Music

At St Paul’s C of E Primary School, we firmly believe in the transformative power of music in education. We strive to create a vibrant musical environment where students are not only engaged and inspired but where music becomes an integral part of their daily experience. We place immense value on music's ability to enhance students' self-esteem, encourage creativity, build relationships, foster life skills, and enrich learning across the entire curriculum. We seek to instil in our pupils a profound awareness of their surroundings, acknowledging that music is a dynamic force that reflects culture and society rather than merely a subject on its own. By celebrating the joy of music, we aspire to create a school community where music is not only fun and for life but is truly for everyone, contributing to the holistic development of all our students.

Worship Assembly

Endpoints

By the end of Key Stage 1 children should be able to:

Use their voices expressively and creatively by singing, chants and rhymes
Enjoy experimenting with instruments and creating sound

By the end of Key Stage 2 children should:

Have a love of music and appreciation of a wide range of musical genres
Play and perform using voice and instruments
Improvise and compose music using the different dimensions of music and different notations, including stave notation.

How music is taught at St Paul’s

Music is taught at St Paul’s C of E Primary through the use of Sing Up (https://www.singup.org/). Sing Up Music provides primary schools with the foundation to deliver a creative programme of high-quality classroom music activity. It sets out the skills, knowledge, and understanding to be gained by all pupils at each stage of learning, including the Early Years Foundation Stage. Key stage 1 and Key stage 2 have an hour of music teaching a week and Reception are taught music for 30 minutes weekly.

In music lessons, children are actively involved in using and developing their singing voices, using body percussion and whole-body actions, and learning to play classroom instruments effectively to create and express their own and others’ music. Through a range of whole class, group and individual activities, children have opportunities to explore sounds, listen actively, compose and perform. Resources from Sing Up are used to ensure consistent musical development throughout the school. The children are introduced to a wide range of musical styles and genres from different times and places during music lessons. A wide variety of notations, including picture, graphic, rhythm and staff notation are integrated, wherever appropriate, with practical music-making activities.

What our children say about Music

‘At St Paul’s, you can write your own songs and become your own composer in Year 3.’

Year 6 - ‘We participate actively in our music lessons and learn engaging chants.’

‘Every term is different in Year 4, and we play instruments and listen to different songs.’

Aims

Foster a Love for Music: Cultivate a genuine appreciation and love for music, encouraging students to enjoy and engage with a variety of musical genres and styles.
Develop Musical Skills: Provide a foundation for the development of fundamental musical skills, including singing, playing instruments, listening, and rhythm.
Enhance Creativity: Stimulate and nurture creativity by giving students opportunities to compose, improvise, and express themselves musically.
Build Confidence: Empower pupils by building their confidence in musical expression, whether through solo performances, group collaborations, or other musical activities.
Encourage Active Listening: Develop active listening skills, enabling pupils to analyse and appreciate different musical elements, styles, and traditions.
Promote Cultural Understanding: Introduce students to a diverse range of musical cultures, helping them understand the cultural and historical contexts of various musical traditions.
Foster Collaboration: Encourage teamwork and collaboration through group music-making activities, ensemble performances, and shared musical experiences.
Instil a Lifelong Appreciation for Music: Aim to instil in students a lifelong appreciation for music, ensuring that they continue to engage with and enjoy music beyond their primary school years.
Promote Inclusivity: Create an inclusive music program that accommodates students with varying levels of musical aptitude, ensuring that all students feel welcome and capable of participating.
Encourage Reflection: Foster reflective practices, encouraging students to think critically about their musical experiences, assess their progress, and set goals for future development.

Our music intent - KS1:

To apply English and maths skills in music i.e. good speaking and listening skills when describing sounds or pieces of music, extending pupil’s vocabulary using musical terms, understanding the mathematics of the number of beats per bar and how this affects the feel of music.
For pupils to be resilient, able to persevere and learn from their mistakes when chanting, singing or playing instruments or body percussion.
To begin to foster a deep respect for beliefs, cultures, different world views and all that makes us unique by learning about music and musicians from different traditions.
For pupils to be able to problem solve in music, i.e. to experiment, create, select and combine sounds to give specific sound effects.
To be able to give their opinion about music that they have listened to.
To perform using their voices expressively and creatively and to play instruments musically.
For pupils to have a rich culture capital i.e. to appreciate and understand a range of live and recorded music.
To foster children who are appreciative of the range of music that is available to everyone to experience through listening to recordings, live performances and for the opportunities they have to learn to play different classroom percussion, as well as singing as a class and whole school.

Autumn - Knowledge Organisers for year groups

These are the knowledge organisers are accompany the units we will be teaching in Autumn. Please look through these with your children, taking note of new vocabulary and key information.

Spring - Knowledge Organisers for year groups

These are the knowledge organisers are accompany the units we will be teaching in Spring. Please look through these with your children, taking note of new vocabulary and key information.

Summer - Knowledge Organisers for year groups

These are the knowledge organisers are accompany the units we will be teaching in Summer. Please look through these with your children, taking note of new vocabulary and key information.

Our music intent - KS2:

To apply English and maths skills in music i.e. good speaking and listening skills when analysing music, descriptive writing based on a piece of music listened to, using poems to inspire composition, extending pupil’s vocabulary using musical terms, understanding the mathematics of rhythmic notation.
For pupils to be resilient, able to persevere and learn from their mistakes when composing and performing, in order that they will sing and play instruments with increasing confidence and control.
To communicate effectively and confidently when expressing their opinions on music they have listened to, whether recorded or live, by professional musicians or their peers.
To foster a deep respect for beliefs, cultures, different world views and all that makes us unique by learning about music and musicians from different traditions.
For pupils to be able to problem solve in music, i.e. to choose appropriate sounds to give specific sound effects or represent feelings, atmospheres, places; to create a rhythm pattern that fits with given number of beats per bar; to match chords to accompany a melody.
For pupils to be able to use critical thinking skills when listening to music, to be able to give constructive feedback to others about their performances and compositions.
Pupils who serve, i.e. pupils who have individual instrumental lessons being willing to share their musical skills and knowledge in group work with other pupils who have not had as much experience as they have, such as singing worship songs in our church services.
Pupils who play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression.
For pupils to have a rich culture capital i.e. to appreciate and understand a wide range of music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians; to develop a good understanding of the history of music.
To foster children who are appreciative of the vast range of music that is available to everyone to experience through listening to recordings, live performances and for the fantastic opportunities they have to learn to play different instruments such as the violin, ukulele and classroom percussion, as well as singing as a class, whole school or club.