
Music


Music Intent Statement
“Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity.”
(National Curriculum)
At The John Moore Primary, we believe a music curriculum should inspire creativity and self-expression. It should provide opportunities for children to develop the key skills of listening, appraising, composing and performing while fostering a life-long love and appreciation of music. By exposing children to many diverse and meaningful musical experiences, and embedding music and singing into the everyday life of the school, we believe we can guide children to become confident and reflective musicians.
It has long been recognised that the skills developed through music education are transferable and beneficial to other areas of the curriculum and all walks of life. As a school, we understand the significance of music in developing key life skills such as confidence, perseverance, improved memory and awareness of and interaction with others. Vitally, music can also provide an emotional outlet for children, and the act of music-making and listening to music can be extremely beneficial for a child’s mental health and wellbeing.
At The John Moore, we strive to deliver engaging weekly music lessons in which skills are built upon each year until children are able to read and write their own compositions. We believe it is extremely important that children are exposed to good quality live and recorded music. We welcome musicians into our school to perform in assemblies and we also work alongside musicians on community projects such as Musicate. To further compliment this, children are able to learn about and listen to a wide range of musical styles from different periods of music history through our ‘Composer of the Week’ scheme.
Singing is important in our school. Children take part in weekly whole-school singing assemblies. They enjoy singing together and they learn songs from a range of different countries and cultures. Singing is also used in the classroom to support learning. We use the ‘Sing Up’ website for songs which link to different curriculum areas. Children enjoy performing in our various Christmas and end-of year productions and concerts. We believe that the preparation and rehearsals for these events encourage good teamwork and communication. The children are encouraged to set high expectations for themselves and then, in turn, celebrate their achievements and those of others.
Our school choir is attended by a large number of children. As a school, we believe that the provision of out-of-school musical experiences is key to igniting passion and excitement for musical performance as well as raising aspirations. Children in the choir have varied performance opportunities through our links with the local community (for example The Roses Theatre and Gloucestershire and Cheltenham Music Festivals.). We annually travel to Birmingham Arena to take part in the Young Voices Concert. The experience of performing in such a large venue can stay with a child forever.
We aim to provide our children with many opportunities to play instruments. We have a range of tuned and un tuned percussion instruments which children use for composing and performing activities in class and, in line with the government Wider Opportunities scheme, all children in Year 3 receive at least 10 weeks of whole-class recorder tuition. Further to this, we provide opportunities for children to learn a wide range of instruments (currently piano, flute, clarinet, drums, violin and guitar) with specialist peripatetic teachers. As a school, we recognise that the skills developed through learning an instrument such as patience, focus and determination are also valuable life skills.
Key Documents
Music National Curriculum Programme of Study
The John Moore Primary School Music Curriculum Overview
Knowledge Organisers (Currently being Developed)
EYFS Music Knowledge Organisers
Year 1 Music Knowledge Organisers
Year 2 Music Knowledge Organisers
Year 3 Music Knowledge Organisers
Year 4 Music Knowledge Organisers
Year 5 Music Knowledge Organisers
Year 6 Music Knowledge Organisers