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.
By teaching music from the earliest stages in Reception 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 elements of music (tempo, texture, timbre, structure, pitch, dynamics and rhythm), as outlined in the National Curriculum, 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.
Topics Covered in each Year
EYFS
Term 1 Exploring Music through Play and Dance (Texture, Timbre, Dynamics, Pitch)
Term 2 Learning through Rhymes and Song (Structure, Pitch)
Term 3 Singing Together (Performance Skills)
Year 1
Term 1 Instrument Families (Timbre, Pitch, Texture, Dynamics)
Term 2 Moody Music (How does music make us feel?)
Term 3What Does Music Look Like? (Graphic Notation)
Year 2
Term 1 How Long? (Pulse and Rhythm)
Term 2 How Loud?! (Dynamics, Texture)
Term 3 Making our own Music (Composition)
Year 3
Term 1 A Classical Spectacular (Exploring the ‘elements’ through classical music)
Term 2 A Journey Round the World (Context and tradition)
Term 3 Exploring Descriptive Sounds (Soundtracks, Programme Music and Sound Effects)
Year 4
Term 1 The Great Composers (Music History)
Term 2 Wider Opportunities (Vocal)
Term 3Wider Opportunities (Clarinet and Saxophone)
Year 5
Term 1 Music on the Stage (Opera, Ballet & Musical Theatre)
Term 2 What Can You Hear? (Developing analytical skills)
Term 3 What’s in a Song? (Song-writing skills)
Year 6
Term 1 On With the Show! (Christmas Production)
Term 2 Music through the 20th Century (Genres and instrument/recording technology)
Term 3 Bringing it Together (Leavers & Summer Concert)
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 percussion instruments, guitars and ukuleles, electric keyboards, African drums and collections of cross-cultural instruments and costumes from around the world. In addition to our instrumental resources, children make good use of music technology in their lessons including apps, simple recording devices and music software.
To further develop children’s practical skills in music, Y3 classes are taught to play the recorder, progressing in Year 4 to the Wider Opportunities Vocal and Woodwind modules which are delivered to whole classes by tutors from our local music hub, the Richmond Music Trust. Children who wish to receive private tuition are able to do so during the school day with weekly visits from a number of peripatetic teachers who deliver instrumental lessons on the violin, piano, flute, clarinet, saxophone, voice and guitar.
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.
Beyond the classroom, Music thrives in all its fullness through a number of extra-curricular musical ensembles, choirs and clubs. We encourage children of all abilities to aspire to become excellent musicians and performers, work collaboratively, make good progress and develop a wide and varied repertoire.
Our children perform regularly within our local community and at our Parish church and participate in borough and nation-wide music projects throughout the year. As well as the strong links with the wider-community, our children enjoy participating in our school assemblies, concerts and seasonal performances throughout the year which give them an opportunity to showcase their many talents and accomplishments.
SMSP has been recognised as a 2021/22 Music Mark School following our nomination by the Richmond Music Trust for the value we place on music.
Resources
BBC Schools Music, www.sfskids.org and ABRSM Classical 100 may be accessed at home to support our learning in Music. For Mac users, Garageband is used to facilitate some of our compositional projects. It may be fun to explore the follow apps that we have installed on our iPads at school: Paint Melody, Music Sparkle, Noteworks, and DJ Mixer.