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

Our aims follow the national aims which are 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

In Early Years and Key Stage 1, our pupils are taught to use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes.  They are encouraged to play tuned and untuned instruments in a musical manner. They are shown how to listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music. They are given opportunities to experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.

At Key Stage 2, our pupils are taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. We aim to develop within the children an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory. They are also taught to play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression. The children are given opportunities to improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music. They are shown how to listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory. They begin to use and understand staff and other musical notations. The children are encouraged to appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians. They are given opportunities to develop an understanding of the history of music.

Scheme of Work

We use the Lancashire ‘Charanga Musical School’  scheme along with Lancashire Topic based planning units.  A 2 year cycle is can be viewed by clicking on the document below.   

The Choir

Mrs Bradbury-Wade and Miss Stokes usually run the school choir, which is open to KS2 children.  Children are invited to come along and express their interest and the choir have taken part in a variety of events, both competitive and non-competitive.  This includes: The Last Choir Singing, Penwortham Youth Music Festival and Young Voices.  This is in addition to school and church events, such as the KS2 Christmas Nativity and end of year assembly.