Intent
At Redhill Primary School, we make music an enjoyable experience. Our aim is to provide a music curriculum that will enable each child to achieve their best and build their confidence, with shared experiences as well as encouraging ambition, teamwork and resilience. As there is a big focus on wellbeing and self-regulation, we encourage the use of music within school for different parts of the day to aid a calming environment, support focus during lessons with classical music in the background and allow class teachers to choose the pieces they feel their class would enjoy the most for their lessons. Music provides a creative outlet and improves wellbeing, as well as supporting teamwork and removing barriers allowing all children to love their learning.
We identified the need to include more Music history so developed our own journey across the whole school. We teach music through stand alone music lessons and peripatetic music lessons.
We want our children to be able to access both tuned and untuned instruments and be able to develop their own confidence in their musical journey with reading music and understanding pitch, dynamics, rhythm and harmony. We work together with The Music Hub to support our musical offer at Redhill. Year 4 learn the ukulele and Reception and Year 6 learn the recorder.
Implementation
We are currently designing our own Redhill Music curriculum which has been inspired by the Model Music Curriculum, BBC 10 Pieces and our children themselves. We have based the curriculum around the four main skills, singing, listening, composing and performing. As we have been creating this curriculum ourselves, we can show progression with the skills developing and also by revisiting these skills, we are able to build upon prior learning with references to when the class would have last looked at the certain piece. For example, Year 1 look at a piece of Music that is then looked at again in Year 3 but in a more challenging way. We use pupil voice and termly teacher lesson evaluations to help support and identify next steps. This has already helped support teachers with their own personal CDP needs and is something that the Music Hub also are able to support us with.
Our children are able to take part in the Arts with different musical, dance, drama and creative activities to perform to not just the school, but in the wider area. We will build upon the cultural capital by providing the children with opportunities throughout the year for all year groups, such as working with a West End musical star, taking part in different concerts and workshops such as Young Voices and having a variety of musical based days and events. By having these opportunities to work with musical professionals and broaden our musical knowledge, we are able to look at and experience a range of music from different traditions, genres, cultures and by great composers throughout the history of music.
Graham Tudor
Ex-pupil and West End Star
I have been working at Redhill delivering performance and dance workshops for a number of years now. I am a former pupil and have enjoyed a West End career playing in the some of the biggest theatres in the world, including playing ‘Joseph’ in ‘Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’. Every time I work at the school, I am blown away by the effort of the children and more importantly, their will to listen and succeed. I absolutely love the characters I meet in every class and visiting is always a highlight of my calendar.
Impact
Through a broad and engaging curriculum inspired by our children, their confidence to perform will increase. They will be provided with opportunities to perform outside of school and experience what it is like to work as part of a team.
Over the last few years, we have developed our curriculum and increased our musical offer at Redhill and have been awarded the Bronze Award from The Music Hub. We continue this journey towards achieving the Silver Award.
We already have peripatetic music lessons in Year 4 and are working on increasing this to support more classes to learn an instrument. Reception have begun learning to play the recorder and this has helped with hand-eye coordination, improve listening skills, develop a sense of teamwork and improve fine motor skills.
We have also been providing support for teachers, through their lessons discussions and walk rounds. Staff members have the confidence to be honest and we can support any areas needed with their CPD but also further areas of learning for the class. This also highlights how each year group adapts the lessons depending on their class and can show progression throughout the school.
Each class has a class composer, from EYFS to Year 6. Each child will be able to go on their own musical journey through their school career starting in EYFS as each class has a composer going from the Baroque period to Modern day composers in Upper KS2.