At St Clement's and St John's Infant School pupils are inspired to be curious, creative and confident about music through expressing themselves using their voice, body and instruments; and performing to an audience. They will demonstrate knowledge of music terminology, have experience of different tuned and untuned instruments and participate in performances. 

The Music 'Big Ideas'

The knowledge and skills children learn must be co-ordinated and coherent. In order to achieve this in our curriculum, we have identified the key concepts or overarching ideas within each subject. To enable the children to access them, we call these the ‘Big Ideas’.

In music these are:

• Using voices expressively

• Listening to sounds
• Creating and performing

Intent

Music plays a very important role in every child’s experience at St Clement’s and St John’s CE Infant school, and is fully embedded in school life, from singing together in Acts of Worship to performing for different audiences across a year, including nearly a thousand people at our school celebrations.

 All children in school contribute to composing, performing, singing, instrument playing, listening and appraising, and every child performs music to a high level to the whole school, teachers, governors and parents at least once during the school year.

Our four living values: Confidence, Compassion, Creativity, and Curiosity, our four learning values: Resourceful, Reflective, Reciprocal and Resilience, and pupils’ spiritual, moral, social, cultural and physical development are explored and developed naturally and enthusiastically through music, both within the music curriculum and in whole school settings and opportunities.

We aim to fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for Music; providing both structured knowledge and skills and a creative curriculum.  

Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon. 

National Curriculum, 2014

The aim of teaching Music at our school is:

• To develop pupils’ confidence in their own musical development as a unique way of communicating that develops focus, inspiration and motivation.  As music is the basis of many social activities, and has an important role to play in the personal development of children, we believe it has a vital role to play in building self-confidence. Participation in successful public musical performances is one of the most memorable events our pupils participate in during their time at St Clement’s and St John’s. Playing instruments and singing develops key developmental skills and imagination, both emotional and rational. It stimulates complex thinking, which requires high levels of precision. It demands commitment and imaginative decision-making. We aim for our pupils to leave our school with a high level of confidence as composers and performers, team players and leaders, through nurturing effort and enthusiasm!
• To develop a compassion for themselves and others as they play, sing and create in teams. Emphasis is placed on practical involvement by all pupils in composing, performing, listening and appraising through whole class, small group, paired and individual activity. Opportunity is given to create and perform for others both within the community and as Global Advocates. We believe in all children becoming successful learners and leaders with a passion to live life to the full, and music gives a voice to compassion and reciprocity through topics which help make a difference.
• To encourage pupils’ creativity, music at St Clement’s and St John’s is integrated into aspects of the curriculum, making it fun and relevant. This contributes to the promotion of key skills of communication, number, ICT, working with others, improving their own learning and performance and problem solving skills. Our music lessons encourage creativity that takes what is known and developing it in to new ideas to perform and share, evaluate and refine.
• To inspire pupils’ curiosity, music has significant impact on their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Creating, performing or listening to music can sometimes be a moving and spiritual experience. At St Clement’s and St John’s, we explore music with spiritual meaning and purpose, mood, senses and expression of feeling. Our pupils have the opportunity to encounter music from many cultures, which helps develop acceptance and celebration of other cultures and societies. For those who have a deeper curiosity about music, there are many opportunities to develop them further, such as extra-curricular activities, building life and musical skills such as commitment and friendship. These activities may include:

• Year 2 Choir
• Worship band.
• Worship leaders.
• A yearly concert.

Implementation

At St Clement’s & St John’s Infant School, the Early Years Framework (2021) and the National Curriculum are at the core of our music curriculum, which is taught through the Kapow Primary Music Scheme. 

Kapow Primary reflects the guidance laid out within the Model Music Curriculum (MMC) released by the DfE in March 2021. Kapow Primary’s music scheme provides a progressive programme of study for music which covers all aspects of the statutory National Curriculum. 

The children receive a 45 minute music lesson each week as well as daily opportunities to sing within Worship sessions and other subject areas such as Maths. There are five or six units to be covered in each Year Group each year, one per half term.

In EYFS, the Kapow Primary Music Scheme of work aligns with the EYFS Framework, covering basic musical skills such as pulse-keeping, inventing rhythms, singing and moving to music. These skills fully prepare the children for the KS1 Music Curriculum. 

At KS1, the Kapow Primary Music Scheme of work aligns with the National Curriculum and develops children's knowledge and skills within all four areas of learning defined within the MMC: singing, listening, composing and Musicianship. In a progressive manner, building upon the knowledge and skills learnt within EYFS, the children will develop an enjoyment of singing and an ability to sing in tune, using songs from the MMC song repertoire. Additionally, they will listen to a wide range of songs and musical pieces reflective of their stage of development. Children will learn to create sequences of sounds in response to a variety of stimuli, using their voices and tuned and untuned instruments. 

Impact

We aim for all children to achieve age related expectations or above in music at the end of KS1.

We aim for all children to have a solid foundation of skill, creativity and enjoyment of music, based on the National curriculum expectations. They will each have had ample opportunity to:

• Perform. Use voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
• Compose. Play tuned and untuned instruments.
• Transcribe. Listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music.
•  Describe. Experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music

The outcomes of the teaching of music across the school can be seen in Year group performances to wide audiences, such as

• EYFS Nativity.
• Year 1 Dinosaur musical.
• Year 2 Great fire of London mini musical.
• Year 2 End of year Soundstorm collaboration, sometimes accompanied by a professional orchestra.
• Year 2 collaboration with Linwood School for Pavilion performance.
• Year 2 Christmas song writing town wide competition winners.

Outcomes also seen in displays of musical poetry supporting reading and writing such as

• Reception seasons or sea poems.
• Year 1 Dinosaur stomp.
• Year 2 Elements musical poem- Earth, Air, Water Fire.

The assessment of music in EYFS and KS1 is ongoing. The teacher regularly assesses individual pupils in the areas of singing, rhythm, effort, teamwork, and creativity.

There is a bank of video clips of group performances from each year group showing the start and end of topics, and year on year progression. This information then informs planning, lesson activities and differentiation.