Music at St. Mary’s 2022/2023
Intent Statement
Through the study of music, St. Mary’s children will understand that music is a form of expression that can represent different feeling emotions and narratives. They will learn that music is universal and has no boundaries. St. Mary’s children will understand that music is deeply rooted in cultural identity; we will encourage them to listen and to appreciate all different forms of music.
Rationale and our learning sequence
The National Curriculum for England states the following:
“Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high-quality music education should 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. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon.”
At St. Mary’s we have developed our music Curriculum to ensure that at all stages of their learning journey our children are equipped with the following skills and develop appreciation of music:
- Through the principles of the Kodaly philosophy of music teaching children develop an inner sense of pulse, pitch and rhythm which develops their musical literacy, exploration, improvisation, composition, listening, appraising and performance
- Children develop a love of singing and performance and understand how music is created, produced, communicated and how it supports and enriches cultural diversity and heritage
This learning is enriched by additional opportunities and activities such as the year 3 Strings Project where all children have the opportunity to learn a string instrument for the academic year. Through our partnership with the Bromley Youth Music Trust children are able to access a wide range of instrumental tuition including, brass, woodwind and string instruments. Piano and singing lessons are also available for children as extra-curricular activities. At all points through their learning journey children engage in performance from Nativity plays, strings concerts, Young Voices , the year 5 Passion Play and the year 6 production. Our music curriculum overview tracks the sequence of learning for our children and seeks to build on prior learning at all stages of the learning journey so that children are able to refer to prior learning experiences when accessing new learning and deepening skills, musical appreciation and understanding over time.