Music is at the heart of our school and we believe it is key in promoting children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. At SMSP, through the teaching of music, we provide opportunities for all children to express ideas and feelings by performing, listening to, understanding, appraising and composing music.
Through the weekly teaching of music from the earliest stages in KS1 through to the end of Key Stage 2, children develop their confidence, creativity and expand their understanding of the role and relevance of music in its many forms across different historical periods, genres, cultures and traditions.
The inter-related dimensions of music (tempo, texture, timbre, structure, pitch, dynamics and rhythm), as outlined in the National Curriculum for Music, underpin all teaching in Music and are taught exponentially across each year group. Children consolidate and build on previous knowledge in order to retain and retrieve key facts whilst developing their understanding and skills in music as they progress further up the school.
SMSP has been recognised as a 2025/26 Music Mark School following our nomination by the Richmond Music Trust for our commitment to providing high-quality music education for all students.
Music Development Plan
Curriculum
Music is taught for an hour weekly across all year groups as set out below. In some year groups, music teaching is chunked into blocks where classes rotate to receive their weekly entitlement over the course of the academic year.
Topics Covered in each Year
| Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring 1 & 2 | Summer 1 & 2 | ||
| Y1 | Yolanda’s Band Jam, Dynamics (Responding to music, Learning musical vocabulary) | Graphic Scores (Using symbols to convey musical meaning) Christmas Production | Sounds Around Us, Instruments of the Orchestra | Making Music, Musical Games. | |
| Y2 | Pulse and Rhythm (Using traditional notation), Christmas Production | Pitch (Using a stave) | Becoming Composers (Lyric-writing and music-making with a purpose.) | ||
| Y3 | A Journey Around the World (Music from countries and cultures beyond our own), Christmas Singup | Exploring Descriptive Sounds (Carnival of the Animals, Peter & the Wolf), Y3 Easter Service | |||
| Y4 | The Great Composers, Christmas Singup | Recorders, Y4 Pentecost Service | RMT Wider Opportunities (Doods) | ||
| Y5 | Exploring Sound Colours (How music conveys meaning), Y5 Carol Service | Aural Awareness & Music from Italy (Understanding context, Opera workshop) | Song-writing (Structure and melody) | ||
| Y6 | Developing performance Skills, Y6 Harvest Service, Y6 Christmas Production | Music Through the Decades (Looking at changes in music over the 20th Century.) | Composing Jingles, Leit Motifs (How music can convey character) & Leavers Assembly | ||
Music in EYFS
In EYFS Music teaching happens within both the Prime and Specific Areas of learning where rhythm and pitch are developed through incorporating daily singing activities into classroom routines, linking to academic learning through songs (teaching letters, numbers and shapes) and motor skill development in linking songs with movement and actions. Children have access to a range of percussive instruments and are encouraged in developing their confidence in experiential learning through play and by being imaginative and expressive. Children develop an enjoyment of making music together and begin to understand how music can make them feel.
Making Music
At SMSP, children are encouraged to explore and play a wide variety of instruments, making full use of our Music Room which is well-resourced with tuned and untuned percussion, guitars and ukuleles, electric keyboards, African drums and collections of instruments from around the world. In addition to our instrumental resources, children make good use of music technology in their lessons using apps, simple recording devices and music software.
Pupils also come together once a week in each Key Stage for Singing Collective Worship, where they are accompanied on the piano. Here children develop their repertoire, part-singing skills, technical vocabulary and find a space where they can express themselves and be part of a musical community. Pupils learning to play an instrument also have the opportunity to play to their peers, inspiring others whilst developing competency performing in front of an audience.
To further develop children’s practical skills in music, Y4 classes are taught to play the recorder, progressing onto the Wider Opportunities Woodwind scheme which is delivered to whole classes by tutors from our local music hub, the Richmond Music Trust (www.richmondmusictrust.org)
Instrumental Lessons
Parents who wish for their child to receive private instrumental tuition are able to do so during the school day with weekly visits from a number of peripatetic teachers from the Richmond Music Trust who deliver one-to-one and small-group instrumental lessons on the violin, piano, flute, clarinet, voice, guitar, keyboard and drums. Lesson fees can be viewed here Fees & Support – Richmond Music Trust.
Where financial hardship might prevent a child from learning an instrument, details of support with fees can be viewed here Support with Fees – Richmond Music Trust
Co-Curricular Music
Enrichment activities in the form of trips, workshops and visitors into school give children the invaluable experience of hearing and participating in live music events, offering aspirational experiences and inspirational opportunities and forming an important part of their cultural capital.
Beyond the classroom, Music thrives through a rich offer of extra-curricular musical ensembles, choirs and clubs for pupils in both key stages. These are offered both during lunch breaks and after school. We encourage children of all ages and abilities to aspire to become excellent musicians and performers, work collaboratively, make good progress and develop a wide and varied repertoire. Clubs are open to all pupils and can be joined before the start of each new term via the school office.
Musical Experiences
Children at SMSP perform across the year within our local community and at our Parish church as well as participating in borough and nation-wide music projects. Regular events and trips include the Richmond Singing Festival at the Rose Theatre, Proms Praise 4 Schools at the Royal Albert Hall, Young Voices at the O2 Arena, carol singing at Fullerton Court and Home-Mead retirement homes and church services at St Mary with St Albans..
As well as the strong links with the wider-community, all children participate throughout the year at school in collective-worship, concerts and seasonal performances which give them an opportunity to showcase their many talents and accomplishments. Our instrumental ensembles have the opportunity perform at our school fairs and showcase their skills in specially programmed assemblies each term. Our two school halls, designated music room, individual group rooms and studio space give pupils plenty of room to learn, rehearse and present their performances.
From a listening perspective, a Music Appreciation slide featuring the work of chosen composer is introduced in Collective Worship at the start of each week giving all pupils the opportunity to hear both new and familiar music from a range of cultures, countries and genres.
In Year 6, pupils have the opportunity to become Music Advocates, taking on the role ambassadors for the subject, helping the music teacher and acting as pupil voice for the way music is experienced in our school.
SEND in Music
In all subjects, Music included, we believe that good teaching addresses the needs of those with SEND in the first instance through QTF (quality first teaching). Lessons will be planned with the needs of all pupils in mind, with carefully crafted resources and targeted aids to enable all children to access the lessons together. Where appropriate, further waves of intervention will be coordinated to enable success. To ensure this, teachers will follow structural patterns to lessons; use accessible resources; scaffold teaching; have high expectations for all pupils; employ varied means of assessment and celebrate “relative achievement”.
In the Future
Our aim is to continually review our and improve our music offer through an annual planning and review cycle. We plan to embed the routines of termly performances for all year groups as set out in the National Plan for Music Education. A review and update of music apps is planned for the coming year.
Opportunities for Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) Development in Music
Alongside the academic teaching of the curriculum at SMSP, we always look to provide opportunities for the children to broaden their understanding and links to SMSC in Music. These opportunities are sometimes organic and can’t be planned for, but we feel it is important to recognise and acknowledge these opportunities when they arise to enable all children the chance to grow and flourish, underpinned by our School Vision and Values. Please click here to see where we have recognised opportunities to teach and explore SMSC in Music.
Further reading
The following documents form the foundation of the teaching of Music at SMSP:
National Curriculum for Music in Schools
Music education: information for parents and young people
Resources
BBC Schools Music Primary Music – KS1 / KS2 – BBC Teach can be accessed at home to support our learning in Music and to access cross-curricular resources for music.
BBC Ten Pieces resources offer a rich variety of music and composers to allow pupils to develop their aural awareness and understanding of music within a cultural context.
Chrome Music Lab, Patatap and Dicadmusic are all fun, creative and educational music websites that pupils in both KS1 and KS2 can access from home.
Purple Planet is a royalty-free music library used in KS2 for music-making
For Mac users, the Garageband is used to facilitate some of our more advanced compositional projects in KS2.