Music

Music Matters at St Thomas...

Music is a key part of our school life. There is singing and music around the school each and every day and we put a lot of emphasis on performance, building the children’s confidence and enjoyment.

Our aim is that the children experience a balance of composing, performing and appreciating music.

Lessons for the children from Early Years to Year 6 involve a variety of instruments as well as their voices. Music enables the children to express themselves through sound and gives an opportunity to perform in groups.

It is our intent that every child should leave our school with a strong positive musical identity and positive individual and collective experiences of music; sowing the seeds for a lifelong love of, and participation in, music with all its attendant benefits.

Intent

Nurturing a strong music identity and love of music in our children

It is our intent that every child should leave our school with a strong positive musical identity and positive individual and collective experiences of music; sowing the seeds for a lifelong love of, and participation in, music with all its attendant benefits.

Active music-making opportunities in school and with others

Implicit in this statement is the intent that all our children will have the opportunity to actively make music in a variety of different ways, be it alone or in collaboration, across a wide range of musical genres during the school week, whether in:

• class music lessons
• in their normal classroom with their class teacher and support staff or
• through musical ensembles inside and outside of school.

It is also our intent that children should make music with children from other schools and/or other members of the community and professional musicians wherever possible.

Previous examples have included our participation in the Scratch Youth Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall, community operas with Surrey Arts, choral and orchestral participation in the Guildford Schools Network Music Festival, competitive entries into the Godalming Music Festival and other internal music workshops with professional folk musicians and choral singers among others.

Active participation in liturgical music

As we are a Catholic school, it is our intention that children should also actively explore liturgical music through hymn singing, hymn writing, leading and participation in our musical worships, Masses and prayer services in school and in church.

An ambitious, innovative and inclusive curriculum

To achieve these intentions, we provide for, and go beyond, the requirements of the National Curriculum. Our curriculum aims echo those recently published in the Model Music Curriculum, Ofsted’s Research Review of Music Education Ofsted Research Review and more broadly, in the new National Plan for Music Education. Led by our Music Lead, a highly qualified primary music specialist, we draw on best practice and resources in music education across the widest range of diverse musical genres, to ensure equal access and opportunity for every child.

Implementation

OVERVIEW

Music is a vital and integral part of the STOC curriculum, reflecting our strong desire to educate the whole child. Our music curriculum and extra-curricular provision is ambitious and innovative. It aims to provide children with the highest standard of musical learning experiences in ways that appeal to all children and which will inspire them not just musically, but also support them more widely in their personal, emotional and social development, via an accessible and individual means of self-expression through which they can develop their own creative potential. It is gratifying to see much of our existing aims, thinking and provision recently being promoted within the Model Music Curriculum (MMC), Ofsted’s recent Research Review for Music and more widely, in the new National Plan for Music Education.

As a Catholic school, music forms an integral part of our daily collective and class worship and liturgy. Children learn a variety of hymns, ranging from traditional hymns and carols through to modern hymns and worship songs, some written especially for children, such as those provided by OneLife Music. Previously, we have worked with a Catholic hymn writer, Andy Severyn, who led a hymn writing session with our Year 6 children, using their ukulele learning to set their own prayers to music using four chords. These hymns were then sung by the whole school led by the different Year 6 teams in our collective worship. A Worship Team then evolved from this workshop who led our Collective Worship every Monday morning.

We have a lively extra-curricular music provision an un-auditioned choir (Senior Singing Squad) and a Concert Band.  The latter is open to all children from Year 2. Parts are adapted to enable beginners to join in and for all types of notation. These ensembles and Music Tech Club offer all children the chance to deepen their musical experience and learning and apply their knowledge and skills developed in the classroom and vice versa.

Impact

Our curriculum and extra-curricular provision are designed to positively impact on our key aims which are:

• to give all children the opportunity to equip themselves with the musical skills and knowledge to support children’s musical progression over the long term and ensure key technical, constructive, and expressive musical learning and understanding are fully embedded.
• To foster a strong musical identity in our children through singing and instrumental performance such that all children consider themselves to be musical.
• And in so doing encourage a life-long love of music.

Our Curriculum and Extra-Curricular and/or Extension activities are carefully planned to enable all children to achieve at whatever age or ability and make musical progress in line with the aims of the National Curriculum and the new Model Music Curriculum using the technical, constructive and expressive pillars of musical progression suggested by Ofsted as a guide. The Kodaly mastery approach in its 3Ps of Preparation, Practise and Presentation ensures children develop a strong practical musical experience and understanding of the key concepts and skills involved in performance, listening and composition such that they know how to manipulate their musical knowledge and understanding creatively and expressively. Our Music Development Plan looks to the future in our assessment and review of our musical curriculum provision as well as the resources and staffing needed to achieve our curriculum goals and desired impact across the whole school; and more widely by sharing practice and supporting teacher training with other schools in the Xavier Trust and beyond.

MEASURING ASSESSMENT, PROGRESS AND OUTCOMES

Ofsted uses three pillars as a curriculum guide to ensuring good musical understanding and progression:

• to improve children’s technical ability to produce sound and read music in its different forms;
• to develop their constructive understanding of the inter-related elements of music and understanding of the building blocks for composition
• and to develop their creative understanding of musical meaning, context and aural awareness which will affect their ability to respond expressively.

This musical development occurs over the long term but is evident, informed and shaped by learning, teaching and assessment in the short, medium and long term.

Most Assessment for Learning occurs during class music lessons and is formative, with regular daily or weekly opportunities for the teachers to observe and assess learning and children’s readiness to move on.

Children have the opportunity to self-mark their written work in their Music Portfolios. These Music Portfolios travel with the children through their time at school and provide a record over the long term of their written musical work, particularly in focussed listening, drawing graphic scores, or writing rhythm patterns and composition. Children enjoy looking back on work they did in previous years and seeing a snapshot of their musical progression for themselves.

Music Development Plan please click here – Music Plan