Music
'Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand'
Stevie Wonder
At St Benedict's Catholic Primary School we aspire to be musicians! Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. We want out children to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, thus increasing their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement.
Our music curriculum enables our children develop their musical knowledge, understanding and ability. We want our children to enjoy their music lessons and embrace the musical opportunities they are presented with!
The intention the music curriculum at St Benedict's Catholic Primary School 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 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. Through music, our curriculum helps children develop transferable skills such as team-working, leadership, creative thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and presentation and performance skills. These skills are vital to children’s development as learners and have a wider application in their general lives outside and beyond school.
Our music curriculum enables pupils to meet the end of key stage attainment targets outlined in the national curriculum and the aims of our music curriculum align with those in the national curriculum.
At St Benedict's Catholic Primary School the following individual strands are woven together to create engaging and enriching learning experiences:
- Performing
- Listening
- Composing
- The history of music
- The inter-related dimensions of music
At St Benedicts's we use the Kapow Music Scheme and each five-lesson unit combines these strands within a cross-curricular topic designed to capture pupils’ imagination and encourage them to explore music enthusiastically. Children will be taught how to sing fluently and expressively, and play tuned and untuned instruments accurately and with control. They will learn to recognise and name the interrelated dimensions of music – pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics – and use these expressively in their own improvisations and compositions.
We use a spiral curriculum model where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon. Children progress in terms of tackling more complex tasks and doing more simple tasks better, as well as developing understanding and knowledge of the history of music, staff, and other musical notations, as well as the interrelated dimensions of music and more.
In each lesson, pupils will actively participate in musical activities drawn from a range of styles and traditions, developing their musical skills and their understanding of how music works. Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work as well as improvisation and teacher-led performances. Lessons are ‘hands-on’ and incorporate movement and dance elements, as well as making cross curricular links with other areas of learning.
In Year 4 the children receive whole class instrumental tutition from a Somerset Music specialist teacher. This year the children are learning how to play the Violin.
