At St Stephen’s, music is highly valued. We believe music is a unique way of communicating that can inspire and motivate children; it is a vehicle for personal expression playing an important part in the personal development of people. Music reflects the culture and society we live in, and so the teaching and learning of music enable children to better understand the world that they live in. It also plays an important part in helping children to feel part of a community. We provide a range of opportunities for all children to create, play, perform and enjoy music, to develop the skills to appreciate a wide variety of musical forms, and to begin to make judgements about the quality of music.

At  St Stephen’s School, we make music an enjoyable experience. We encourage children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which we aim to build up the confidence of all children.

Intent:

Music is integral to the life of a St Stephen’s child. We aim to provide a vibrant musical experience which engages and inspires pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as a musicians  - increasing their confidence, creativity and sense of achievement.

Through our music curriculum pupils will:

• Be aware of, understand and respond appropriately to the rich variety of sounds within and beyond their environment and particularly to those organised arrangements of sounds called music
• Develop the skills to appreciate a wide variety of musical forms;
• Acquire musical skills and understanding of musical concepts through primarily active listening then experimenting, performing, composing and improvising
• Enable children to make judgements about the quality of music.
• Develop their capacity to express ideas and feelings through the medium of sound.
• Further express and challenge themselves as they engage in and communicate their love and enjoyment for music in the range of musical contexts made available to them

Implementation:

At St Stephen’s, we deliver a clear and comprehensive scheme of work in line with the National Curriculum through Music Express. This is supplemented with some aspects from the BBC Ten pieces scheme alongside additional resources compiled by the subject leader and in conjunction with staff and pupils, enabling the children to have broad experience of musical genre and composers.

Music Express is a scheme of work, and alongside additional material,  is a scheme of work which offers a topic-based approach to support children’s learning in music. A steady progression plan has been built into Music Express, both within each year and from one year to the next, ensuring consistent musical development. By using Music Express as the basis of a scheme of work, we can ensure that they are fulfilling the aims for musical learning stated in the National Curriculum. Music Express includes  a range of music styles and genres from different times and places. These are explored through the language of music via active listening, performing and composing activities, which enable understanding of the context and genre.  Music Express provides a classroom-based, participatory and inclusive approach to music learning. Throughout the scheme, children are actively involved in using and developing their singing voices, using body percussion and whole-body actions, and learning to handle and play classroom instruments effectively to create and express their own and others’ music.Through a range of whole class, group and individual activities, children have opportunities to explore sounds, listen actively, compose and perform  and given the chance for collaboration through composition.

Instrumental Tuition/ Enrichment

During music lessons, children are given opportunities to learn music specific vocabulary in a meaningful context with further opportunities to apply skills within composition and improvisatory work and when listening to and appraising music.

To further enrich our provision, and to engage, inspire and motivate our pupils, we have established good links with the borough’s music hub and other music organisations. This provides further access to: instrumental tuition; ensemble and performance opportunities and music enrichment activities. As well as benefiting from the Hub’s instrumental  programme, all children from Years 1- 6 receive instrumental tuition in the recorder which is built into the music curriculum.  

We build into our termly music programme, a range of performance opportunities (within and outside of school ) in which children can share and celebrate musical achievement.

Assessment

We assess through teacher assessment, pictures and video evidence - capturing each child’s progress throughout the year.

Our Music Curriculum

Impact:

As pupils benefit from an engaging and inspiring high-quality music education, we envisage an increase in self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they will develop a growing musical vocabulary that allows them to critically engage with music. We see our pupils becoming evermore competent music makers in their responses to musical sounds,  and in their ability to draw upon learning to inform their recording of sounds, their compositions,   improvisations and performance.  Teaching and learning of music is a reflective process. Our children will therefore be effective assessors of their learning, their performance and that of their peers - celebrating their success and skills with their peers and wider audiences. They will be able to express and challenge themselves as they engage in and communicate their love and enjoyment for music and music making in a range of contexts.

Musical Opportunities:

As well as class based music lessons,  here are some of the opportunities we offer our children:

Instrumental tuition in the following instruments:

• Piano
• Guitar
• Flute
• Clarinet
• Violin
• Percussion
• Recorder

Performance Opportunities:

Children are given the opportunity to share their music in a variety of settings

• School showcases
• Collective Worship
• Borough events
• Within the community

Music Clubs:

• Ensemble
• Singing Clubs for KS1 and KS2
• Music Making ( composition,  song writing, music appreciation)
• Instrument specific ensembles ( eg woodwind, guitar, rock/pop band)

Other opportunities include:

• Visiting musicians

• Trips to concerts

• Music Festival Week (music talent shows, music workshops led by visiting musicians, etc)

Accessing Music Activities and Opportunities Beyond St Stephen's

Music Websites

Be a Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann or an Ed Sheehan and try your hand  at  creating some music for yourself and others to enjoy by clicking on the links below! 

Songs to learn

During the lockdown, songs will be posted for you to learn. 'Singup' provide resources to help you learn the song as well as the backing track to sing along to -  so why not have a go!