At St Helen’s we intend to give children a solid foundation in musical skills and encourage them to foster a love of music. During their music lessons and other school experiences, children will engage in a range of musical activities. This will include providing opportunities for participating in singing, playing tuned and untuned percussion, composing, performing and listening to/ appraising live and recorded music.

In order to implement this, the children will study the key aspects of pulse, rhythm, melody, pitch and dynamics, with the expectation that children are taught and use the correct terminology. As the children progress into Key Stage 2, this will also include using musical notation. In order to achieve this, teachers will plan sequences of lessons carefully building on what the children have learnt and experienced to ensure progression of musical learning. The children will have opportunities to refine and link their skills using their voice and a range of instruments during their time at St Helens. This could include untuned percussion, African Drums, Ukuleles, Recorders and Glockenspiels.

In addition to this, regular music assemblies take place to teach children how to sing with a sense of pitch and melody as a Key Stage and/or whole school. It is also an opportunity for the whole school community to share a range of musical genres. They are taught how to warm up their voices and build up a repertoire of songs.

Children also have an additional opportunity to learn to play a range of musical instruments with professional teachers through private peripatetic music lessons through https://www.ascamusic.org.uk/ We celebrate their achievements in a whole school assembly at the end of the year. We also welcome visitors into school whenever possible so the children can listen to and participate in live music.

The impact of this will be engaged and inspired pupils developing a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose and to listen to a range of musical styles.

Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity (National Curriculum 2014)

Long Term Plan

At St Helen’s, we use Sing Up’s music curriculum, with a scheme of work for each year group from EYFS to Year 6  It is a complete and progressive library of resources that meets the requirements of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (Expressive Arts), the National Curriculum for Music, and suggested approaches of the Model Music Curriculum [Singing, Listening, Composing, Performance/lnstrumental Performance).

Covering a broad and diverse range of repertoire, approaches, and musical traditions, Sing Up Music supports a fully-integrated approach to musical development, connecting the interrelated strands of singing, playing. improvising, composing, listening, and appraising.