Curridge Primary School

Intent

Learning about music and having the opportunity to play musical instruments and make music together is a vital part of a rich and rounded education.

It has also been proven that music plays a key role in brain development. This is because it helps with the nurturing of language, motor skills, emotional intelligence and collaboration skills.

Excellent music education opens opportunities, but it is not simply a means to an end: it is also an end in itself. It gives children an opportunity to express themselves, to explore their creativity, to work hard at something, persevere and shine. These experiences and achievements stay with them and shape their lives.

Our vision is to enable all children and young people to learn to sing, play an instrument and create music together, and have the opportunity to progress their musical interests and talents.

Implementation

Children across the school take part in arrange of musical activities:

• Every child learns to play a musical instrument. In Reception and Year 1, children learn to create music on drums. We have a class set of ukuleles and every child from Year 2 to Year 6 has a lesson every week. These lessons are led by a musician from Hogan Music
• Children in Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 are part of our Rock and Pop Choir and have a weekly singing lesson. This is led by a musician from Hogan Music
• A teacher leads a weekly singing assembly that is much loved by children.
• Children in Year 4 and Year 5 take part in a West Berkshire concert each year at The Anvil Theatre in Basingstoke
• All children perform on stage at Arlington Arts at the end of every school year for the end of year performance
• Musicians from Maestros and Hogan Music regularly play and perform in assemblies
• Children have the opportunity to showcase their musical talent in assemblies
• Year 6 organise an annual talent show
• All families have the opportunity to take additional 1:1 or small group music lessons. These include: Clarinet, guitar, ukulele, keyboard and DJing

All children will:

• Experience a broad musical culture, accessing high quality curricular music
• Be given a strong grounding in music from early years
• Access the expertise, instruments, technology and facilities they need to learn, create and share their music
• Engage with a range of enrichment opportunities to play and sing, to perform, create and experience live music, and have their music heard
• Be supported and taught by skilled musicians
• Have access to a broad musical culture, with opportunities to play and sing together, perform, create and experience live music
• Have access to a broad and ambitious curriculum – The Model Music Curriculum
• Be taught by staff who are supported with appropriate skills development and resources

Impact

Children leave Year 6 having studied a knowledge-based curriculum rich in musical vocabulary and experienced a range of artists and genres. They will have all had experience of learning songs, composing and performing their own music using a variety of instruments.

At Curridge, we want children to experience music as a unique way of communicating that can inspire and motivate their own personal expression. Music can play an important part in the personal development of children; it allows them to reflect and links closely with their spiritual development. Music reflects the culture and society we live in, and so the teaching and learning of music at Birch Copse enables children to develop curiosity for different cultures and ideas. Besides being a creative and enjoyable activity, music can also be a highly academic and demanding subject and music lessons at Curridge boost resilience through learning to perform, compose and even read music notation.  
At Key Stage 1 and 2, listening to a variety of music styles and sounds is designed to broaden pupils’ musical horizons and encourage them to be open minded about the music they listen to.