Intent:

At Christ the King, our intention is to engage and inspire our pupils to develop their creativity through a love of music. Music is universal and has the power to connect individuals and communities. We aim to bring our children together to experience the joy of music through performances, ensemble playing and whole-school singing. We believe that providing our children with opportunities to perform promotes a joy for music and increases both their self-confidence and sense of achievement. We also provide our children with opportunities to listen and appraise music from a range of genres, traditions, styles and historical periods. This develops our children’s ability to listen critically to music and apply their understanding of the key elements of music to musical composition.

Implementation:

Our music curriculum has been designed with the Model Music Curriculum in mind to ensure that the children at Christ the King develop their individual musicianship by singing, listening, composing and performing. This is embedded through the attendance of weekly hymn practices, year group performances and key-stage performances throughout the year and the learning of both tuned and un-tuned instruments.

At Christ the King, the elements of music are taught during classroom lessons. This enables our children to understand how music is made and played and provides them with the vocabulary needed to dissect and discuss the pieces of music that they have listened to. This begins in EYFS where, during weekly music lessons, our children learn a repertoire of songs, create and perform songs and learn how to move rhythmically in time to music. Our curriculum also ensure that children in EYFS play instruments and listen to songs so that they are able to express their thoughts and feelings through music.

In Key Stage One, the strong foundation of early musical skills in EYFS is built upon as the children continue to deepen their musical understanding. This includes exposing our children to more complex musical vocabulary which they can use when listening and appraising pieces of music. Performing remains an integral part of the music curriculum in Key Stage One as the children sing in hymn practices and receive taught music lessons weekly.

In addition to singing in weekly hymn practices and taking part in whole-school performances, children in Key Stage Two are provided with the opportunity to compose pieces of music.

Impact:

Children at Christ the King will be able to know more and remember more about music. They will begin to be taught the elements of music in EYFS and use their growing knowledge and understanding to develop their individual musicianship as they progress through the key stages. By participating in regular performances, they will develop their self-confidence and feel connected to one another as they experience the sense of community that music brings.