Wales Primary SchoolMusic
Curriculum Drivers
Our vision for learning (Quoted from Teaching and Learning policy)
The vision for our school is to provide our children with the best possible start in life through the provision of a vibrant, engaging and relevant curriculum where children are challenged and inspired to excel. We strive to develop a community of life-long learners who are ready to succeed in the 21st century.
Music is all around us.It is the soundtrack to our lives. Music connects us through people and places in our ever-changing world. It is creative, collaborative, celebratory and challenging. Wales Primary School recognises that music inspires creativity and develops essential skills for developing confidence and self-expression.
At Wales Primary School, we follow the Kapow Primary music scheme. The 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 knowledge, skills 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.
As well as music lessons, all children take part in planned weekly whole school singing sessions applying skills taught in class lessons. Children perform singing as a school at various points across the school both in school and in church. This includes Harvest Festival, Christmas performances and a summer concert. Key Stage 2 children have the opportunity to take part in a school choir performing twice across the year. Children who have peripatetic brass and string lessons weekly in school have the chance to perform in the Christmas concert.
Music Intent, Implementation & Impact
Curriculum Enrichment in Music
Regular singing practice in assembly time allows pupils to apply the skills taught in lessons. Throughout the year, children at Wales Primary School have the chance to perform their musical talents through assemblies, concerts, nativities and productions.
In Summer term 2022, our KS2 children performed an AMAZING production of The Lion King.
This June a group of KS2 children will be performing in the One Voice children's choir at Magna in Rotherham.
Pupils also have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument through private tuition, which is provided by the music service. Pupils will be given a musical instrument, such as a flute, clarinet or trumpet and have access to weekly lessons. This culminates in a graded examination.
Books to support our learning in Music
This list of music inspired books explores famous musicians, types of music and musical instruments:
A History of Music for children bu Hary Richards & David Schweitzer
Following on from the success of the award-winning A History of Pictures for Children comes this introduction to the history of music that takes children on a musical journey around the world. Readers will meet along the way a diverse cast of composers, musicians and performers who all make music in different ways in a variety of different genres, from Bach to Billie Eilish, Mozart to Miriam Makeba.
The Music in Me by Sophy Henn
Hey! Have you ever stopped to think about all the different kinds of music that make you, you? There are happy tunes and slow beats, a marching stomp and a sleepy swoon. Maybe, some days, you can’t find your rhythm and you feel all out of sorts, and then on other days your music will come together and you’ll march to the beat of your own drum. All this music and more is celebrated here.
Around the world in 80 musical instruments bu Nancy Dickman & Sue Downing
Can a drum tell the news? How do you play a carrot? Can you turn a cave's stalactites into an organ? (Spoiler alert: yes, you can!)
Including a stunning central gatefold that opens out to reveal the family tree of musical instruments, Around the World in 80 Musical Instruments is a visual celebration of the huge variety of instruments played across the world, from those you know to those you almost certainly don't. Discover traditional instruments from various cultures, such as the gamelan and mbira, as well as the creations of modern artists and musicians, such as the Wintergatan Marble Machine and the eerie-sounding Earth harp.
Music at home
Want to continue your Musiclearning at home?
Have a look at some of these ideas:
