Our Music Strategy:
In a Catholic primary school, music is a "universal language" because it relies on a child's natural instinct to move, sing, and play. It is treated as an essential part of their "God-given" creativity and a key tool for building a happy school community.
Beyond its religious significance, music offers extensive developmental benefits that support a well-rounded education:
- Cognitive Growth: Engaging with music stimulates brain areas responsible for memory, language processing, and problem-solving. It particularly enhances literacy and mathematical skills.
- Emotional Regulation: Music acts as a tool for emotional release, helping children process complex feelings such as grief, stress, or anxiety. In a faith context, it can provide an opportunity to reflect and worship, that lifts students above daily struggles.
- Social Bonds: Collaborative music-making, such as our choir and musical theatre groups, cultivates teamwork, empathy, and a shared sense of community.
- Resilience and Discipline: Learning an instrument or a difficult piece of music builds "inner steel," teaching students to persevere through challenges and mistakes.
The Core Components of our Primary Music Strategy:
Active Learning: Our Music Curriculum prioritises active music-making (singing, playing instruments, composing) over theoretical learning.
Our Curriculum Structure and The Five Inter-related Dimensions of Music: The Kapow Primary Music scheme of work follows a structured, spiral curriculum. Progression is broken down into the following key areas:
- Listening and evaluating – expressing musical preferences; exploring the impact of musical ideas; understanding how effects are created by combining musical elements.
- Creating sound – exploring the children’s vocal skills; developing skills to manipulate sounds on a range of instruments.
- Notation – recognising the basics of musical notation; reading simple rhythmic patterns; developing the foundational knowledge of how staff and graphic notations can communicate music.
- Improvising and composing – creating and refining the children’s own music through improvisation and notation; experimenting with styles and features; employing musical concepts to add interest.
- Performing – using voices expressively; developing instrumental control and expression; performing as part of a group.
Consistency: Our music lessons are taught weekly, rather than blocked units, ensure better knowledge retention.
Class Instrumentation: NMPAT experts lead a musical immersive experience during the Autumn Term, ensuring that every child in Year 3 has access to play a musical instrument. This also has a financially subsidised, follow-on project, to ensure that children have the opportunity to learn a tuned instrument without the burden of the financial cost.
Assessment: Is completed by class teachers, where live teacher assessment, at times the use of audio or video recordings to capture progress, rather than extensive paperwork.
Performance Opportunities: We offer opportunities throughout the year for our children to perform. These include:
- Year Group Assemblies
- Nativities
- Carol Concerts
- Strings performances
- Musical Theatre Shows
- Our annual Musical Extravaganza
- The Year 6 Leavers Show
- Choir Performances
Children from Year 2 - Year 6, have the opportunity to attend our Musical Theatre Stars, who perform termly.
Children from Year 3 - Year 6, can join the school Choir, with no cost, so that their God-given talents can be developed.
At Our Lady's. we work closely with external partners to ensure that our children have great opportunities for their musical development and curriculum enrichment: