Music

Conifers Primary School

Music Curriculum Statement

The National Curriculum for music aims to ensure that all children:

Perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a wide range of genres and historical periods,
Be taught to sing, create and compose music.
Understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated through the inter-related dimensions of music: pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

At Conifers Primary School, we believe that music should be accessible for, and enjoyed by all. Music is all around us and allows us to access and explore a wide range of emotions and can have a hugely positive impact on a child’s mental state and wellbeing. Given the powerful role that music can play in people’s lives, we wish to instil the pupils at Conifers Primary School with a love of music. As well as an appreciation and understanding of different styles and the opportunity to develop their musical knowledge and skills through a wide range of teaching and learning activities.

Music teaching at Conifers Primary School delivers the requirements of the National Curriculum through use of the Charanga Musical School site. Children are taught music within the classroom and to ensure high standards of teaching and learning in music, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Each year, the children develop their skills within the following areas: singing, playing instruments, improvising/exploring, composing, listening and appraising. Where possible, their musical learning is linked to their year group topic for the half term.

Children in EYFS learn to sing songs and rhymes, have access to musical instruments which they play and explore within their continuous provision and begin to develop their understanding of rhythm and pulse through teacher led listening and responding activities.

We place particular emphasis on exposing our children to a wide range of music from a variety of genres, styles and eras to broaden their musical horizons. At the start of every music lesson, children listen to and appraise a piece of music where they can identify different instruments and learn about the history of the piece. Children listen to a different piece of music at the start of every whole school and key stage assembly through our ’Conifers Song of the Week’ initiative.

In addition to class teaching, our musical provision at Conifers is enhanced by the Dorset Music Service. Children are encouraged to take up the opportunity to learn a musical instrument in school from a peripatetic teacher. Children eligible for Pupil Premium receive a discount for these lessons and the cost of the hire of an instrument is also subsidised. Year 2 learn to play the recorder within their whole class music lessons. Year 4 take part in the Musicianship Programme for a term where they receive whole class specialist teaching, e.g. Samba or ukulele. Pupils in Key Stage 2 also have the opportunity to join the school choir.

We want our children to thoroughly enjoy their musical learning journey at Conifers, and as such we provide a broad and balanced curriculum whereby the children build on their musical skills and make progress year on year.

Pupils will be able to talk confidently about their musical learning, using key vocabulary which is reinforced within their music lessons. They will become confident singers who have learnt a wide repertoire of songs, and will have gained skills to be able to access and play a number of instruments, standing them in good stead for when they progress to Key Stage 3.

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

Pupil discussions and interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
Music subject leader monitoring.
Photo and video evidence of the pupils’ practical learning within our year group floor books.
Use of our Venn diagram assessment tool to measure the children’s musical attainment.

Development Plan 2024-25