Music

Music at Saint Cuthbert’s Primary School is based on four main curriculum drivers: performance, transcription, composition and musical literacy. Our main aim of music at St. Cuthbert's is that children are given the opportunity to create, play, perform and enjoy music. To develop the skills to appreciate a wide variety of musical forms and to begin to make judgement about the quality of music. 

Intent: What we want our children to achieve whilst at Saint Cuthbert's.

We want children at our school to:

• Gain a rapid widening repertoire, which they can use to create original, imaginative, fluent and distinctive composing and performance work. 
• Gain a musical understanding underpinned by high levels of aural perception, internalisation and knowledge of music, including high or rapidly developing levels of technical expertise. 
• Have a very good awareness and appreciation of different musical traditions and genres. 
• Have an excellent understanding of how musical provenance - the historical, social and cultural origins of music - contributes to the diversity of musical styles. 
• Have the ability to give precise written and verbal explanations, using musical terminology effectively, accurately and appropriately. 
• Have a passion for and commitment to a diverse range of musical activities. 

Implement: How we will achieve our aims

Gain a rapid widening repertoire, which they can use to create original, imaginative, fluent and distinctive composing and performance work.
In the Charanga scheme of work, each unit will focus on one element of composition. They will be able to improvise and compose their own verses/instrumental section whilst scaffold with the original piece of music taught. They will develop their skills as they progress throughout school where they will use drones/harmonies within a piece of music. In brass lessons, children are exposed to a variety of different music from different genres, styles and classical eras. They use this to improvise, based on their skills, during lessons.


Gain a musical understanding underpinned by high levels of aural perception, internalisation and knowledge of music, including high or rapidly developing levels of technical expertise.
The skills of children when performing is monitored through each phase. Using the music progression overview, we ensure that children make good progress in the skills they have learnt at each phase. They are given the opportunity to perform by themselves as well as an ensemble. The use of the Charanga scheme of Work and Brass lessons allow children to learn a phased approach to musical notation and technique.  


Have a very good awareness and appreciation of different musical traditions and genres.
Through the use of Charanga, EYFS and KS1 are given the opportunity to listen to and appraise a large repertoire of music from different traditions and genres encompassing: nursery songs, chants, and actions songs for younger children, through to classical pieces and pop songs in different styles. This is further developed in Cultural Capital lessons where every class have a specific period of classical music to study (KS1 focus on composers from different classical periods), A genre of modern music for each year as well as one tradition/culture different from our own in each year group. 

Have an excellent understanding of how musical provenance – the historical, social and cultural origins of music - contributes to the diversity of musical styles.
Throughout the year, children receive cultural capital lessons. One aspect of this study is to listen and appraise and learn the history of different musical styles, eras in classical music and music from around the world. The children are given the opportunity to listen to these styles of music and to learn about how these styles of music are used in the culture, how they evolved within the culture and key figures within the genres studied. (Please see overview below). 

Have the ability to give precise written and verbal explanations, using musical terminology effectively, accurately and appropriately
Vocabulary is taught from EYFS to Year 6. The progression maps created have ensured that children are constantly developing their vocabulary to use when describing different  compositions they have heard. In every classroom, the phase vocabulary is displayed in the classroom and teachers encourage the children to use this when listening and appraising. This is also supported through the use of Charanga where accurate vocabulary is expected throughout the scheme. 

Have a passion for and commitment to a diverse range of musical activities.
Pupils who are gifted in music they have the opportunity in year 5/6 to become POP (pupil of potential), which means they receive an extra lesson, usually at lunch time, and then have the opportunity to take graded examination through Trinity Royal College, giving them a chance to join Birmingham's training brass band. All Year 5 and 6 children get the opportunity to also receive extra brass lessons on a Wednesday after school. This teaches them a commitment to learning a new musical instrument.  Any children that show to have a passion for music also get the opportunity to support Mrs Mckenna in accompanying the music on a Friday during school mass. Area band are also given the opportunity to perform in various venues (Symphony Hall, Kesh, St. Georges, Conservatoire ) to perform with other schools to a paying audience. 



Taught Music Curriculum 
The Music curriculum for Early Years, Key Stage One and Year Three are taken from the Charanga scheme of work. Each unit focuses on listening and appraising, musical activities, creating and exploring and performing. 

Brass Lesson Overview

Impact: How we will measure the provision we have given our children.

To ensure that the musical talents of our children continues throughout their time at St. Cuthbert's, we use a skills progression framework. This helps staff and pupils to develop the skills within the music curriculum at each key phase. Lessons are planned using the framework and children are assessed based on the end of phase goals. Please see the framework below. 

Progression of Skills - Music. 

Monitoring
Throughout the year, the music coordinator (Mrs McKenna) will assess the provision our children receive in music lessons. She will do this through observations, planning scrutinies, pupil and teacher voice as well as liaise with Mrs Hadlington (Brass Teacher) to ensure our vision and skills based approach is utilised within brass lessons.