Music
Intent
At Willowbrook, we are aiming to give children a wide range of musical experiences.
We are developing a music curriculum which gives children the opportunity to engage with music of all styles and from all cultures. This developing curriculum enables children to develop knowledge in understanding music, listening, and responding, learning to sing songs and playing a variety of instruments including glockenspiels, ocarinas and ukuleles. The children also learn to improvise, compose and perform using their voices and instruments. Our curriculum aims to inspire and engage children to build a love of music and enhance their skills as musicians. We aim to increase their sense of achievement, creativity and therefore their self confidence and self-esteem.
Implementation
At Willowbrook, we are developing a music curriculum to bring consistency and depth to the children’s musical knowledge. We aim for every child to enjoy their opportunities make music, listen and appraise pieces of music. Children are given opportunities to perform together to develop their sense of musicianship. Music is currently taught weekly in each year group and children love singing and playing instruments. Across the school, musical knowledge, skills and prior knowledge are built upon and revisited throughout the school with strong links made to previous knowledge and other curriculum areas. We currently blend several schemes to best fit our children’s needs as follows:
Kapow Music Curriculum
Through the successful implementation of Kapow Primary’s music curriculum, we embed the key strands of musical teaching: performing, listening, composing, the history of music, and the interrelated dimensions of music. Over the course of the program, children are taught to sing fluently and expressively, and to play both tuned and untuned instruments with accuracy and control. They learn to recognize and name the interrelated dimensions of music—pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture, and dynamics—and confidently use these as part of their musical vocabulary. Music is scheduled for a minimum of 30-45 minutes per week to ensure regular engagement, supporting spaced retrieval and learning processes.
Wiltshire Music Connect
“We connect children with a broad range of music making opportunities and experiences to complement and support what schools offer because music is excellent for developing young minds.” WMC
Children in year 2/3 and year 6 are learning to play the ukulele using the planning of Wiltshire Music Connect.
Impact
Our children are learning to understand what being a 'musician' means. Along with building their musical knowledge, children are also developing skills of teamwork and resilience whilst improvising, composing and performing both independently and as part of a group. Our children are having opportunities to:
- Listen to, engage with and develop an appreciation for music
- learn to play tuned and un-tuned instruments
In addition, all children enjoy weekly singing assembly, and some children enjoy performing arts clubs and choir which run in different terms through the year.
