Curriculum Leads: Amy Whitehall and Verity Slatem

Intent

Music is a way for pupils to express themselves through their creativity. At Coten End, we strive for children to develop a critical engagement with music by introducing them to a broad range of musical styles and genres. We aim for pupils to develop a love of music and increase their talents as singers, instrumentalists and composers. Through an understanding of the different dimensions of music (beat, rhythm, tempo, etc.), pupils should increase their self-confidence and have opportunities to perform what they have learnt.  

Implementation

• Taught as part of a half-termly learning theme.
• Objectives planned carefully to ensure progression of skills and knowledge across school. 
• Regular performances for all year groups to provide opportunities to share their learning.
• Questioning and regular “low-stakes” quizzes (retrieval practice) used to promote long-term learning.
• Use of Knowledge Organisers to support learning.
• Building on children's prior learning.
• Visiting musicians and assemblies to allow opportunities for children to experience quality live performances.
• All lower key stage two children to be given a term learning a woodwind and stringed instrument – provided through partnership with Warwickshire Music.
• Children to study significant composers and pieces of music from a range of time periods, countries and cultures. 
• Revisiting key content and vocabulary in other subject areas.
• Opportunities for children to use their own instruments learnt in individual lessons in their class lessons so they can build on their skills.
• Opportunities for pupils to engage in extra-curricular music activities such as Singing Playgrounds, Young Voices and music clubs.

Impact

The impact and measure of this is to ensure that children at Coten End are equipped with musical skills and knowledge that will enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and to foster a love of a variety of styles of music. Children should leave us with a heightened sense of the opportunities that music can provide and the skills that they can apply to other areas of their learning. Furthermore, we aim to equip children with the skills and confidence that can come from performing and sharing their love of music with others. We want the children's enthusiasm for the subject to encourage them to seek further opportunities to develop their skills and understanding in the future.