Red Oak Primary School, Lowestoft

Intent

At Red Oak Primary School, our aim is to promote and grow a love of music which in turn will build a culture of Music within the school. The arts are a central part of our curriculum. Within music, it is our aim that each child will leave our setting with the required skills to enjoy and engage with music throughout their life. With this in mind, we strive for the children to build their skills progressively so that they can confidently enjoy learning the wide range of instruments offered to them and be able to play, perform, improvise and compose alongside their peers. To enhance this provision, we endeavour to expose the children to a wide range of genres, so that they have the opportunity to explore what they like to listen to and to educate the children about the lives of the great composers and artists who have championed adversity to achieve success.

Implementation

The teaching of music is made up of two sections: discrete music lessons and enhanced music opportunities including assemblies and music enrichment activities. The content of the discrete music lessons begins with exploring classroom percussion in EYFS and goes into learning tuned percussion in Key Stage 1, following Charanga schemes of work, exploring how pitch can be changed. Year 4 will be learning to play the recorder following the Charanga schemes of work. In Year 3, 5 and 6, the children receive specialist music tuition from Suffolk County Music Service and through these sessions we believe the children are best placed to continue to develop their skills including learning to read music and extending their aural awareness. To enhance this music provision, the children take part in a weekly singing assembly focused around the enjoyment of collective singing and singing songs matched to their vocal ability. Within these sessions the children are exposed to wider listening in the form of Music of the Month which focuses on either a composer or a performer. 

Impact

We believe that the impact of our music curriculum is seen at secondary schools and beyond. At present, we cannot control how much music is being taught at our cluster secondary schools but our belief is to educate the children at Red Oak beyond what is required of them at secondary school. For example, music is present throughout life in Modern Britain and developing an understanding and an appreciation of different types of music enhances the lives of our pupils. Alongside this, a good understanding of how to play an instrument allows our pupils to engage in a part of the creative world that is difficult to access without the initial opportunities of understanding musical notation and the ability to play a musical instrument.