Music

Music can play a unique role in helping people to feel part of a community. At Queen’s Park we aim to offer the opportunities and teach the skills to create, play, perform and enjoy music; to develop the skills to appreciate a wide variety of musical forms, and to develop the confidence to make informed judgements about music. We encourage enjoyment and fulfilment in the taking part and collaboration in music making and the improved well-being that this endeavour may cultivate. We want our music curriculum to reflect the community of our school and endeavour to ensure that our study of music is diverse, ethnically relevant to our children and will incorporate a variety of styles and genres in every year group.

We implement this intention by having a varied scheme of work, which covers all facets of music learning and which also links to the topics that the children are learning. In this way learning in music is relevant and helps further enrich understanding of the core themes each term.

TO LISTEN AND TO APPRAISE the music that they hear. Over the course of our music provision, we expose and study many various music genres. We also aim to cover at least one unit each year group where we look at a historical piece of music or composer from history to build contextual significance. Where possible we invite musicians to come in and perform for our children to allow them to experience the joys of live music.
TO SING AND PLAY INSTRUMENTS – singing remains the backbone of primary music. We support and encourage children to share and celebrate vocal work through relevant performance opportunities throughout the year. All children will sing for at least half and hour a week – either in a joint singing assembly or in their classes with the class teacher. Children are given opportunities to play tuned and un-tuned instruments from Reception year. In year 5 children learn djembe drums or ukelele through the Sound Makers Scheme and a Charanga glockenspiel course is delivered in year 3 and Year 4. There is also a chance for children to take part in lessons by peripatetic music tutors teaching violin, keyboard, guitar and vocal skills, run by Brighton and Hove Music Service. (Create Music)
TO PERFORM - We rehearse for whole school celebrations such as Christmas Concert, Diwali, Eid and World Book Day then there are chances for every child to take part in performances with their year group, from Reception to year 6. There is also an opportunity for outside community projects such as The Brighton Centre Carol Concert, Brighton Early Music Festival (BREMF) projects and World Make Music Day. In Year 5 all children will rehearse and perform a musical to the whole school and to parents and carers in collaboration with the Let’s Play National Theatre initiative.
TO IMROVISE AND COMPOSE- from soundscapes, ostinatos, to raps. Children are given lots of opportunities to use tuned and un-tuned instruments and technology to help them compose their own ideas.
TO TRANSCRIBE- Children will learn and begin to use simple notation. They begin in early years with their own non-standard ways of transcribing and progress to standard notation, gradually developing their understanding of written music over their time at Queen’s Park.

Through enjoying music at Queen’s Park children should be confident to sing, play tuned and un-tuned instruments and to begin to experiment with, create, select, perform and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music. We want children to have experienced a range of live and recorded music; to have an understanding of the significance and place music has within the wider world and to promote open-mindedness about different styles of music. But most of all, we hope to see children who are able to use their voices-expressively and creatively, singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes, and for whom music is a life-long joy!