ROADE PRIMARY SCHOOL

Music Curriculum

Intent

 The National Curriculum for music education aims to ensure that all children:

• Perform and listen to, review and evaluate music.
• Are taught to sing, create and compose music.
• Understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated.

At Roade Primary School, we follow the Kapow Music Scheme which has been designed ‘to help children to feel that they are musical and develop a life-long love of music’. Kapow uses a spiral curriculum model where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon during the course of their primary education.

Our aims for teaching music are that children will:

• Develop creative skills of singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising and composing music, and listening and responding to music.
• Develop an understanding of the diverse history and cultural context of music.
• Learn how music can be written down.
• Be ambitious in develop transferrable skills – team work, leadership, creative thinking, problem solving, decision making and presentation and performance skills.

Kapow’s Music Scheme of work enables pupils to meet end of key stage expectations as outlined in the National Curriculum.

Kapow takes a holistic approach to music education woven together through the individual threads of:

• Performing
• Listening
• Composing
• The history of music
• The inter-related dimensions of music

Each unit is divided into 5 lessons offering cross curricular links where appropriate and covering the above threads. It is designed this way in order to capture children’s imagination and encourage them to explore music with enthusiasm. It will enable children to learn how to sing fluently and expressively, play tuned and untuned instruments accurately and with control and improvise and compose related pieces of music. They will also learn the inter-related dimensions of music – pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics.

Music is timetabled to enable all classes to access the music studio where a range of instruments are available. This equates to 45 minutes a week plus time for singing assemblies.

Strong subject knowledge is key to enable staff to deliver a robust music curriculum. Through Kapow teachers are given videos and detailed lesson plans to develop subject knowledge, support CPD and help staff acquire the necessary skills and knowledge.

Children in lower key stage 2 engage in an instrumental scheme called First Access in partnership with with NMPAT (Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust) whereby children develop their expertise in playing a tuned instrument for 10 weeks. This focused tuition allows to access a range of instruments and is concluded with a concert to the wider community showcasing the skills they have acquired.

As a school we have also forged links with Notivate, a program that supports children to write their own songs and to record them in a professional studio. Their songs are written collaboratively and then professionally recorded and presented back to the children.

The implementation of music across the school also incorporates opportunities for the school community to come together. Children have opportunities across the school year to sing together for family and friends. This gives them the opportunity to rehearse and perfect performances and to share the school’s love of music. Weekly singing assemblies allow children in each key stage to come together and rehearse pertinent songs to improve their well being and love of music.

The school choir, formed from children in years 4 to 6 is led by a music specialist and supported by the subject lead. They engage in weekly rehearsals practicing skills in warming up and fully using their voices for specific performances, for example Young Voices. Community links have been forged with Roade Community Orchestra and Roade Community Choir giving these children the opportunity to broaden their performance range and to give them greater experiences of music beyond school.

Kapow offers both formative and summative assessment opportunities and teachers are given guidance on how to assess pupils against the learning objectives. Performances are often included at the end of each unit, and these can be recorded and uploaded to SeeSaw for summative assessment. Knowledge organisers are provided as a visual record of the key learning from the unit and can be shared with pupils at the beginning of the unit. 

The expected impact of following Kapow is that all children will:

• Be confident performers, composers and listeners.
• Be able to express themselves musically.
• Show an appreciation and respect for a range of musical styles from around the world.
• Understand how music is influenced by the wider cultural, social and historical contexts.
• Understand how music can be written down.
• Demonstrate and articulate an enthusiasm for music and be able to identify personal musical preferences.
• Meet the end of key stage expectations.

Our Music Threads

We have 5 threads that run through our music curriculum,  they are:

• Performing
• Listening
• Composing
• The history of music
• The inter-related dimensions of music

At Roade Primary School we study music as part of our continuous provision within EYFS. 

Music is then studied through a timetabled lesson once a week from years 1 to 6, as well as part of singing assemblies.

Our 'Music Road', detailing the topics studied through the primary curriculum here at Roade:

Year 1: Pulse and rhythm

Year 1: Classical music, dynamics and tempo

Year 1: Timbre and rhythmic pattern

Year 1: Pitch and tempo

Year 1: Vocal and body sounds

Year 1: Musical vocabulary

Year 2: Musical me

Year 2: West African call and response song

Year 2: On this island: British songs and sounds

 Year 2: Orchestral instruments

Year 2: Myths and legends

Year 2: Dynamics, timbre, tempo and motifs

Year 3: Ballads 

Year 3: Creating compositions

Year 3: Developing singing technique and keeping time

Year 3: Pentatonic melodies and composition

Year 3: Jazz

Year 3: Traditional instruments and improvisation

 Year 4: Body and tuned percussion

Year 4: Rock and Roll

Year 4: Changes in pitch, dynamics and tempo

Year 4: Haiku, music and performance

Year 4: Samba and carnival sounds and instruments

Year 4: Adapting and transposing motifs

Year 5: Composition notation

Year 5: Blues

Year 5: South and West Africa

Year 5: Composition to represent the festival of colour

Year 5: Looping and remixing

Year 5: Musical theatre

Year 6: Advanced rhythms

Year 6: Dynamics, pitch and texture

Year 6: Songs of World War 2

Year 6: Film music

Year 6: Theme and variation

Year 6: Composing and performing a leaver's song