Music

At Olive School, our children develop a sense of musical creativity and self-expression, build their listening skills and deepening their understanding and application of technical music knowledge.

Practical skills sits at the heart of our music curriculum, where core component knowledge and skills in music strands such as understanding pitch, developing a sense of rhythm, composition and appraising are sequentially built upon through the year groups through regular and varied practical music making experiences, including through singing.

Our Early Years learning’s music curriculum follows the ‘Expressive Arts and Design’ learning pathway of the national Development Matters guidance, meeting the requirements of the Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage.  This culminates in our Reception children learning and performing a range of songs, learning to listen to music and developing their abilities to express themselves through music.  Here, they are introduced to fundamental musical vocabulary, focus on fine and gross motor practice and develop an awareness of basic rhythm.  Our children regularly experiment with sound, use their bodies to respond to music and sing. Children practice regularly and are given the opportunity to perform in front of their peers.

These schemas are built on in Key Stage 1, as our children continue to develop their technical accuracy, fluency and expression through both singing and playing a range of tuned and untuned instruments.  They sing a broad range of songs from different genres and cultures, concentrating on intonation, phrasing and clear diction and build their listening skills further.  Children regularly perform as a class ensemble in front of their peers and during whole school assemblies.

Our Key Stage 2 children hone their technical knowledge and skills, such as music notation, the stave and understanding pitch and rhythm.  This is done through a focus on musical compositional work, solo and ensemble performance, aural development and appraising existing music pieces. Through the Key Stage, our children build their existing schemas which link the interrelated music dimensions of pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture and structure.  They also build an understanding of the history of music.

The detailed, sequential development of music knowledge and skills and understanding is carefully mapped out in our music progression map, accessible below.  This progression map ensures that teachers are supported to plan lessons that include all learners, of all abilities and has a direct link to the Music Express teaching tool to support lessons.

Our children are given a wide range of motivating and inspiring cross-curricular opportunities and special enriching experiences to embed essential learning.  This enrichment is an essential element of our music offer.  For example, our children:

• Listen to a range of musical genres that form an integral part of whole school assemblies.
• The Year group choir share their musical skills through a performance during whole school assemblies weekly.
• Weekly school choir practice leads to a big performance each term in front of prestigious visitors who attend Big Star Little Star assembly.
• Are encouraged to take part in the annual talent show (Olive’s got talent), enabling them to showcase their musical talents.

Star Faith Primary Schools – Music Progression Map (2020-2021)