Mayfield Primary SchoolMusic
MUSIC LEADER
Mrs Rickwood
'ALWAYS START WITH WHY'
MUSIC INTENT FOR OUR PROGRAMME OF STUDY: KNOWLEDGE, PROGRESSION, COVERAGE
(PRIOR, NOW, NEXT)
Our core school intent runs through every aspect of our teaching and learning. It is our philosophy and approach in every subject area. It is how we teach and learn. Every leader commits to this. But every subject must have its own Programme of Study - its own lines of progression for the knowledge and skills we plan to teach and therefore its own rationale/intent for what we teach and learn. This is the rationale for this ‘prior, now and next’ in our subject.
We have used the National Curriculum, and the extensive guidance of the non-statutory Model Music Curriculum (March 2021), to design and shape our study programme, the order in which we teach aspects of music and the way in which it progresses over seven years.
From the outset, we have determined to build our knowledge and skills progressively each year starting with a SINGING focus during Autumn Term across each year group in school. We then progress to focusing upon MUSICIANSHIP/PERFORMING during the Spring Term across school. Before what we would term a much more application and culmination based Summer Term which focuses upon COMPOSING.
Our focus upon LISTENING must run across each of these three stages and across each of the three terms each year. Simply, music cannot function without it. We aim to ensure that the music which children listen to is linked to the SINGING and MUSICIANSHIP/PERFOMING aspects as much as possible.
This method does not infer that each of these aspects will not appear outside of a specific term. There is an important continuous role for each of these aspects at all times, however our intention is to create a dominant aspect that drives the focus of our music teaching that builds logically across the year in a way which provides simplicity and clarity for our children and is therefore right for them and their growing musical confidence.
We believe COMPOSING is the highly creative process within the curriculum and that part of the SINGING and LISTENING aspects build the familarity, knowledge and confidence with differing styles and genres of music. They effectively inform the COMPOSING work as an element of their work.
Practice and repetition are important parts of our music delivery. Revisiting existing songs we have sung and listening to familiar music are important features that aid our children's knowledge retention and therefore we encourage the refreshing of existing work particularly at the outset of sessions. This is an essential feature of teaching music for our children.
We have chosen to focus upon Glockenspiels through school as our tuned percussion instrument. Whilst we have a range of other instruments and use these as we build our knowledge and experience, we feel having a lead, accessible and good quality percussion set that the children become familiar with over sustained time enhances the progress they can make, their own confidence and allows teachers to challenge children within lessons with greater confidence. Again, we feel this is right for our children and our methods.
The confident use of 'musical vocabulary' is an essential feature within our children's growth in knowledge. The MUSICIANSHI[P/PERFOMING aspect is our particular focus for this as we consider pitch, rhythm, pulse, beat etc... We aim for our children to read and follow musical notation and these are specific, planned features of our COMPOSING work across school.
Whilst it is reasonable to make links to the wider themes studied during a particular term and year group at Mayfield, it is not essential and should not be 'forced' or 'tenuous'. The music we use is guided by the core and additional repertoire of the National Curriculum and the Model Music Curriculum - although we are not limited to this and encourage our teachers to use this as a starting point. The LISTENING aspect within music is a targeted area within our CULTURAL CAPITAL strategy and therefore the choice of music we expose our children to within differing traditions and periods is essential and something which music leaders are particularly interested in to ensure opportunities are not missed.
It is our intention throughout to expose our children to a wide range of new and challenging music vocabulary. We feel it is important they hear, understand and become increasingly used to the extensive subject specific terms used and with careful explanation and regular use we feel that most of our children can, and should, add them to their repertoire over time.
Take a look at the Coverage Overview below and our Programme of Study: Progression & Milestones document. Download them at the base of the page and then take a look at the 'Implement & Impact' section of the website to see how we bring this to life with the help of our ‘how’ Classroom Craft philosophy.
MUSIC IMPLEMENTATION & MONITORING: SO MY CURRENT WORK IS.....
* I am currently monitoring the implementation of the Model Music Curriculum through observations and studying planning.
* I have been leading training and working with each year group as they refine and polish their latest termly plans.
As you can see, I am currently working hard on staff training, developing their subject knowledge and enhancing their planning in line with our subject intent. We are working hard to develop our singing and performing work within our Mayfield ABC Theatre and Studio and we are currently focusing hard upon our blossoming peripatetic keyboard and piano tuition across school - which are at record numbers after a recent recruitment and funding drive alongside the Paul Lee School of Music. I am particularly proud of the fact that school is sponsoring a number of our children in music tuition which would otherwise be out of their reach. Currently every child wanting to undertake tuition in school is doing so. Brilliant! No barriers to achievement!