Intent:

Staplecross’ philosophy of music education is based on the principle that it should be fun and engaging for all concerned, and that every child is a born musician, and as such, high quality music teaching and learning is considered a fundamental aim within our school’s curriculum.

Charanga’s Model Music Curriculum scheme of work is used to support the teaching of music at Staplecross School and is first and foremost to help children to feel that they are musical, and to develop a life-long love of music. We focus on developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that children need to become confident performers, composers, and listeners. Our curriculum introduces children to music from all around the world and across generations, teaching children to respect and appreciate the music of all traditions and communities.

Children will develop the musical skills of singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising and composing music, and listening and responding to music by increasingly being able to use subject specific vocabulary. They will develop an understanding of the history and cultural context of the music that they listen to and learn how music can be written down. Through music, our curriculum enables children to develop their team-working, leadership, creative thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and presentation and performance skills. These skills are vital to children’s development as learners and prepare them for their lives outside and beyond school.

At Staplecross, music plays an important role, along with all other curriculum areas, in promoting the spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development of our children.

Charanga’s English Model Music Curriculum Scheme is aligned with the National Curriculum for Music and the non-statutory Model Music Curriculum (MMC) Guidance published by the DfE in 2021.

Implementation:

The Model Music Curriculum scheme follows a spiral approach to musical learning, with children revisiting, building and extending their knowledge and skills incrementally. In this manner, their learning is consolidated and augmented, increasing musical confidence and enabling them to go further. The subject leader has adapted the scheme to match the requirements of the broad and balanced curriculum offered at Staplecross and planned a 2 year cycle using a mixture of charanga units, whole class instrumental teaching and custom-made unique singing units to match the needs of our school year.  The teaching is adapted to respond to the strengths and needs of the children they teach each year.

Each charanga unit is structured into six steps which are covered as the subject specialist teacher sees fit for the current class, though it is mainly done at a pace of one step per weekly lesson. The first step of each unit introduces that unit’s focus in terms of content, skills and knowledge; the middle steps then develop this, and the final, sixth step assesses the learning through exciting performances and activities.  Each term the children perform either to parents, the local community or the rest of the school.  At the centre of each lesson, is a song around which the musical learning is centred. Each lesson has an easy-to-follow structure that take the children through the following characteristics of being a musician:

listening, singing, performing, composing and improvising

During their time at Staplecross, children will be taught how to sing fluently and expressively and play tuned and untuned instruments accurately and with control. In Swallows and Robins, the children use untuned percussion instruments and learn to play the glockenspiels.  In Kingfishers and Kestrels, the children receive whole class teaching of the recorder in addition to the use of untuned percussion and glockenspiels.

They will learn to recognise and name the interrelated dimensions of music - pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics - and use these expressively in their own improvisations and compositions.

Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work as well as improvisation and teacher-led performances. Lessons are ‘hands-on’ and incorporate movement and dance elements, as well as making cross curricular links with other areas of learning.  We take advantage of external music workshop providers to enhance our music curriculum and match it to our class topics where possible.

Whole school performances form a big part of the musical curriculum at Staplecross and take place bi-annually.  In these performances, children who learn instruments outside of school, or during school with the East Sussex Music Service, are also encouraged to showcase and perform to the wider audience.

Impact:

Music assessment is ongoing and is used to inform teachers planning, lesson activities and differentiation. Summative assessment is completed at the end of each unit to inform leaders of the improvements or skills that still need to be embedded. Threshold Concepts are continually revisited across a two-year phase to give children opportunities to revisit key skills to allow it to move from their short term to long term memory. Music is monitored throughout all year groups using pupil voice questionnaires.

Pupils leave Staplecross School with a solid musical knowledge, an appreciation of different musical genres and the skills and confidence to recognise themselves as a musician, enabling them to succeed in their secondary education and to be able to enjoy and appreciate music throughout their lives.