Music
At St Thomas', we make music an enjoyable learning experience. We encourage children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which we aim to build up the confidence of all children. Our teaching focuses on developing the children’s ability to sing in tune and with other people. Through singing songs, children learn about the structure and organisation of music. We teach them to listen and to appreciate different forms of music.
As children get older, we expect them to maintain their concentration for longer and to listen to more extended pieces of music. Children develop descriptive skills in music lessons when learning about how music can represent feelings and emotions. We teach them the disciplined skills of recognising pulse and pitch. Also, we teach the children how to work with others to compose music and perform for an audience. Finally, we ensure every child will have the opportunity to learn a stringed instrument for a year and are taught by a music specialist; pupils learn to read music and play as part of an ensemble.
The national curriculum for music and our progression of skills within each milestone aims to ensure that all pupils:
- To confidently perform either singing or skilfully playing an instrument, either solo or as part of a group.
- To compose and create song with verses and chorus and create rhythmic patterns and an awareness of timbre and duration; digital technology may be used to compose, edit and refine pieces of music.
- To transcribe and use standard musical notation and read and create notes on the musical stave.
- To describe music, using a wide range of musical vocabulary to accurately describe and appraise.
Our music scheme of work is Charanga and it complements the curriculum and scaffolds the learning opportunities throughout the Key Stages. Our school overview can be downloaded below.