Music
G Yamoah
Music Lead
Intent
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything’ - Plato
At Chapel End, we value music because it is a powerful and unique art form. Music boosts creativity and supports development in social skills, self-discipline and confidence. We provide a music curriculum where children develop a solid understanding of the interrelated dimensions of music through the skills of performing, composing and appraising. We ensure children experience a range of classical, rock, folk, jazz and popular music taken from different times and cultures. All pupils experience tuned musical instrument teaching. Our wider curriculum offer includes opportunities for pupils to take part in extra-curricular musical groups including: choir, dance and Rock Steady.
Implementation
Broad and Balanced Curriculum
At Chapel End Junior Academy we use the Kapow Music Scheme which supports all the requirements of the national curriculum and is an integrated, practical, exploratory and child-led approach to musical learning.The scheme takes an holistic approach to musical learning, in which the following strands are woven together to create engaging and enriching experiences:
- Performing – including singing and the ability to play tuned and untuned instruments
- Listening and responding to music
- Composing and improvising music - including how music can be written down
- The History of Music - including its cultural context
- The inter-related dimensions of music (pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure).
The scheme’s spiral curriculum ensures that previous skills and knowledge are revisited and built upon. Children make progress by tackling more complex tasks and by doing simple tasks better. They develop an understanding and knowledge of the history of music, staff and other musical notations, as well as the inter-related dimensions.
Music is planned and delivered to be inclusive for all students, ensuring every child can access music-making in a fun, supportive and developing manner.
Children across the school have access to a designated Music room which is equipped with a range of instruments.
Impact
At the end of each year, pupils will have gained a deepening understanding of the interrelated dimensions of music. They will be able to apply this to:
Pupil voice
Children can listen and appraise songs from a wide variety of genres and time periods. They can name a growing number of iconic musicians and composers, and discuss why they are/were important.
Evidence in skills
Children can sing a variety of different songs. They can play tuned and untuned instruments with increasing competence.
Improvise and compose
Pupils can show their deeper understanding of a piece by improvising further rhythms/melodies and composing short sections.
Perform, share and evaluate
Children can perform and share their work with others. They can compare and comment on skills, techniques and ideas that they and others have used, then use their observations to improve their work.
Pupil Voice
'I love the singing assemblies on Fridays’
‘It’s fun to learn how to play an instrument’
'I enjoyed it when we listened to suspenseful music and then had to create our own suspenseful music in our own group using different instruments.'
'Rock Steady helps you to learn how to play different instruments in a band and how to perform together’
'I like it when we sing in a group so I enjoy being part of the choir’
