Music is a part of our lives. Everywhere you go there is music. Music reflects our time and place, our heritage, the community we live in and our multicultural world.
Our aim here at Wheatlands Primary School is to ensure that practical music making and a greater appreciation of music is within the reach of all children. This will enable them to develop creativity, express themselves through music and participate in rewarding group performances. In addition, music offers children the opportunity to develop many life skills such as listening and concentration, physical coordination, patterns and number work, teamwork and social skills. Our Music Overview can be seen here.
In line with the Government’s National Plan for Music we ensure that every child has the opportunity to play a musical instrument and use a specialist music teacher and the Tees Valley Music Service to provide some music teaching and enrichment opportunities. Across the school we use The Kapow Music Scheme of Work to engage the children in music lessons. Both approaches bring joy, build confidence, and teach the children a range of musical concepts.
In EYFS children will sing songs, move to music, and explore sounds.
In Key Stage One children will sing songs, speak chants and rhymes, and play a range of tuned and untuned percussion instruments. They will experiment with sounds, relate them to simple symbols and use them to create their own musical effects.
In Key Stage Two pupils will play and perform in ensemble contexts. They will improvise and compose, learn to use musical notations, experience a range of music from different traditions, and develop an understanding of the history of music.
We use Rocksteady, a rock and pop school, to provide an opportunity to play in a band alongside their peers. Rocksteady’s unique, pioneering child-centred pedagogy enables any child to learn to play an instrument, levelling the playing field for children and making music fun, accessible and inclusive. Progressing at their own pace through an expertly designed curriculum of up to 300 musical skills, children are taught valuable life skills which will help them as they progress through school, enabling them to leave with what they need to succeed; the belief that they can.
We hope that through a rich, creative curriculum, children will find joy in singing, music making and performing which lasts beyond their time here.
Our Music Policy can be downloaded below.