Music
Northill's Approach to Music Curriculum
At Northill we strive to cultivate a real enjoyment of music and aim to deliver high quality music teaching, supporting and encouraging all children to achieve their full potential.
We believe that music is a unique form of communication and is an integral part of our culture. It provides an important medium to help children understand themselves, relate to others and the wider world.
Aims of our Music Curriculum
- To enjoy listening to a wide range of music from different times and cultures
- To enjoy making music based on different times and cultures
- To perform with confidence and enjoyment
- To sing with confidence and enjoyment
- To develop composition and appraising skills
- To develop a musical vocabulary with which to evaluate the music listened to
- To provide a range of musical opportunities
- To encourage awareness, enjoyment and appreciation of Music in all its forms.
- To develop imagination and creativity.
- To help children of all abilities develop positive attitudes and to experience success and satisfaction in music.
- To offer opportunities to perform, compose, listen and appraise.
Following our research, we have utilised the Charanga scheme of learning. In line with the curriculum for music and guidance from Ofsted, this Scheme moves away from the previous levels and learning objective/outcome concepts to an integrated, practical, exploratory and child-led approach to musical learning.
We teach the curriculum via a two year rolling cycle.
The key concepts in music we plan a progression for are as follows:
- Performing
- Composing
- Appraising
Performing skills
At Northill children will be taught to sing a wide-ranging variety of songs and to use their voices expressively. They should have the opportunity to play tuned and un-tuned instruments with increasing control and should rehearse and perform with others, with an awareness of audience.
Composing skills
At Northill children will create musical patterns and will be shown how to explore, select and organise musical ideas, recording these in a variety of ways.
Appraising skills
At Northill children will be given the opportunity to explore and explain their own ideas and feelings about music, using music, dance, expressive language and musical vocabulary. They will analyse and compare sounds and will become confident at suggesting improvements for their own work and that of others.
Listening and applying knowledge and understanding
At Northill children should be able to listen with concentration and to internalise and recall sounds with increasing aural memory. They will develop a growing awareness of the eight musical elements: pitch, duration, pace, dynamics, texture, timbre, form, silence. They will learn that time and place can influence the way Music is created, performed and heard, that music is produced in different ways and is described through invented and standard notations.