Kaizen Primary School

Intent

The National Curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:
• Perform, listen to, review and evaluate music
• Be taught to sing, create and compose music
• Understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated. 

At Kaizen Primary School the intention is that children gain a firm understanding of what music is through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, analysing, and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions, and musical genres. Our objective at Kaizen Primary School is to develop a curiosity for the subject, as well as an understanding and acceptance of the validity and importance of all types of music, and an unbiased respect for the role that music may wish to be expressed in any person’s life. We are committed to ensuring children understand the value and importance of music in the wider community, and are able to use their musical skills, knowledge, and experiences to involve themselves in music, in a variety of different contexts and cultures. 

Implementation

The music curriculum ensures students sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. This is through classroom learning as well as various concerts and performances. There are opportunities to make music videos as well as performing to parents and the community. The elements of music are taught in the classroom lessons so that children are able to use some of the language of music to dissect it, and understand how it is made, played, appreciated and analysed. To do this we use the Kaizen curriculum that provides a progression curriculum throughout the school. Children have music every lunchtime as part of our play provision, which allows them to explore all musical genres linking this into dance and choreography. Educational visits are carefully considered to ensure that the children have the opportunity to see live music in a context that they may not otherwise have access to. Playlists have been carefully created and given to year groups to use to ensure that the children are listening and evaluating a range of musical genres. These are regularly used in class. Music is taught in blocks throughout the year, so that children achieve depth in their learning. Teachers are given the key knowledge and skills of each topic and consideration has been given to ensure progression across topics throughout each year group across the school. Teachers plan lessons using the medium term plans created by the subject leader. Progression of knowledge and skills has been carefully mapped across the curriculum. We understand that children have missed opportunities of learning because of the COVID outbreak and the resulting distance and blended learning models that were used in the previous school years. Our current teaching model ensures that any missed opportunities are addressed before teaching new concepts and topics. This pre teaching approach ensures that children are able to access the new learning and build upon their knowledge and skills. Children have also missed out on live performances last year and this year all children will have the opportunity to attend a live performance.  Aspects of music are embedded in learning within the provision of SEND learning to ensure that all children have access to a broad and balanced curriculum. Themes are planned throughout the year that allow for D&T skills and knowledge to be embedded and built upon. Children with high levels of need have a broad curriculum offer, linking into National Curriculum themes, but with scaffolded learning which meets their needs, ensuring they are also making good progress from their initial starting points.

Impact

The integral nature of music and the learner creates an enormously rich palette from which a student may access fundamental abilities such as: achievement, self-confidence, interaction with and awareness of others, and self-reflection. Music will also develop an understanding of culture and history, both in relation to students individually, as well as ethnicities from across the world. Children are able to enjoy music, in as many ways as they choose - either as listener, creator or performer. They can dissect music and comprehend its parts. They can sing and feel a pulse. They have an understanding of how to further develop skills less known to them, should they ever develop an interest in their lives

Please click here to see the subject overview for Music.