At St Mary's, we follow the National Curriculum music programme of study. We use the Kapow scheme of work because it builds and develops skills throughout the children's time at St Mary's, and has many interactive ways of teaching music.

The music curriculum is ambitious in the range of skills and techniques delivered. Children learn about performing, composing, listening and appraising, and develop the vocabulary to talk about the interrelated dimensions of music - pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure, and appropriate musical notations.

Due to the spiral nature of the curriculum, children revisit their performing, composing, listening and appraising skills, as well as musical vocabulary, enabling them to hold on to their knowledge.

Child-led learning plays a large part in the Early Years curriculum, and rightly so. Supporting children in following and exploring their own interests allows for a greater depth of learning and understanding and much higher levels of well-being and involvement. 

Children are supported in their use of music as part of child-led play, whether singing songs, listening to music, dancing or playing instruments. This allows them to express their creativity and emotions, as well as reaching a deeper level of musical understanding. 

The children can use what they have learnt in music sessions to further their project or to influence a new idea. Learning in this way often sparks curiosity in the other children in the class, leading to potential large group projects or even whole class projects.

Musical instruments and equipment are available as part of our continuous provision. This means that it is accessible to children at all times.

In Key Stage 1 and 2, children will build upon and develop the skills learnt in the Foundation stage. Their curiosity, confidence and love for music should continue to grow and develop. The intention is that children gain a firm understanding of what music is through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions, and musical genres. We want to ensure that children understand the value and importance of music, and are able to use their musical skills, knowledge, and experiences to involve themselves in a variety of different contexts. We want music to inspire self-confidence through a fun and safe learning environment, which encourages creation and appreciation of music. All children will have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument with dedicated peripatetic music teachers.

The music curriculum ensures pupils  sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. This is seen in both classroom activities as well hymn practice assemblies,  concerts and performances. Every child is given the opportunity to perform to each other in class, and also to other members of their school and their families through shows such as nativities and carol concerts.

We are lucky enough to have a purpose built music room. Children enjoy coming here for music lessons.  During these lessons, we focus onensuring that children use basic musical vocabulary to describe the interrelated dimensions of music. This vocabulary is developed and built upon throughout each key stage. Children listen with attention and reflection to a wide range of music, and talk about what they can hear using the musical vocabulary they are learning and have previously learned.

In our music lessons, children will use their voices and instruments, experiencing and experimenting with a range of tuned and untuned instruments, as well as ways of making music using technology. They will begin to compose and experiment with sound, noting down their compositions with simple and invented notations. Many lessons are taught in a cross-curricular manner, linked into science, geography and history topics where appropriate. This ensures that children will be able to make links between music and the wider curriculum.

The children are taught to appreciate and understand a wide range music from different traditions, and composers and musicians. They also develop an understanding of the history of music, and how music has changed through time.

Children in Year 5 and Year 6 have whole class Samba and Djembe drumming lessons. These lessons build up to a performance for our families. We have also taken our drums in to town and performed in Chesterfield town centre and in Queen's Park. We have enjoyed drawing a crowd to listen to our performances.

Children at St Mary's have the opportunity to learn how to play and perform in a band. Children form groups with other children from across the school. They each take a role and are taught how to play their chosen song together. At the end of term, we always enjoy inviting parents and families to our Rocksteady gigs. 

In order to open our pupil's eyes and ears to a diverse range of musical artists and genres, we listen to different styles of music each week. Teachers display what they are listening to outside their classroom doors on the 'We are Listening To' posters. We do this to help develop our children's understanding of respect, tolerance and diversity. It breaks down stereotypes and helps children to appreciate different viewpoints and perspectives. 

Children at St Mary's enjoy the weekly hymn practices. These are linked to the liturgical year. Children love hearing Mr Downing play the piano and teaching them how to sing new hymns. 

We are always aiming to develop talents and interests to allow children to let their light shine. At St Mary's, children have the opportunity to have singing, drumming, guitar and piano lessons. We like to celebrate our children's achievements in a musical performance for the whole school community.

There are lots of opportunities at St Mary's for children to develop their love of music. We have an after school Musical Theatre club, a Young Voices club and a singing club. 

The approach to assessment is less formal than in core subjects. In music, there is ongoing teacher assessment to ensure that the children are keeping up with the pace of the curriculum and achieving our goals.

Children get the chance to show their love for music in a range of contexts. The skills children learn will be seen through performances, shows and video or audio recording of work in lessons.

Children should be able to talk about music that they have listened to with a developing vocabulary and appreciation for music. They should have a ‘hands on’ and practical approach to music, feeling confident to experiment with and develop the sounds and music that they make.

Children tell us that they really enjoy music and talk enthusiastically about what they have taken part in.

·          The thing most children said they enjoyed most was playing instruments in music and singing.

·          All year groups mentioned that they thought music needed lots of practice to become good.

·          Children felt proud of themselves when they did a performance.

·          Children spoke about how they enjoyed the ‘extra’ musical opportunities at school such as drumming (Y5/6), Rocksteady, Young Voices.