Music
At Shaw Cross we understand that music is a universal language that can join people and communities together and facilitates creativity for all involved. In providing a high quality music education we aim to inspire our children to develop a love of music, explore their potential as musicians and develop their self-confidence and creativity. Our provision is such that children are encouraged to gain a sense of achievement in the musical journey they make, and pride in being able to share their work though co-operating with their peers, and through performance to a range of audiences.
In foundation stage music forms part of the expressive arts curriculum, in exploring and using materials and media, and in being imaginative. Children have many opportunity to join in with song and rhyme within work across the curriculum, such as number songs, topic related songs, phonics rhymes as well as traditional nursery rhymes and songs. They are encourages to explore beat and rhythm through using their body, a range of everyday objects and through instruments within the continuous provision, and also within taught music sessions. Within this they are encouraged to use sound to communicate thoughts, ideas and feelings, such as linking tuned and un-tuned instruments to stories and characters.
Within Key Stage One, children are encouraged to apply previously taught skills, and enhance them in order to refine and improve their work. Music is taught weekly through lessons by a teacher with a specialism in music and enables children to sing with a piano. Within these sessions they explore the inter-related dimensions of music: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, and structure through their singing and in using percussion accompaniment. In addition to this, class teachers explore these elements further through class based sessions using the scheme ‘Music Express’. Cross-curricular links are also made where possible, and in doing so create a purpose for their musical work, for example, creating musical accompaniment to enhance stories, or to create jingles. Within this work, children are taught, and develop early skills in recording their ideas through musical notation.
In order to create breadth of learning in music we expose children to a range of genre from different cultures, period of time and styles. Adults in school share their musical interests and children are encouraged to listen and reflect on what they hear themselves and start to make personal opinions on what they hear. Where possible we make links with people within our community and invite musicians into school. Children also have the opportunity to enhance their interests through a weekly after-school music club and also a lunchtime choir. Whilst we encourage children to enjoy participation in music, we also ensure they are able to experience performance. This occurs internally to their peers and in performance to families. We have also established links with schools in the local area and our choir have enjoyed performing on a larger scale in ‘the big sing’.
We ensure all children have access to the content of the EYFS curriculum and the National Curriculum for music.