Music

7

At Dawley C of E Primary Academy, we believe that a quality musical education is important for all our children, offering them the opportunity to develop skills in not only musical performance,

theory and composition, but also enhancing other skills such as: increased memory skills; perseverance and a sense of achievement, improved coordination; improved maths skills; improved reading and comprehension skills; an enhanced ability to self-express and improved listening skills.

We want every child at our Academy to access a broad and rich curriculum with opportunities to dive into a cultural and heritage-rich ethos.

It is our view that every child in the Academy should receive specific instrument lessons, as well as Theory of Music and a good knowledge of musical history.

To promote performance not only in the classroom but also in the wider community, Dawley Academy takes part in a variety of events such as:

  • Academy Choir – Singing at community events.
  • Year 5 – The Music Partnership – Recorder Festival 2022 – Thursday 31st March
  • Year 4 – Telford Sings with Music Share – Performance on 1st March.

Our intent is that by the end of Year 6, every child will be able to:

  • Work as part of an ensemble/band adding direction and ideas.
  • Create interesting melodies with instrument and voice.
  • Play a tune on a tuned instrument.
  • Understand the importance of warming up their voice, good posture, enunciation and breathing.
  • Use musical vocabulary confidently and competently when discussing music and my feelings towards it.
  • Confidently recognise/identify different style indicators and different instruments and their sounds.
  • Know that music can be written as notation and recognise some notes and markings.
  • Use interrelated dimensions of music when composing/improvising (e.g. dynamics, pitch, tempo, timbre).

Curriculum Intent

At Dawley C of E Primary Academy, we believe that a quality musical education is important for all our children, offering them the opportunity to develop skills in not only musical performance, theory and composition, but also enhancing other skills such as: increased memory skills; perseverance and a sense of achievement, improved coordination; improved maths skills; improved reading and comprehension skills; an enhanced ability to self-express and improved listening skills.

We want every child at our Academy to access a broad and rich curriculum with opportunities to dive into a cultural and heritage-rich ethos. It is our view that every child in the Academy should receive specific instrument lessons, as well as Theory of Music and a good knowledge of musical history.

Our intent is that by the end of Year 6, every child will be able to:

  • Work as part of an ensemble/band adding direction and ideas.
  • Create interesting melodies with instrument and voice.
  • Play a tune on a tuned instrument.
  • Understand the importance of warming up their voice, good posture, enunciation and breathing.
  • Use musical vocabulary confidently and competently when discussing music and my feelings towards it.
  • Confidently recognise/identify different style indicators and different instruments and their sounds.
  • Know that music can be written as notation and recognise some notes and markings.
  • Use interrelated dimensions of music when composing/improvising (e.g. dynamics, pitch, tempo, timbre).

Curriculum Implementation

Approaches to Music

The Academy aims to:

  • Give music a purpose – perform and develop an understanding of music with purpose.
  • Develop the children’s confidence as young musicians.
  • Help children see music as a means to enjoyment, enhancement and educational benefit.
  • Develop musical skills by approaching it from a variety of angles – listening, composing, IT, performing, singing, theory and history.

Children are introduced to a new composer every half-term in Worship, and as an Academy, we listen to, appraise and discuss the composer’s music, learning about them at the same time through clips, Powerpoints, discussion and other informative practices. This is to promote a whole Academy approach to musical conversation.

Cross curricular Music Opportunities

Teachers seek to take advantage of opportunities to make cross-curricular links. They plan for pupils to practice and apply the skills, knowledge and understanding acquired through music lessons to other areas of the curriculum.

The Use of ICT

Opportunities to use ICT to support teaching and learning in music will be planned for, for example, using Garageband to compose.

Choir

Dawley Academy choir perform regularly at local events such as Christmas light switch-ons, for local residential homes and in larger scale performances such as Telford Sings. Children in the choir benefit from added workshops to develop their singing potential from stakeholder providers such as the Lichfield Diocese.

Curriculum Impact

Assessment

Assessment criteria for music is linked to the music lessons accessed by the children for their instrument and singing lessons on Charanga. Videos are taken of performance half-termly which are used to evidence progress. Pupil voice is also gathered to ensure that children value, learn and progress in their musical knowledge.

Teachers also collect evidence of progress on skills documents.

Assessment is a critical part of teachers’ planning and observation, feedback and performance will all be taken into account.