Our music curriculum at Ascot Road ensures children sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate continually

Music is a skilled  based subject and must be engaging and taught practically. Our curriculum at Ascot Road ensures children sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate continually. This is embedded in weekly classroom lessons, as well as the ongoing enriched curriculum activities such as musical learning walks outside the classroom, listening to live music and music from other cultures and countries. Learning knowledge of other subjects through song, listening to music for pleasure, singing assemblies, various concerts and performances,  as well as the learning of instruments. 

Our music scheme is guided by the Model Music Curriculum through the Charanga music scheme as a tool to create a curriculum that is tailored to suit the needs of our children.  A range of vocabulary skills and knowledge is embedded throughout the lessons. Children can articulate what they are learning and can use technical vocabulary with confidence. Children are able to talk and evaluate each other's  work, offering their opinion and expressing their views. A clear progression of skills is taught, recorded through  displays, recorded in music floor books and end of topic assessment.

Music in Key Stage 1:

In Year 1 and 2 children use their voices  expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes. They learn to sing, rap, rhyme, and chant and use spoken words.  All of the children are taught to demonstrate good singing posture and sing songs from memory. The children use instruments when composing a tune alongside a song they are learning. Year 1 and 2 develop the ability to listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality pieces of music. They are encouraged and supported to experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music. 

Year 2 children take part in the Christmas choir, learning songs then performing to parents and school singing in unison. The children are taught to move confidently to a steady beat. Add actions to a song and with more pitching accuracy.  They develop a love of music which enables the children to talk about feelings created by the music/song, beginning  to understand where the music fits in the world. Children are beginning to talk about and understand the style of the music. Children get to know the meaning of dynamics (loud/quiet) and tempo (fast/slow), and be able to demonstrate these when singing by responding to (a) the leader's directions and (b) visual symbols (e.g. crescendo, decrescendo, and pause).

Music in Lower Key Stage 2

In year 3 and 4 children play and perform in solo and group contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression. They are given the skills to Improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using instrument ie. Gloks, class sets of percussion instruments or percussion and voice.  The children sing as part of a choir, they sing a widening range of songs in unison exploring and learning a variety of styles and structures. The children can demonstrate good singing posture when performing actions confidently and in time to a range of action songs.  In year 3 and year 4 they are learning songs from memory and/or from notation. Children progress with the skills for singing with an awareness of how to follow the beat/ tempo and pitch.  The children are able to listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory.  The children are encouraged to talk about the different styles of singing used for different styles of song. Talk about how the songs and their styles connect to the world. They appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians.  The children are  developing   an understanding of the history of music.

Music in Upper Key Stage 2

In year 5 and year 6 children can play and perform in solo and in group contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression. They have access to a wide range of musical instruments, gloks, djembe drums and a class set of percussion instruments.  Year 5 and Year 6 can Improvise and compose music for a range of purposes.  They are able to listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory.  They explore a wide range of musical styles through jazz, modern, pop etc introducing the children to musicians and composers from all over the world. The children show a love of singing expressively with attention to dynamics and articulation, developing confidence as a soloist or group performance. They can talk about the different styles of singing used for different styles of song, expressing an opinion.  The children can talk confidently about how connected they feel to the music and how it relates to the modern world, developing an understanding of the history of music.  In year 6 they put together a production for parents and peers. 

Upon leaving Ascot Road School, children will have acquired a foundational understanding and appreciation of music, encompassing both practical skills and conceptual knowledge. Specifically, they will have developed the skills and confidence through:

Singing/ Composing: They will be able to sing in time with others and feel a pulse, moving to music rhythmically and enjoying this experience. Children will have an understanding of notation and will be able to play instruments in an organised way as part of a group. At Ascot Road Primary School children are also provided with opportunities beyond the National Curriculum to further enrich their experience and skill levels.

Evaluating: Children will have had the opportunity to discuss and share their own thoughts, opinions and ideas, acknowledging and respecting the variety of everyone’s unique take on music. They will be able to dissect music with varying levels of ability and comprehend its parts, using musical language to describe and analyse. 

Performing: These include having visitors with musical talent, listening to visiting bands/groups of live music, school productions, external peripatetic music teachers teaching piano and guitar. Students share learning, performing in whole school assemblies. External musical interests and talents are also encouraged with outside musicians and links with secondary schools within the Trust. Musical talents are showcased in class and assembly developing pride in their own personal achievements.

Children perform songs, rhymes, poems and stories with others,  when they are ready they try to move in time with music. They are learning to sing or sing along with nursery rhymes and action songs, beginning to listen and responding to different styles of music.  They are supported to improvise leading to playing classroom instruments, confidently sharing and performing the learning that has taken place.

Children will start their music learning journey with four steps. Listening and responding to a different style of music each week/step. The children explore and create - initially using voices only but building to using classroom instruments too. They Sing nursery rhymes and action songs linked with singing whilst playing. Then children are supported to share and perform.

Children are supported through the use of visual aids, pictorial tools and 1:1 support staff to enable children to access music sessions alongside their peers, in addition to this small groups sessions are created to give additional music access. Every action is taken to ensure equity of access to all of our children, as we recognise how music enriches and is an important platform for children’s learning and language development. 

Music enables children to develop an understanding of culture and history, both in relation to children individually as well as in relation to other cultures from around the world. Children are able to enjoy music in as many ways as they choose – either as listener, creator or performer appreciating the positive impact that music has on their health and well-being.