Music

What does Music look like in Peaslake Free School?

 

At Peaslake School we want all children to develop a life-long love of music and of learning music. Children will be engaged and inspired to be ambitious in their performing and show creativity in their improvisation and compositions. The spiral curriculum is incrementally sequenced so that knowledge and skills build on previous learning and fundamental ideas are repeatedly revisited.  Music at Peaslake School offers all children opportunities for listening and appraising, performing, improvising and composing. Music is a subject that by its very nature is already differentiated with children all playing different parts in for example a whole class ensemble. We want all children to be able to express their creativity and enjoy making music together, using different instruments, primarily their voice. We believe that participation in musical learning will have a direct impact on their well-being. Children will be able to express their thoughts and feelings and increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. 

 

In EYFS music is an integral part of the children’s learning journey. Rhyme and rhythm are experienced during the learning of phonics, handwriting and maths. A wide range of songs and rhymes are used daily to embed learning and develop musical awareness.  Musical creativity is encouraged by supporting children’s curiosity, exploration and play. Through music, pupils are given the opportunity to explore and share their thoughts, ideas and feelings.

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Key Objectives for KS1

• Use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes

• Play tuned and un-tuned instruments musically

• Listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music

• Experiment with, create, select and combine sounds.

 

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All children at Peaslake School learn music using a Kodaly approach of teaching music through singing.

Key Principles of a Kodaly Musical Education

• The voice is seen as the first instrument – everyone has a voice. It is direct experience.

• Develop the inner hearing.

• Progress methodically in small incremental steps.

• Teach the element unconsciously first, and only bring to the conscious when the element is firmly established.

 

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Opportunities for Performance

• Harvest Festival

• Nativity

• Mothers’ Day Celebration

• Leavers’ Celebration

 

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What Music looks like in Lessons

• All children engaged in their learning

• Learning will build on previous knowledge

• singing expressively

• Key vocabulary taught

• practical and interactive

• chances to rehearse and perform

• chances to improvise and compose

• opportunities to play tuned and untuned instruments

• discussions about different genres of music

• developing an understanding of the history of music

 

What Music in 2024 - 25 has Looked Like Outside of Lessons

• Weekly singing assemblies

• Singing opportunities in special assemblies

 

Formative Assessment- highest impact

• Verbal Feedback – the vast majority of feedback is in conversation with the pupil at the time of learning.

 

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Summative Assessment​

• Teacher to monitor progress at the end of the academic year, so that assessment does not drive the curriculum.

• Careful observation in whole class music activities to assess skills eg who can clap in time

 

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The key purpose of music education at Peaslake is for pupils to make more music, think more musically and consequently become more musical. This involves the incremental development within three interrelated pillars.

Pillars of Progression:

three inter-dependent pillars of progression: technical, constructive and expressive.

 

Technical skill: incrementally building the technique of singing (posture, control, range) and playing instruments (hand and body control, musical control of sound)

 

Constructive skill: deepening the knowledge of how the interrelated dimensions of music* come together and are used effectively in the building blocks of composition.

 

*pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure

 

Expressive skill: applying technical and constructive knowledge with increasing sophistication to give personal musical meaning. Knowing the components of music work together in an inter-related way to give musical expression and showing that through composition or performance.

 

 

In music, we recognise that consolidation happens over time and the quality of music is determined by all aspects of music, not just technical skills.