Music

Music

Subject Lead: Mrs Butterworth

At St. Joseph’s, we are committed to ensuring the curriculum is purposeful, progressive and empowering for every child. We value all of our children and celebrate diversity of experience, need, interest, and achievement. Our curriculum provokes curiosity and excitement for all children at St. Joseph’s. We recognise that we are building the foundations for life-long learning with Christ at the centre. A shared love of literature throughout school and our faith life and Gospel values, Trust Character Virtues and British Values, sits alongside our curriculum drivers. Our curriculum drivers are what makes our curriculum unique to us here at St. Joseph’s. They are woven through all that we do and underpin our shared belief that our role is to support and help our children to understand their place within their local town, their country and in their world as a global citizen; to have experiences that become part of their life story; and aspire to achieve their very best, having been shown that there is a world of possibility awaiting them, outside of the school gates.

Intent

At St. Joseph’s we intend for children to;

• have a love of music and singing which is rooted in our Catholic ethos
• have a musically rich curriculum resulting in the acquisition of knowledge and improved well-being
• be confident, reflective and expressive musicians, with their own appreciation of music

Implementation

At St. Joseph’s Academy music is taught following the National Curriculum with weekly lessons.

Through our daily acts of worship, all children use and develop their singing voices, both individually and as part of an ensemble. Singing from an established repertoire, children will explore a broad and diverse range of songs and compositions that complement their wider creative curriculum.

In KS1, children are taught how to use their body as percussion and learn whole-body actions linked to music. They learn to handle and play classroom instruments effectively to create and express their own, and others’ music.
In KS2, children build on the skills taught in KS1 and start to gain a contextual understanding of music, through our cross-curricular approach, see our curriculum overview.

Through a range of whole class, group and individual activities, children have opportunities to explore sounds through listening, performing and composing.

• Listening - children listen to a diverse range of audio material related to the curriculum topics being studied. This helps pupils understand the chronology of the history of music and how it sits beside world history.

• Performing - children are provided with a variety of enrichment opportunities and wide-ranging musical experiences including; leading liturgical dance at masses, performing to residents at local care homes at Christmas, taking part in music festivals in the local area and community projects such as the Big Sing at Sage Gateshead and The Festival of Choirs in Darlington.

• Composing - within music lessons, children compose both individually and as part of an ensemble for different themes and events happening across the curriculum, e.g. Mission Weeks, Personal Development Weeks.

St. Joseph’s has a school choir for Year 4, 5 and 6. All children are given the opportunity to learn how to play a musical instrument, from standard classroom instruments to individual instrumental lessons with the visiting peripatetic staff. If you would like your child to have violin lessons, please contact the office at office@stjosephsnorton.bhcet.org.uk

Impact

Pupils will:

• Retain subject-specific knowledge and vocabulary, ready for a KS3 curriculum
• Have taken part in a range of opportunities to foster their instrumental and/or vocal ability
• Participate in wider musical activities and have increased confidence
• Have a heightened awareness of musical opportunities available both in school and beyond the classroom