Music
At St. Oswald’s music is taught so that all children will find enjoyment in creating and listening to music and see themselves as musicians.
Psalm 150: 3-5
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and the lyre, praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.
Intent
At St. Oswalds the emphasis in our teaching of music is on learning through doing - through an immersion in music and relevant musical vocabulary. Following the National Curriculum the emphasis has been to ensure that there are opportunities within our Music Curriculum for all children in :
Key stage 1 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.
Key stage 2 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 interrelated 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.
Our music lessons give our children opportunities to engage in the processes of music making - exploring, using and combining sounds through a range of different tasks as well as celebrating our performances. Throughout these activities they are able to explore sounds whilst applying their musical knowledge at increasing levels of depth. In doing so developing an understanding of the interrelated dimensions of music and key musical vocabulary. We engage in cross curricular activities and involve children in many larger scale projects, such as large scale regional choirs which allow them to experience togetherness and working with others. Appreciating beauty musically, developing creativity and individuality, singing, working together all help to develop our children spiritually through music.
Implementation
The curriculum map is planned to ensure progressive skill and knowledge based coverage of the schemes of work.These are linked to topics in each year group and allows for learning at increasing levels of depth. Knowledge organisers are used to support and summarise the learning for each year group on a termly basis.
Our music curriculum is designed to teach Music in a way that:
- Allows children to explore sounds.
- Gives opportunities to use voices and play instruments musically and with purpose.
- Experience a range of musical styles.
- Develop an understanding of the musical dimension through a progressive methodology and spiral learning curriculum.
- Enjoy creative experiences and work in solo, group and larger scale performances.
Performance opportunities are frequent throughout the year including Christmas productions, assemblies, church services and end of year performances. We value the opportunity to perform in our local community such as Older Persons Christmas meetings and Carol singing at the local shopping centre and when possible participate in large scale events. There are extra-curricular music activities available throughout the year. Children are able to participate in choir, recorders, and ukuleles whilst also gaining credits towards Childrens University through attending these.
Impact
Pupils will see Music as being relevant to everyday life as well as being something that gives them a sense of wellbeing and helps them to develop and flourish spiritually. Being involved with music activities allows pupils to develop social skills and work collaboratively alongside others, skills they will need as they move on through their school life and ultimately to the wider world. The children will develop their ability to express themselves musically and apply the skills to which they have been exposed in a variety of ways.
Listening to and making music fulfils an instinctive human need for self-expression and creativity. It stimulates responses both on emotional and intellectual levels and perhaps most importantly of all, it can be a lifelong source of pleasure. Music can be used as a stimulus across the curriculum as well as in its own right.
We enjoy listening to, and performing, a range of musical styles. The knowledge of the work of a range of musicians and composers contributes to cultural understanding and an appreciation of different styles and tastes in music.
Psalm 98: verse 1
Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things.
The Music curriculum ensures that pupils learn essential vocabulary and skills, which will enable them to discuss, question and debate musical concepts. Through planning and monitoring of pupil progress all pupils should make good progress in Music and achieve good outcomes by the end of each phase. This will prepare them with Musical skills needed for the KS3 curriculum.
Planning Provision and Assessment
We have developed our music curriculum to give opportunities for children in their music lessons to:
- develop skills to use a range of instruments (including voice) and techniques competently.
- feel able to express their ideas and feelings through musical creation.
- learn to listen analytically and with concentration, developing an appropriate vocabulary to help discuss their own work and that of others.
- understand the relationship between sound and symbol and develop a working knowledge of systems of notation for use in composing and performing.
- appreciate and evaluate the work of a range of composers and musicians from their own and others cultures.
- develop social skills through co-operation with others in sharing music making.
Music is taught weekly to all year groups at St. Oswald's by a specialist music teacher. There are opportunities for children to visit the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and listen to live music performed by the orchestra. All children have the opportunity to participate in a whole school performance during the school year which includes music, dance and drama.
Work is assessed individually at the end of the year against progressive outcomes for each year group.
Each child will have an equal entitlement to all aspects of the Music curriculum and to experience the full range of Music activities. Therefore, in delivering Music, care will be taken to ensure that a variety or learning styles are accessed and teaching methods adopted.
Resources
We use a range of resources these include the SKY Hub music scheme of work. The use of tablets and software for composing such as Garageband and Quickbeats are used in KS2 classes. We use a wide variety of percussion and tuned instruments in our lessons.
Music Resources
Here are some music activities to have a go at home.
Some of the music will be familiar to you, be creative with your composing ideas and enjoy singing!
There are lots of exciting activities and songs on the BBC Bring the Noise website have a go at the songs on ‘Play It!’ – for Key Stage One ‘I am a Robot’
And Key Stage Two ‘Take Me Home’. www.bbc.co.uk/teach/bring-the-noise
Have a go at composing your own piece of music!
Watch BBC Ten Pieces performance of Connect It composed by Anna Meredith https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02flm24
Can you compose four different phrases? Use vocal sounds like humming, shouting, whispering, popping and body percussion sounds such as clapping, finger clicks, stamps, slap thigh.
Write down symbols to show when each sounds is to be made to make a 'score' of your music.
Try and add layers of sound to your composition. For example you might have two layers of sounds like finger clicks and ssshh at the same time.
There are lots of other pieces of music to listen to on BBC Ten Pieces. https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces
Some other ideas can be found on the following websites:
Marvellous Musical Podcasts – David Walliams http://marvellousmusicalpodcast.com/
There are 10 episodes looking at different composers, musicians and instruments and are delivered in a humorous and informative style with plenty of good music listening clips.
https://edsential.com/edsential-at-home/
We are really enjoying singing these songs - 'Moving to the Music' from week six and 'Keep Calm and Carry On' from week seven from Out of the Ark www.outoftheark.co.uk (Out of the Ark Music @ Home)
There are lots more songs, resources and ideas for activities, suitable for KS1 & KS2.
Camerata Mini Music Makers
Practical music making activities with professional musicians. You will also learn a little bit about the instruments they play.
Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/manccamerata or via Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ManchesterCamerata /
Episode 1 Key Stage 1 Instrument – Piano. You will need a small container with a lid (butter tub/Tupperware type box), small items to put inside (rice/pasta/beads), paper and drawing things (pencils/crayons)
Episode 2 Key Stage 2 Instrument – French Horn. You will need Lego to build an instrument, (if you don’t have Lego you can use anything you have at home i.e. spoons on a pan, rice or pasta in a tub to make sounds.)
Episode 3 Key Stage 1 Instrument – Violin. You will need a piece of paper, pens or Crayons (blue/green/yellow/black)
Episode 4 Key Stage 2 Instrument – Tuba. You will need household objects to make different sounds (the sounds you need will be explained during the episode)
Episode 5 Key Stage 2 Instrument – Piano. You will need paper and drawing materials, noise makers (spoons on pans/homemade shakers)
Episode 6 Key Stage 2 Instrument – French Horn. You will need paper and pens, Keyboard App