Woodthorpe Church of England Primary School

At Woodthorpe C or E Primary School we understand that music can inspire and motivate children, and play an important role in their personal development. Music can help children develop a greater appreciation of the world we live in, by understanding different cultures and societies through music. We aim to develop children's self-confidence by encouraging them to take part in a variety of musical activities. Throughout our music curriculum , which adheres to the national curriculum documents, children have the opportunity to plan, compose, and perform as well as be inspired by, listen to, and appreciate a variety of musical forms. Children are encouraged to use terminology like volume, pitch, and rhythm in their classes in order to increase their awareness of technical vocabulary. At Woodthorpe C of E Primary School, we want every student to have equal access and opportunities to music. This will provide the foundations needed to support the transition into secondary school and beyond.

Curriculum Intent

At Woodthorpe, we have shaped our music curriculum to ensure it is fully inclusive to every child. Our aims are to fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for music and to teach a curriculum that enables children to develop a love of music and the skills to be able to: Perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians. Children will learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence. Children will understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

Our subject intent is to:

To make music an enjoyable, practical lesson that inspires children.
Encourage children to participate in their lessons by singing, playing instruments or appraising the music that they hear.
Develop the children’s ability to understand rhythm and follow a beat.
Learn about the structure and organisation of music.
Teach them to listen and to appreciate different forms of music.
Develop descriptive language skills in music lessons when learning about how music can represent different feelings, emotions and narratives.
Teach technical vocabulary such as volume, pitch, beat and rhythm and encourage children to discuss music using these terms.
Provide opportunity to play tuned and un-tuned percussion instruments.

To read more on our Intent, Implementation and Impact statements, please view our 3I's document below:

Woodthorpe C of E Primary School Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement

Curriculum Coverage

In our curriculum, we aspire to cover a vast variety of significant musicians to enrich the children's experience at school modern and classical . We provide lessons though Charanga online, which provides teachers a fully adaptable scheme of all experience levels and we take pride in ensuring the responsibility of teaching music is a joyful and rewarding experience for everyone. Charanga strives to provide schools with a musical journey that is about playing and creating music, not reading about other people doing it. We base our musician studies on those that relate to the music topic we are following that half term, alongside relevant themes such as Black History Month or World Book Day. Within Reception/EYFS, Music is taught using Cornerstones scheme throughout different topics each half term.

Please read the overview below of our Charanga music scheme topic, that coincide with the relevant musician studies and show any music opportunities within the year – These will be updated when necessary to show new opportunities that we are providing.

Summary of Music at Woodthorpe Primary

In order to teach music effectively, teachers design their lessons based on our Skills and Progression grids, which were created by the staff at our school. We also, as teachers, use a core knowledge grid, which is the sticky knowledge that we strive for all pupils to confidently know in their year group and retain throughout their time at Woodthorpe. Teachers and staff must follow the the Music Policy which is reviewed termly by the Subject Leader.

Please click on the links below to view any of the progression documents mentioned.

Core Knowledge Grid for Music at Woodthorpe

Music Knowledge and Skills Progression at Woodthorpe

Music Policy

As as school we are always changing and adapting to the needs of the school, children and community. Throughout the year, when other opportunities arrive inside and outside of school, we create action plans for our subject to make sure we are adapting and growing accordingly. In order to do this, subject leaders create action plans for their subject to outline target for development.

Throughout school, we offer many opportunities for the children to express their music love and talent through afterschool clubs and music lessons themselves. Each term we visit St John's church to participate in church services such as Harvest, Christingle and Easter where we sing a variety of songs as a whole school, key stages or classes. Within a school week, we meet as a whole school during assemblies where we sing songs and perform a variety of different songs especially for FischyMusic.

We provide children in Years 2- 6 an opportunity to be a part of the school choir, where we learn songs and dances to perform in the Young Voices Choir at Sheffield Utilita Arena every year. The Young Voices experience is not simply a children’s choir concert, these are the largest children’s choir concerts in the world. Choirs will perform alongside 5,000-8,000 other children as a single choir to capacity audiences of family and friends.

During the week, we have a visit from Rocksteady which is where children are given the opportunity to become part of a band. For 30 minutes children are taught by a trained musician who teaches them how to play a variety of instruments which include: drums, guitar, keyboard and even singing. Rocksteady offer the opportunity to perform, With termly concerts at school assemblies, they are able to show off their progress to friends, teachers and parents with the rest of their band. If you would like any extra information about Rocksteady or would like to sign up please contact the school office.

As part of their music lessons, Y6 and Y3 are conducting a 15-week sequence of learning to play in a Samba band and Djembe Drums from the Derbyshire Music Partnership. This included learning how to read music and play a variety of songs on lots of percussion instruments. This is completed in year groups and will be shared throughout the year. The children get the opportunity to learn a new skill that could influence a new hobby for outside of school. Children are able to perform what they have been learning to parents in concerts throughout the year.