Music
Intent
Increasingly, research is showing that high-quality music lessons have a significant, positive impact on a child’s intellectual, social, emotional and physical development. According to the Music Education Council, “The benefits are greatest when musical activities start early and continue over a long period of time.”
Singing and active music-making are the core of music experience and understanding, and have been shown to benefit concept formation, abstract thought, memory, linguistic development, spatial awareness and co-ordination, as well as creativity and confidence.
Our high-quality music curriculum is designed to provide opportunities for our pupils to:
get singing in every classroom
empower teachers and staff with skills and confidence
support the music and Voices lead to set up high quality choirs and singing assemblies
provide high quality resources to support school music
to ensure no child is left out when it comes to learning to be a musician
Implementation
At William Harding we work alongside The Voices Foundation who is a national charity which uses the power of singing to improve the lives of children and young people in the UK.
We are taking part in the following VF programmes:
Musical foundations
Choral excellence
This approach complies with curriculum expectations for excellence in Music, as set out in the Department of Education’s National Plan for Music Education and conforms to our prevailing understanding of best pedagogical practice.
It is an effective, practical and powerful way of teaching Music, from Early Years through to Year 6. It is based on a sound understanding of child development, so that children learn musical skills and concepts naturally and progressively, by engaging in hands-on musical activities and singing games. These activities are taught across the week in each class. All staff have access to a variety of musical activities that show consistency and progression across the whole school. Training is provided through CPD opportunities from The Voices Foundation using the Singing Schools Programme during Inset, staff meetings and an ongoing timetable of CPD during the school day.
Impact
From studying our music curriculum our pupils will be:
Engaging in high quality regular musical learning from a young age
Developing their musical, intellectual, emotional and social skills
Practising musical skills and concepts are in a variety of ways to suit individual needs and learning styles
Accessing the musical literacy and the benefits of music training
Enabled to understand how music is linked to mental health
Click here for our whole school music long term curriculum overview
Links that may be of interest;
Music Education Council website, Why Music?
What if every child had access to music education from birth?
If you would like to find out more about our Music curriculum, please email the office FAO Mrs Batory or Mrs Charlton.