Music Curriculum Intent Statement

At Faringdon Infant School, the Music Curriculum is designed to give pupils a variety of first hand opportunities to listen, perform and compose music from across a wide range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions.  Music is a powerful and unique form of communication, developing a repertoire of songs allows pupils to develop their language, learning the sounds and meanings of new words and becoming confident in the use of these words. An important part of the music curriculum is listening critically and learning the language to identify and describe the musical elements such as, tempo, texture, timbre, dynamics, structure, pitch and duration.

The Music Curriculum strongly supports the use and development of all of the children’s Learning Muscles at Faringdon Infant School.  Through composition children are encouraged to use their imagination like Daisy Dinosaur, to have a go at performing like Mo the Cheetah and to show curiosity when listening to new music like Maggie Meerkat.  Through listening and composing music pupils reflect on their experiences, broadening their knowledge of how they are developing personally and socially and use these reflections to become confident musicians, sharing these skills through musical performances with the rest of the school and the local community.

Charanga

Charanga is the scheme we use for teaching music.  In every music lesson we will:

• Listen to a piece of music and then appraise it. 
• Take part in a variety of musical activities - these will include:
• Games​ which embed the Interrelated Dimensions of Music through repetition.
• Singing​ which is at the heart of all the musical learning.
• Playing​ instruments with the song to be learnt – tuned/un-tuned percussion instruments are used. A sound-before-symbol approach is used but scores are provided as an understanding of notation is introduced to the children.
• Improvising​ with the song using voices and instruments occurs in some Units.
• Composing​ with the song using instruments occurs in some Units.
• Performing and Sharing what we have achieved in each music lesson and offering each other feedback.

The inter-related dimensions of music

By the end of Key Stage 1 children should be able to experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.  Children in every class explore these elements of music in each lesson through listening and appraising and all the musical activities they take part in.  

• Tempo – the speed of the music, fast or slow or in-between.
• Texture – layers of sound. Layers of sound working together make music very interesting to listen to.
• Timbre – all instruments including voices, have a certain sound quality eg the trumpet has a very different sound quality to the violin.
• Dynamics – how loud or quiet music is.
• Structure – every piece of music has a structure e.g. introduction, verse, chorus, ending.
• Pitch – high and low sounds.
• Duration – how long or short a note, phrase or section of music is.

• Pulse – the regular heartbeat of the music, the steady beat.
• Rhythm – long and short sounds or patterns that happen over the pulse, the steady beat.

Mastery in Music

Spiritual Moral Social Cultural Development in Music

Listening to music evokes many different emotions, feelings, opinions, enjoyment and discussion. Through these discussions, children learn that not everyone thinks or feels the same, allowing them to grow in their moral and spiritual development. Children listen to a variety of music of different genres from all around the world and have a chance to improvise and compose using some of these songs, helping them to develop greater knowledge and understanding of different cultures. In each music lesson there is an emphasis on performing and sharing the skills learnt.  This helps children to develop confidence when working with a group to perform in front of others.

Music in Action

The aim is not solely to give children the knowledge they need to succeed now, but also for what comes next. Children should be ready to carry on their musical development in the next stages of their education. Through exposing children to a wide variety of music they are able to use this experience to influence their improvisations and compositions. Children engage in their learning of new songs, enjoy performing themselves and watching others perform.