Music Statement of Intent

Our music curriculum aims to provide all pupils with a high quality music education which engages and inspires children to develop a life-long love of music, increases their self-confidence, creativity, and imagination, and provides opportunities for self-expression and a sense of personal achievement . We offer opportunities for children to develop their talents in all aspects of music within the curriculum and beyond, including composition, singing and appreciation.

   Music is a unique way of communicating that can inspire and motivate children. It is a vehicle for personal expression, and it can play an important role in the personal development of people. Music reflects the culture and society that we live in, and so the teaching and learning of music enables children to learn more about the world we live in. Music plays an important role in helping children to feel like part of a community. We provide opportunities for all children to create, play, perform, and enjoy music, to develop their skills, to appreciate a wide variety of musical forms, and begin to make judgements about the quality of music.

   We strongly believe in the power of live music and the children have experienced the electricity of visiting performing artists such as the Grand Union Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Goldfield Ensemble, The Young 'Uns, a brilliant a capella folk group. We also try to make connections with other schools to join forces such as Benjamin Britten's Friday Afternoons Project, Sing for Your School, Beowulf with Armenico Consort and Oliver Phelps (George Weasley for Harry Potter) and even being involved in a project with children in France, performing Britten's Noyes Fludde.

   All children learn to play percussion instruments, both tuned and untuned and in Y4-6, they will also get the chance to learn ukulele and steel pans. Our school has been recognised by Music Mark for its commitment to a broad and balanced curriculum and the value we place on music.

The music curriculum ensures students sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. This is embedded in classroom activities as well as weekly singing assemblies, various concerts and performances, the learning of instruments, and the joining of musical ensembles. A constantly revised plan for listening to and discussing music in and out of assembly allows a wide range of music from different cultures and history to be delivered to all children. The elements of music are taught in classroom lessons linked to class topics so that children are able to use the language of music to discuss it, and understand how it is made, played, appreciated and analysed and link what they are learning to the world in which they live. They learn how to devise and read their own musical scores and basic music notation.

There are opportunities for all children  to develop their love of music outside the classroom also through instrumental tuition (we offer lessons in piano, drums, trumpet, violin, saxophone, clarinet and guitar); there are 3 recorder groups to suit all abilities; an instrumental ensemble which develops and improves children’s performance in their chosen instrument in a fun, safe and sociable environment; a Ukulele club; and a choir (named Humming & Notes), who as well as singing in the local community (community centres and fetes) and in our variety of school performances, have also sung further afield from churches in surrounding villages, most recently performing a World Premiere of a piece written especially for them which had to be postponed several times due to the pandemic, to Cambridge Corn Exchange, West Road, Birmingham Symphony Hall and Saffron Hall. Humming & Notes were lucky enough to be asked to sing in Carmina Burana at the iconic venue of The Royal Albert Hall in 2016 and in July 2021 even after 18 months of a pandemic, singing in Latin, German as well as English. We have been asked back to sing in July 2024. Most recently, the choir returned to the RAH to sing as part of a large children's choir at the premiere of the oratorio It Takes A City in May 2022, just a selection of the highlights of this very young choir.