
• Show an appreciation for a wider range of musical styles from around the world and will understand how music is influenced by wider cultural, social and historical contexts
• Understand the ways in which music can be written down to support performing and composing activities
• Be able to confidently articulate their own personal musical preferences
• Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the national curriculum for music