Intent

Our Music curriculum aims to engage and inspire our children to develop a life-long love of music and their talent as musicians, whilst increasing their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement.

Children have the opportunity to sing, play, create, perform and evaluate, both individually and collaboratively across a global range of genres, styles, historical periods including the works of the great composers and musicians. Children learn to understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the interrelated dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notation. Throughout the year there are a wide range of opportunities for the children to perform on a wider scale, from singing in our 90 voice choir at a wide variety of events, guitar performance evenings, Mass, collective worship, musical talent evenings and sharing their musical talents in assemblies. Music is an integral part of our everyday learning, prayer and celebration at Holy Family, where we encourage freedom of creativity and self expression and the joy that comes from music in so many different contexts.

Implementation

Our high quality music education, taught weekly by a specialist music teacher is based on a progressive sequence of musical skills that are developed across the school. We use the Charanga music scheme to help deliver our music curriculum and the lessons are devised into half termly units, with core themes that are explored and where possible links made with the Creative Curriculum topics. This is also enhanced with whole school music appreciations of composers, musicians and cultures.

In EYFS, children explore sounds and how to change them through the use of instruments, including their voices. Children are provided with opportunities to compose, perform and discuss music from the world around them. Through stories, poems and songs children also explore rhyme and rhythm. 

In KS1 and KS2 music is taught for one lesson a week, together with 30 minutes a week dedicated to singing practice with a specialist singing teacher. Within each unit, the children firstly learn the song or piece, and then subsequent lessons introduce them to other pieces within the same genre and develop skills of musical appreciation, composing, improvising and performing.

In addition to the core music curriculum, we offer violin, cello, ukulele, guitar and piano lessons and a range of music clubs including ukulele and Music Explorers and the choir which currently has 90 children performing. in it.