Intent 

At Co-op Academy Nightingale we are covering the full National Curriculum in Music. We study Music through 3 main concepts:

• • Play and Perform – From the outset our pupils will be provided the opportunity to build on the knowledge that songs have a pulse and can be followed by our bodies and with instruments. They will develop the skill of performing music through song as part of a group through to the opportunity to perform solo. They will have the opportunity to experiment, explore and develop increased skill with musical instruments including learning the violin in KS2. 
  • Composition – Our pupils will learn to develop and follow rhythm is Reception through to creating and improvising melodic and rhythmic phrases as part of a group in Year 6. Pupils will know how to use and understand staff and other musical notations by the end of Year.
  • Music Appreciation and Listening – Our pupils will learn to listen attentively to music, songs and rhymes in Reception through being able to describe, compare and evaluate different types of music using a range of musical vocabulary including the interrelated dimensions of music by the end of Year 6. They will Appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians.

Music is effectively planned and sequenced to maximise children’s knowledge and skills to embed in their long term memory. We will teach children powerful, culturally rich knowledge in a way that ensures they are most likely to remember and apply these skills to the circumstances of their lives. The Music curriculum is successfully adapted to meet the needs of all children by ensuring practical, immersive and hands-on teaching that promotes independence and fluency.
 

Implementation

We deliver our Music curriculum through projects and the online software ‘Curriculum Maestro’ from Cornerstones to support our sequential planning and teacher subject knowledge.

Music is taught through projects from Reception – Year 6 in our school. Through the projects, the curriculum for history, geography, art & design, design & technology and music are delivered to all pupils. Projects can range to a half term in length (6 weeks) to 8-9 weeks depending on the amount of knowledge that must be covered and consolidated before moving onto the next. Every project has a driver subject that will remain the constant focus throughout. In Reception, the projects focus on an area of learning and development from Development Matters’. In Reception the children will explore songs and pulse that can be followed using their bodies or percussion instruments. They will use their voice to sing songs and explore how to make loud and soft sounds with their voice. In KS1 different instruments will be used to represent other sounds, animals or objects. This is done by changing the pitch (high or low), rhythm (simple or complex), or dynamics (loud or soft). In the project, Beat Bang Boogie In year Two the children will create textured music and explore the layering of sound. In Key Stage Two our children will have the opportunity  to listen to a range of high quality, live and recorded music from different traditions, composers and musicians and begin to discuss their differences and how music may have changed over time. In a Child’s War they will be provided the chance to  explore a musical score and know that it contains all the information musicians need to rehearse and perform a piece of music, including separate lines for each instrument or voice part. Throughout all year groups, there is a focus on key vocabulary that is revisited throughout different year groups. This is displayed in the classrooms as well as taught explicitly to all pupils during music lessons. 

On our journey on implementing our music curriculum, we have developed detailed project overviews that support the teachers in planning sequentially and knowing the key knowledge, skills and vocabulary that the children must know by the end of the project. The Rosenshine Principles are a key part of our planning for projects ensuring that, for example, previously taught knowledge is continually reviewed and recapped so that links can be made to new knowledge. Every project from Reception to Year 6 begins with a memorable experience. This may include an external educational visit, inviting a guest into school or a debate within the classroom. The focus of this is to identify the previous knowledge of the pupils and make immediate links to other music driver projects taught in previous years. Every project finishes with an innovate week. Throughout this week the pupils will create something – a concert, a play, an informative magazine – that demonstrates the knowledge that they have acquired from the previous week’s teaching. 

To ensure the quality music teaching is at it’s best at Co-op Academy Nightingale, moderation of workbooks, recordings of performances, lesson visits and pupil voice learning parties take place regularly throughout each half term. This is led by our curriculum team, particularly our music subject leader, and overseen by SLT.
 

Impact

At Nightingale our children will leave us having had a wide and varied exposure to our 3 strands of music pedagogy. They will have played with and performed on a variety of instruments as well as developed their skills in performance, they will have explored different ways to play and selected ones they enjoy the most. They will also have spent time developing their composition skills ensuring they can follow rhythms and gone from Reception to Year 6 being able to understand, improvise and repeat rhythmic phrases and melodies including learning the violin where they will have begun to understand musical notation.

The skill and knowledge they will acquire in music will result in our children having an appreciation for music that will support and inform further study into Secondary school and beyond. All of our children, whatever their starting point, will have had the opportunity to enjoy music in a variety of forms so that they can enjoy the joy that music can bring into their wider lives.