Music

Music 

“Music is powerful.  As people listen to it, they can be affected.  They respond”  

Ray Charles. 

Vision: 

At Brownmead Primary Academy we have a passion for Music: it is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. We endeavour to deliver high-quality music sessions to engage and inspire our pupils to develop a love of music.  This will not only inspire our pupils but challenge them.  For pupils to reach their full potential, they will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to become talented musicians, which in turn will develop their self-confidence, creativity and a sense of achievement.  In addition, as pupils progress, they will be able to critically engage with music, allowing them to compose, listen and respond to a variety of genres, periods and artists.  This will enable pupils to articulate their knowledge and understanding, reflect on their experiences while shaping our history and contributing to the culture, creativity, and wealth of our nation. 

Intent: 

Our Music curriculum allows pupils to be creative beyond expectations, to develop a curious mind and explore their ideas further.  Our curriculum is based upon Kapow, with enriching and diverse projects to study alongside real-life artists that perform at the Symphony Hall – understanding the power of the local community.   

Pupils will be taught to develop their skills and knowledge by performing, listening to, reviewing and evaluating music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, with an increasing awareness of different artists from a variety of cultures and styles of music.  Furthermore, pupils will learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and reach their full potential.  They will explore and produce pieces of music as well as work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences while becoming proficient in the subject.  Including, through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations. 

Implementation: 

Our Music curriculum has been designed for pupils to have a breadth of knowledge, an abundance of skills and empower them to become a leader of the subject, to be inspired and to inspire others – Music is for ALL! 

During their Music journey at Brownmead, pupils can work towards and achieve an Arts Award that recognises their individual efforts towards the Arts. 

EYFS: 

To develop artistic and cultural awareness, pupils’ imagination and creativity will develop further.  They will have regular opportunities to engage with the arts, which is vital to their understanding of the world.  Pupils will work towards their ‘early learning goals’ by beginning to understand and explore music and musical instruments by listening attentively and responding to what they hear, express their views regarding a variety of pieces of music and the composers or artists.   

Pupils will explore a variety of instruments, which will support their development of their fine motor skills and tune in to their senses, allowing music to be one of the factors they are able to tune into to express their individuality.  Furthermore, they can achieve this by listening and responding to music, playing instruments, constructing instruments, producing sounds and using their voices. 

KS1: 

In KS1, pupils will be taught to use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants as well as rhymes.  In addition, they will play tuned and untuned instruments musically and listen with concentration while understanding a range of high-quality live and recorded music.  To develop their skills further, pupils will experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the multitude of connections involved in the musical world. 

KS2: 

In KS2 children are inspired to reach their potential and beyond with a vision of the KS3 curriculum and the expectation for the future post their Brownmead journey.  Pupils will be taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control.  They will develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory. 

Furthermore, pupils will be taught to play and perform in solo ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression.  In addition, improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music and listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory, use and understand staff and other musical notations. 

Pupils will appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians as well as develop an understanding of the history of music. 

Impact: 

The impact of the Music curriculum will be measured by the progress the pupils have made during their performances, such as: whole school events, class assemblies, choir, solo singing sessions, instrumental sessions and any other performances or events the children participate in.  In addition, the pupils’ progress will be measured against the national curriculum objectives and how they articulate their learning.   

Furthermore, the pupils can build on their previous knowledge and skills through performing and demonstrate their passion for Music by being involved in a outside agencies such as: Creative Connections; attending the Symphony Hall, the National Exhibition Centre and various other projects where they will be inspired by real-life musicians.  Most importantly the this allows pupils to showcase their schools to parents, the local community and a wider audience.  

Voice is the most important! We use our voices in all ‘walks of life’… We want our children to be heard… We want our children to have a voice – they have the right to express their views (article 12 and 13) which is explored further by the opportunity of becoming an Arts Ambassador which represents all the “Arts” in school – they are the Brownmead’s voice for the Arts, they are extremely passionate about making the Arts a priority at Brownmead and to ensure that all pupils have the best possible education they can.