“Music education can help spark a child’s imagination or ignite a lifetime of passion. When you provide a child with new worlds to explore and challenges to tackle, the possibilities are endless. Music education should not be a privilege for a lucky few, it should be part of every child’s world of possibility.” – Hilary Clinton

Purpose

At Etruscan, we engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. We support pupils to be able to compose their own music and listen to and develop a critical appreciation of a wide variety of different types of music from different times and cultures.

Rationale

Music teaching starts in the Early Years Foundation Stage where Nursery participate in ‘Sound Pots’. This supports children’s development of language, fine motor and listening skills through musical play. Children in Reception use music to support their learning through song of the week’, making music through sound instruments and using rhymes in phonics. Etruscan also has the City Music School delivering music lessons weekly to pupils in Year 1 to Year 4. Year 5 and 6 use Charanga as the vehicle to teach music. Through this music curriculum, children develop their knowledge of pitch and vocal control through singing practice, use body percussion (clapping, tapping) to keep a steady beat and learn to play tuned and untuned instruments, composing their own music and also learning to read and follow written music. In Year 4 children learn to play the ukulele. When children are confident, they perform their music to others. Children listen to and review the music of others, including music from different genres and composers. This broadens their musical experience and knowledge.

Characteristics of a Musician

• Make and perform their own music
• Develop a good range of technical musical skills
• Appreciate different musical traditions and genres, including music from other times and cultures.
• Discuss music using the correct vocabulary, for example: being able to identify different instruments being played in a piece of music
• Enjoy joining in with a diverse range of musical activities

Applying Music within other subjects

• In our English lessons we listen, understand and respond to others, pupils should be taught to sustain concentration and identify and respond to sound patterns in language (for example, alliteration, rhyme and word play).
• In our maths lessons we demonstrate skills taught within focused maths lessons such as counting beats per bar and understanding how many beats each note value is worth.
• Particularly, in our PE dance lessons, knowledge of beat and rhythm supports children to create dance moves. These lessons also deepen our exploration of different musical genres.
• Social, Emotional, Moral and Cultural values are embedded by making music in groups. This way we learn to work effectively with others and we learn the importance of good working relationships. By making and performing music, this allows us to build self-confidence.

Inclusion

All children are involved in our music lessons. The creative freedom allows all of our children to develop their creativity and independence, especially when composing. Providing a variety of sensory experiences from a range of instruments also supports exploration and creation of music. We expect all children to make good progress from their different starting points.