Music at Birchfield School
"Where words fail, music speaks."- Hans Christian Andersen

Intent

The music curriculum at Birchfield aims to provide our children with the opportunity to develop their musical knowledge, skills, and experiences within the discipline of music. The children gain an understanding of music by exploring various historical periods, composers, cultures, and musical genres. Our curriculum is designed to ensure representation for our pupils, enabling children to develop their understanding of music through listening, appraising, singing, improvising, composing, and performing. These elements run through the entire curriculum, from Nursery to Year 6. Lessons planning ensures clear progression within and across year groups. We aim to cultivate a sense of curiosity, appreciation and enjoyment of music for our pupils.

 

 

Implementation

The music curriculum at Birchfield is based on the National Curriculum, using Charanga as a resource for lesson planning. The curriculum offers children the chance to explore a variety of musical genres, musicians, and composers through active listening, performing, and composing activities. These skills are introduced in the foundation stage and further developed as the children advance through the school. At Birchfield, our goal is to equip children with the knowledge and skills necessary to become proficient musicians. A structured progression plan is integrated into our curriculum, ensuring consistent musical development within each year group and from one year group to the next. Additionally, we strive to offer a curriculum that mirrors our school community. Each year group at Birchfield delves into different musical styles, providing a comprehensive learning experience across various aspects of music, including:

• Listening and Responding: Children are given opportunities to listen to and evaluate songs, identifying musical instruments and genre style indicators. They also learn music language terms such as pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, and structure.

• Singing: Children are taught to develop singing skills, including singing as soloists and in unison as part of a group.

• Playing: Children have the chance to learn to play various instruments, such as untuned percussion instruments, recorders, keyboards, body percussion, and voice. They also learn to read and write musical notation.

• Sharing and Performing: Children are provided with opportunities to perform and showcase their learning during end-of-term exhibitions.

 

 

Impact

Birchfield aims for pupils to enjoy and excel in developing their music skills and knowledge, fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of music beyond the classroom. Our children become increasingly confident in critically appraising music, recognising style indicators of different music types, and performing their own and others' music. By the time children reach Year 6, they are equipped with the skills to recognise style indicators, analyse specific musical styles, and use a range of musical vocabulary to describe the music they are listening to. They become increasingly aware of the role music has to play in shaping and expressing the values of world in which we live.

We continuously assess and evaluate the impact of our curriculum to ensure that it meets the needs of our pupils and supports their ongoing musical development.

This is evidenced through:

• High-quality learning.

• Learning walks, book looks and pupil voice.

• Pupil progress data.