Killingholme Primary School

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Our Intent:

At Killingholme Primary, we promote a positive attitude to learning (based on our school vision of Partnerships + Potential + Performance = Success), encouraging our students to aspire to achieve their full potential by providing rich, motivational, purposeful and inspiring learning.

Our students will learn that music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. It is our intent that we make music an inspiring and enjoyable learning experience, which develops the children’s musical skills and prepares them in readiness for high school. We encourage children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which to develop a love of music and develop their talent as musicians, and in turn increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement.

Our teaching focuses on developing the children’s ability to understand rhythm and follow a beat through performing on a range of musical instruments. By singing songs, children learn about the structure and organisation of music. We teach them to listen and to appreciate different forms of music across different time periods, cultures and traditions. This supports children to understand the cultural capital of being open minded in their listening as well as knowledgeable about a breadth of musical genres in the world today. We also teach technical vocabulary such as volume, pitch, beat and rhythm and encourage children to discuss music using these terms. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose and to listen with confidence.

Our Implementation:

At Killingholme Primary, our students will learn that music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. They will be inspired and engaged by music education. Music lesson will engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and develop their talent as musicians, and in turn increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with a critical ear.

At Killinghome Primary, we use the Charanga scheme of work in years 1 – 6, to ensure a wide exposure to different genres of music, with lots of practical opportunities to explore and develop as musicians and singers. All musical learning in this scheme is built around the Interrelated Dimensions of Music: pulse, rhythm, pitch, tempo, dynamics, timbre, texture, structure and notation. These dimensions are at the centre of all the learning.

The children are taught in a “spiral”, which means that all of the dimensions are revisited and built upon in every lesson. When children learn in this way, the information they receive is retained and recalled with confidence. Students will have experiences with different types of instruments, primarily glockenspiels. 

By using Charanga as the basis of a scheme of work, we can ensure that they are fulfilling the aims for musical learning stated in the National Curriculum: Charanga includes many examples of music styles and genres from different times and places. These are explored through the language of music via active listening, performing and composing activities, which enable understanding of the context and genre. Charanga provides a classroom-based, participatory and inclusive approach to music learning. Throughout the scheme, children are actively involved in using and developing their singing voices, using body percussion and whole body actions, and learning to handle and play classroom instruments effectively to create and express their own and others’ music. Through a range of whole class, group and individual activities, children have opportunities to explore sounds, listen actively, compose and perform. Progression through the units of work in Charanga reinforces knowledge and use of the interrelated dimensions of music, so that awareness of these is built upon each year as the children move up through the school

The Impact:

Through implementing the above, we aim to ensure our students will understand and apply subject specific vocabulary and will achieve age related expectations at their end of each academic year.  They will also retain and build on knowledge and understanding of music whilst ll having the opportunity to perform and develop musical skills. Students will also use music as a form of expression and will participate in wider musical activities. Ultimately, we hope our children will develop a love of music and an appreciation of different music forms.

Music plays a large part in the development of an understanding of culture and history, in relation to our children’s individuality, as well as ethnicities from around the world. We believe a good relationship with the arts is a supportive tool of health and well-being.