Music
Music is at the very heart of life at Weald Rise. It is our belief that music is a universal language which can play a huge role in the emotional and analytical development of every child.
A high- quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement.
All children across the school participate in performing, creating and responding to music so that by the end of Year 6, pupils emerge as competent, well-rounded musicians.
Our music curriculum is delivered by a specialist music teacher, providing each child with the opportunity for a practical hands-on experience of using a wide variety of classroom instruments. Performance, composition and singing are also at the heart of our curriculum celebrating and using ideas from many different styles of music.
Our intention is to make music fun whilst children learn skills that can have a positive impact on the whole of the curriculum including co-operation, listening and building confidence.
Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop 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 with discrimination to the best in the musical canon.
Curriculum Overview
At Weald Rise we follow the National Curriculum performing, listening and appraising and composing and notating music.
EYFS
- Keeping a pulse
- Listening and responding to music
- Singing/finding our voices
- Moving to music
- Instrumental skills – handling small hand percussion
- Nurturing enjoyment, confidence, creativity and social and emotional development
Year 1
Autumn
- Exploring sounds around us-making and combining sounds
- Using voice and body sounds in singing.
- Listening to a range of music which imitates real sounds and how composers use this
- Building up a knowledge of the variety of ways instruments can be used
Spring
- Making and playing long and short sounds
- Identifying duration (long and short) in music
- Using simple notation
- Moving and using gesture to show long and short
Summer
- Recognising and maintaining a steady beat
- Recognising and demonstrating the difference between rhythm and pulse
- Developing ability to maintain own part vocally or with instruments
- Creating sound sequences and structuring musical patterns
Year 2
Autumn
- Developing a musical vocabulary to describe how sounds are made and changed
- Organising sounds into a simple structure to create own music
- Reading and creating graphic notation
- Creating soundscapes with an increasing variety of classroom percussion
Spring
- Exploring pitch (high and low)vocally
- Recognising how pitch is shown with notation
- Identifying pitch in music heard and how sound moves up and down in different ways
- Using pitched percussion (xylophones and glockenspiels)
Summer
- Listen to music from composers inspired by weather
- Combining sounds to compose own weather music
- Increasing song repertoire and vocal sounds to create weather soundscapes
- Developing ensemble (working with and listening to others)
Year 3
Autumn
- Exploring rhythm patterns, structures and musical form
- Reading and writing rhythmic notation (graphic and standard)
- Recognising repeating patterns in music and using in own work
- Maintaining own rhythm part whilst aware of others
Spring
- Increasing song repertoire within a theme of animal music
- Organising sounds to create music to describe animals and their habitats
- Listening to music from a range of composers to inspire own compositions
- Developing awareness of the effect of own music on an audience and how to evaluate and improve ideas
Summer
- Exploring accompaniments and songs written for a purpose
- Using a range of instruments to accompany others singing
- Extending song repertoire and song writing
Year 4
Autumn
- Compositional work using art as a stimulus
- Creating art from music listened to
- Exploring a range of graphic notation and how to combine ideas into a score
- Understanding the connections between art and music and adopting ideas from well-known composers
- Evaluating the effect of own music on an audience and develop vocabulary to describe and explain how to improve
- Using the musical elements to change how instruments can be used to create effects
Spring
- Understanding the role of the pentatonic scale in folk music
- Using pentatonic notes on pitched percussion to create own dragon songs
- Small group compositions with awareness of form and structure
Summer
- Singing playing and creating playground songs and chants
- Exploring musical games from the past and from different cultures
- Building song repertoire including actions and rhymes
Year 5
Autumn
- Exploring music of the galaxy adopting techniques used by composers in own work
- Composing using graphic scores, building layers of sound, starts and stops and volume
- Understand how sound is made and use in own work (fade and decay)
Spring
- Creating music to represent different landscapes and habitats using instruments and vocal sounds
- Highlighting environmental issues through song writing
Summer
- Using poetry and sound words to create own music
- Structuring words and phrases into rhythm pieces
- Listening to music of composers inspired by poetry or use of words in their music
- Explore how composers create music to describe a familiar place
Year 6
Autumn
- Using film scores and sounds effects to plan and create own music using graphic notation
- Explore techniques of Foleying and Mickey Mousing to add own sound effects
- Understand how instruments can be played to create sound effects
- Understand how incidental music can create and change atmosphere
Spring
- Exploring the importance of music in different cultures
- Adopting styles and rhythms from different genres in own work
- Layering more complex syncopated rhythms, using call and response
- Using and learning about instruments particular to different parts of the world
- Increasing song repertoire with material from different parts of the world
Summer
- Recognising the importance of singing and performance in society
- Write own songs, anthem and raps
- Select instruments, backing tracks to accompany own material and consider how to change performance for audience
