‘Learning for Life.’
Intent
At Stocksbridge Nursery Infant School, we aim to inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talents as musicians by enhancing self-confidence, fostering creativity and providing a sense of achievement. Our engaging music lessons help children explore musical features, develop a sense of rhythm and pulse, and grow their musicianship through performance, expression, composition, and appraisal. Singing is central to our curriculum, with a focus on expressive performance and understanding musical elements.
Implementation
Our music curriculum is taught using the Sparkyard progressive scheme of work and is enhanced by Year 2 drumming tuition with a professional drummer. Our approach integrates the following key components:
Singing and performing
Our teaching practices are inclusive and responsive to the diverse needs and abilities of all children. We provide differentiated learning activities and support to ensure that every child has the opportunity to engage meaningfully with the music curriculum.
Musical activities
Our lessons cover a wide range of musical activities and games to develop and explore children’s understanding of pitch, dynamics, tempo, timbre and texture. Every lesson varies with fun, engaging activities such as music doodling, following the conductor, composing using the pentatonic scale and making a magical music stick. Many activities have a focus on rhythm and pulse which is promoted through dancing, clapping and playing untuned percussion. This is a fundamental skill to be a musician which is further enhanced in Year 2 drumming sessions.
Learning an instrument
The Sparkyard scheme of work allows students to play various tuned and untuned instruments, with Year 2 students receiving drumming lessons that finishes with an end of year performance. We believe that drumming, with its focus on rhythm and pulse, lays the foundation for becoming a skilled musician and provides transferable skills for other instruments.
Listening and appraising
The curriculum enhances children’s listening and appraisal skills by having them identify musical features in songs, such as ostinatos, dynamics, and timbre. Throughout EYFS and KS1, children discuss how instruments and voices create moods, characters and explore soundscapes. Additionally, they listen to famous pieces of music to reinforce key concepts taught in lessons.
Assessment and Feedback:
We employ a range of formative and summative assessment strategies to monitor students’ progress and understanding of musical concepts. Feedback is provided regularly to support students’ learning and to identify areas for further development.
Differentiation and Inclusion:
Our teaching practices are inclusive and responsive to the diverse needs and abilities of all children. We provide differentiated learning activities and support to ensure that every child has the opportunity to engage meaningfully with the music curriculum.
Impact
The impact of the Music curriculum at Stocksbridge Nursery Infant School can be seen through:
- Our children are engaged and excited by our music curriculum. The skills that they are taught equip them with a range of skills to enable them to appreciate music throughout their lives.
- Our children have become confident performers, composers and listeners, who are able to express themselves musically at school and beyond.
- Our children show an appreciation and respect for a range of music from a variety of genres across a variety of generations.
- Our children demonstrate and express their enthusiasm for music.
- Our children progress throughout the music curriculum which enables them to meet the expectations outlined in the National Curriculum.
Bradfest 2024
The KS1 children had a fantastic time performing at the Bradfest festival. We sang alongside other choirs in the Peak Edge Academy.
Music Curriculum
In Year 2 music we started creating musical soundscapes and today’s soundscape was focussed on the noises we hear in a morning. The children thought of all the noises they hear when they wake up in the morning and chose one to represent. They chose a musical instrument which they felt best created that noise. They then ordered themselves in the order we would hear those noises in our morning routines. The children really enjoyed this lesson, and made lots of noise! Ask your child what sound their musical instrument represented!
Year 2 drumming
During Y2 drumming children will:
- develop co-ordination
- Listen and develop an understanding of rudiments that all drummers use when playing kit
- Place their knowledge on a piece of music to perform at the leaver’s assembly in front of their parents
- Learn how to work as part of a team and with their friends in the drum line