At Hill Farm Primary School, we aim to ignite a critical appreciation of culturally diverse music and to inspire creativity and self-expression giving them opportunities to connect with others on their individual journey.
Music is a unique way of communicating that can inspire and motivate children. It is a vehicle for personal expression and it plays an important part in personal development. The teaching and learning of music enables children to better understand the world they inhabit. Besides being a creative and enjoyable activity, music can also be a highly academic and demanding subject. It also plays an important part in helping children to feel part of a community. We provide opportunities for all children to create, play, perform and enjoy music, to develop the skills, to appreciate a wide variety of musical forms, and to begin to make judgements about the quality of music.
Progression throughout the Charanga units of work reinforces the interrelated dimensions of music. With each new song, children always start again with the foundation of pulse, then rhythm, then pitch, adding new dimensions as children progress. This represents an ever increasing spiral of musical learning. Children have opportunities to listen and appraise, take part in games, sing, play instruments, improvise, compose and perform.
The music substantive knowledge children will learn is mapped to ensure children build on prior learning and create music schemas that are linked via knowledge concepts, such as tone and pitch. This knowledge is cemented in children’s long-term memory through retrieval practice linked to the areas of substantive knowledge. Children will develop knowledge about pulse, rhythm, pitch, dynamics, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and notation throughout their time at Hill Farm.
In Year 4, children are given the opportunity to receive ukulele lessons from a music professional. Children part of a Rock Steady band perform termly during a music showcase to the rest of the school and their parents.
All teaching at Hill Farm is planned around our six principles of learning and teaching, which ensure every lesson is GREAT! Pupils experience engaging and purposeful experiences that promote learning and where the needs of every child is met through effective adaptive teaching strategies. As a Voice 21 school, our curriculum has a strong oracy focus which provides pupils with regular opportunities to learn to talk and to learn through talk. High expectations of oracy and vocabulary are embedded throughout our music curriculum.
The impact of our music curriculum is measured through continual assessments throughout each lesson against our music progression documents and retrieval practice.