Music at Bushmead

At Bushmead we use Charanga to deliver our music curriculum. The scheme provides teachers with week-by-week lessons for each year group which supports all the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum for Music in England in full.

Intent Statement

Bushmead’s music curriculum intends to inspire creativity and encourage a love of music through a range of high quality experiences. We hope children foster a life-long love of music by exposing them to a diverse range of music allowing them opportunities to listen, play, perform and enjoy music through a range of historical periods, styles, traditions and musical genres. As children progress through the school they will increasingly understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated through the interrelated dimensions of music: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and musical notation. By Key stage 2 children will begin to improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music.

‘’Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity’’ National Curriculum.

What will children be taught?

As children move through our school they will be taught a progressive curriculum that builds on the knowledge from previous years. Children will learn about the following areas in each year group.

Early Years

There are 7 areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage, Music is a subject that is learnt and developed throughout these 7 areas.  Taught across the year and explored through continuous provision: Children move their bodies to sounds and music that they can hear. They join in with rhymes and action songs and begin to build a repertoire of songs and dances- singing songs to themselves and making up simple songs of their own. They explore sounds that can be created using untuned and tuned percussion instruments. They create sounds by banging, shaking, tapping or blowing, listening and responding to rhythmic patterns. They create movements in response to music, expressing their feelings and creating responses through music

Year 1 and Year 2

Throughout their time in year 1 and 2 pupils will be taught progressive skills so they are able to:

• Use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
• Play tuned and untuned instruments musically
• Listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music
• Experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.

Please see the documents below for specific units and songs for your child's year group.

Year 3, 4, 5 and 6

Throughout their time in year 3, 4, 5 and 6 pupils will be taught progressive skills that build upon each other so they are able to:

• Sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They will develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory.
• Play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression
• Improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music
• Listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
• Use and understand staff and other musical notations
• Appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians
• Develop an understanding of the history of music.
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Please see the documents below for specific units and songs for your child's year group.

Extra Curricular Opportunities at Bushmead

At Bushmead we strive to provide the children with an experience-rich curriculum through trips, visits and further opportunities to develop their skills. We offer one-to-one music lessons on a range of instruments including piano, recorder and guitar. As well as this, for different stages of their primary education, they will experience a samba drumming workshop and the opportunity to sing at the O2 in London with the Young Voices choir.

For any further information on music tuition please speak to the school office.