Year 5 -In concert
Music
At Derwentwater, we aim to provide an enjoyable and challenging music curriculum.
What is our ambition for music?
We aim to provide an enjoyable and challenging music curriculum that gives all pupils the opportunity to sing, play, create, and perform, both individually and collaboratively. Lessons are inclusive and developmentally appropriate for different age groups and the specific needs of the children while still allowing opportunities for pupils to stretch and challenge themselves.
The music curriculum is designed to build a musical foundation and build on skills and knowledge throughout the years. Pupils will become confident in their ability to create, compose, perform, and listen.
Children will leave KS1 with a good understanding of various rhythms and pitches and basic knowledge of stick notation, using crotchets, quavers, and rest.
Pupils have learnt and practiced key glockenspiel skills through exercises and composition activities. The folk music-based curriculum has also exposed pupils to music from around the world.
As pupils progress through KS2, they become more confident in their singing and musical skills on a variety of tuned and untuned percussion instruments. They have a more in-depth understanding of the interrelated dimensions of music and can describe music using key terms (pitch, pulse, rhythm, tempo, dynamics). They are more aware of different music and music genres from other countries and can improvise and create music in various styles and metres, including compound time.
Pupils can read and transcribe stave notation using simple and compound time, complex rhythms, including dotted rhythms, and a complete diatonic scale.
Children will move onto Key Stage Three with a passion to learn and share their love of music.
How do we achieve this ambition?
To ensure our music provision at Derwentwater is of a high standard, music specialists from Sing Education deliver our music curriculum lessons. The music curriculum is made up of half-termly units, with step-by-step progression, always building on prior knowledge and skills. This gives children the opportunity to consolidate, deepen, and progress their rich musical skill set. Derwentwater teachers can access CPD from subject experts and regularly observe and participate in class music sessions.
Sing Education teachers use the Kodaly method of teaching to ensure subject matter is presented logically and builds on the children’s previous experience with music. This helps pupils to consolidate earlier learning and link new concepts to prior knowledge.
5 Principles of the Kodály Method
- Learning by singing: According to Kodály, the human voice is the fundamental instrument and should be central to musical training. Using a moveable-do system, pupils should gain musical literacy through sung solfège (also known as solfa).
- Hand signs: Solfège and sight-singing can be supplemented by hand signs, as developed by the English pedagogue John Curwen, who influenced Kodály.
- Rhythmic proficiency: The sight-reading of rhythmic patterns (including whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes, and various tuplets) must be taughtalongside tonal solfège.
- Collaboration: Kodály believed that creativity and collaboration are essential to musical education and can be brought out in group music lessons. Music pupils should collaborate in exercises ranging from clapping to choral singing to instrumental accompaniment.
- Cultural connections: Music instructors should emphasize folk music (even pop songs) in a pupil’s mother tongue to create a visceral connection to music.
Source: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/kodaly-method-guide#5-principles-of-the-kodly-method
Children regularly have the opportunity to perform and record a piece of repertoire they have studied at the end of each half-term. They also have the chance to describe and discuss what they have been learning and exploring in music lessons. This allows teachers to assess progression and embed the learning of the half-term.
Our children are talented singers. They enjoy the opportunity to perform; this year, they have participated in performances with Hackney schools and multiple performances for their parents.
Teachers create a positive learning environment through positive classroom management and singing-led, child-focused lessons.
The school has a dedicated space for music. Children receive access to high-quality, weekly music teaching, resources, and instruments to reinforce the ambitions of the curriculum.
Music is integral to school life through clubs, such as choir, individual instrumental and group tuition, and weekly singing assemblies.
EYFS
Through the EYFS curriculum, children can develop confidence and express themselves through song. They learn a variety of nursery rhymes and songs and have opportunities to perform and develop their rhythm and enjoyment of music.
KS1
In KS1, weekly curricular music lessons allow pupils to learn about pitch, pulse, and rhythm. The singing-led curriculum helps children discover and develop their singing voice and ensemble skills on various instruments through opportunities to create and perform their compositions for the class. The Year 1 and 2 curriculum exposes children to music worldwide, such as Australian and English folk songs.
KS2
KS2 music lessons build a solid musical foundation for all pupils. Children develop their appreciation for music and the key role it plays in shaping cultures all over the world. A good understanding of musical theory and notation is developed through exploring new genres of music (classical, pop, musical theatre, jazz, and blues). Children are exposed to music by classical composers and learn about more familiar music from film and television. The KS2 school choir and the end-of-year performances allow children to share their singing skills with the wider school community and beyond.