Music
Intent
At Bewley Primary School, we celebrate the importance of music in education. By providing rich musical experiences, it is our intent that children will develop a life-long love of music.
We aim to give children at Bewley the opportunity to explore music, discover their musical talents, gain rich diverse experiences and opportunities to perform, listen to, compose and appreciate music.
Implement
Children experience music in so many different ways in their daily lives, whether listening to their favourite songs, singing, dancing, relaxing, exercising to music, watching a movie (music is used very creatively for special effects) or even being outside and hearing nature ‘sing.’ Music is everywhere and can help us all in so many ways – mentally, socially and physically.
- Whole school
- Classroom
- Extra-curricular Music
- Performances to the school and wider community
At Bewley, children experience music in many different ways:
1. Whole School Music
- Celebration assemblies provide an opportunity for children to perform a favourite song through music or dance and also play instruments
- In assembly we have the opportunity to share our learning and talents.
- KS1 and KS2 singing assemblies bring the children together to enjoy singing.
- Each age phase has an opportunity to perform in an annual production.
2. Classroom Music
- In EYFS, children sing through daily routines and music is a vital tool to aid learning and memory and begin to embed some key elements of music, most importantly a sense of pulse and rhythm.
- Topic work in every year group lends itself to particular opportunities for music making – listening to music from a particular historic era or different cultures around the world, learning about different instruments and how they work (Science/ D.T.), listening to, creating and performing music linked to a theme e.g. rivers, planets, seasons, special celebrations.
- Giving children opportunities to create and perform music develops self-confidence, team work and a real sense of achievement. Children may perform to their class, in assemblies and where opportunity arises, for parents (‘live’ or through recordings) and other community groups.
- Classroom music is supported with a progressive scheme, Charanga. For each half term, there is a song to listen to and appraise along with activities which develop the inter-related dimensions of music (see below) alongside instrumental and vocal skills. Y4 children learn the ukulele, Y6 learn the recorder, all other children learn the glockenspiel developing skill progressively though the school.
All children have access to a well sequenced music curriculum underpinned by progression of key skills and knowledge throughout the key stages.
This diagram shows the inter-related dimensions of music and the progression of skills:
Here is what each of the inter-related dimensions mean:
The Inter-related Dimensions of Music | |
Pulse | (duration) – steady beat |
Rhythm | (duration) – long and short sounds over a steady beat |
Pitch | High and low sounds |
Dynamics | Loud and quiet |
Tempo | Fast and slow |
Timbre | The character of a sound (e.g. different instrument sounds) |
Structure | How the sections of a song or piece are ordered |
Texture | Layers of sound, how thick or thin music is (number of sounds playing at once) |
Notation | How music is written down |
3. Extra-curricular Music Making at Bewley
Extra-curricular music has included:
- Weekly choir practice for Y3 – Y6 children
4. Sharing Music With The Community
Children love opportunities to share their talents and gain so much confidence and enjoyment through performing and seeing the happiness on the faces of their audience! Here are some of the opportunities children at Bewley have had:
- Children in EYFS to Y5 performing at Christmas to parents
- Choir singing at the Mayor’s Christmas Carol Service
- Choir singing at the ‘Stockton Sparkles’ event each Christmas
- Ukulele club performing with Hartlepool Ukulele Group for the school community
- Choir performing at ‘The Sage’, Gateshead for the annual ‘Big Sing’ event
- Years 5/6 performing at the end of year Leavers’ Presentation for school and parents
- Years 3/4 performing Spring term pantomime for school and parents
- Years 1/2 performing Christmas Nativity play
Bewley Music Making: Photo Gallery
Impact
Through the rich opportunities that our music curriculum offers, when children leave Bewley Primary School they will have a love of music and increased levels of self-confidence. They will be inspired by different genres of music, analyse music and compose a variety of music.
We clearly exemplify our school ethos of ‘bright, proud and successful’ through our music curriculum, the outcomes are evident in the wonderful performances the children are able to produce across school each year.