Music
Music Curriculum Rationale
At Ormskirk CE Primary we want our children to love music! We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be music producers, songwriters, composers or rockstars! We want our children to remember their music lessons in our school, to create fond memories and embrace the musical opportunities they are presented with!
Curriculum Intent
The music curriculum promotes curiosity and a love for learning. It is ambitious and empowers our children to become independent and resilient – like all curriculum areas.
At Ormskirk CE Primary School, we understand the importance of children sharing their music and the confidence which comes with performing in front of family and peers. One of the great highlights of our year is the Young Voices concert at Manchester Co-op Arena. Our Y5/6 choir take part in the largest children’s choir in the world. It is an unforgettable experience which allows children to perform alongside incredible artists. To achieve this with their school friends around them for support, it helps their self-belief, self-motivation, confidence and the ability to communicate as part of a team. Around half of our Year 5/6 children chose to join choir to participate in this concert which shows what singing and performing mean to our older pupils.
All children have weekly Songs Of Praise sessions where the key stage can come together to learn new songs, practise singing and worship God. It is a special time which the children can enjoy and relax.
Children in KS2 have the opportunity to access 1:1 and small group instrumental lessons. These are provided by Lancashire Music Service and are very much enjoyed by the children.
Curriculum Implementation
This academic year, teachers have started using Kapow Primary music curriculum. This embeds the key strands of musical teaching: performing, listening, composing, the history of music and the inter-related dimensions of music. Over the course of the scheme, children will be taught to sing fluently and expressively, and play instruments with accuracy and control. They will learn to recognise and name the interrelated dimensions of music – pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics – and use these as part of their vocabulary. If you would like to look at the music curriculum overview please click here.
Latest Music Activities:
Reception Nativity
Year 1&2 Concert
Year 3&4 Christingle
Year 5 Big Sing Event at Ormskirk School
Year 6 End of year concert
Curriculum Impact
We measure the impact of our curriculum through pupil discussions, video recording of lessons and evidence of written work.
Music programmes of study: Key Stages 1 and 2
Purpose of study
Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high-quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon.
Aims
The national curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:
- perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians
- learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence
- understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.
Attainment target
By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study.
Subject content – Key stage 1
Pupils should be taught to:
- use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
- play tuned and untuned instruments musically
- listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music
- experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.
Subject Content – Key Stage 2
Pupils should be taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They should develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory.
Pupils should be taught to:
- play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression
- improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music
- listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
- use and understand staff and other musical notations
- appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians
- develop an understanding of the history of music.