Our Vision for Music.

Each child at Peterhouse Church of England Academy has an individual ‘soundtrack’ gained from their own life and experiences.  However, many face a greater number of barriers to their learning compared to their peers nationally. 

Peterhouse’s implementation of the Music curriculum helps to fulfil its role as the rock of our community by nurturing the self-identity of its children.  The Music curriculum has been designed to meet the academic and spiritual needs of all.  It not only achieves the requirements of the curriculum but it also helps pupils to overcome the barriers that many may face, ensuring that the Academy is a place where all can flourish, regardless of background or ability.  Ways that the Music curriculum can help these to be overcome are:

• Emotional – the children will be able to express themselves through music and appreciate that music can contribute to positive mental wellbeing;
• Motivational – the children will view school positively as a place of creativity; become actively engaged, and share their opinions freely and without judgement;
• Social and cultural – the children will work cooperatively and feel valued; be exposed to the work of great composers and, through recordings and live performances, experience music that reflects our heritage and a range of diverse cultures.

In addition to music lessons, music should also contribute to the wider curriculum and will play an important role in other aspects of school life.

Our Aims for Music

At Peterhouse we aim to engage and inspire pupils to nurture a love of music and develop their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement.

The aims of the music curriculum at Peterhouse are to encourage all pupils to:

• develop, through listening, appraising, performing and composing, musical skills and an understanding of the concepts of pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and notation;
• develop social skills through co-operating with others in the shared music-making experiences of creating and composing;
• develop an understanding of musical traditions and developments across a range of cultures, historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians;
• be motivated to enjoy and succeed in music, through using voices and instruments and appropriate technology.

How do we deliver Music?

Peterhouse subscribes to the Norfolk Music Education Hub which allows access to a Charanga license, CPD and curriculum support.  Our affiliation also provides us with a Musician in Residence (MIR), who delivers weekly curriculum lessons to the children throughout the year on a rota, with the classes alternating on a half termly basis.  The Music Hub also allows us to access the provision of another teacher who delivers weekly Whole Class Ensemble Teaching of an instrument lasting for the duration of a year, currently benefiting our Year 3 children.

The yearly MIR music timetable is split into three termly subsections: History, Culture and Community, and Practical.  The children are exposed to a colourful and varied selection of music from around the world, explore instruments such as percussion, Ukulele, Djembe and Keyboard, learn about healthy voice production and become familiar with classical musical notation and the idea of graphic scores.

In addition to specialist music teaching, the KS1 and 2 classes will also take part in regular listening sessions with their class teachers, who will select from a large list of suggested repertoire supporting their in depth music classes.  The children will be given the opportunity to share their own analysis of these pieces freely and without prejudice.  As their skills develop, the children will be encouraged to make more comprehensive links with the concepts they have learnt and to use the appropriate musical terms.

Live musical performance is one that many children may not experience.  At Peterhouse, we seek to enable children to access high quality performances from top quality musicians throughout the academic year.  

Curriculum Design in Music

Our bespoke music curriculum has been designed to encompass a wide variety of resources and is delivered by our Musician in Residence.  All aspects of musical learning are covered, practically, theoretically and historically and our teaching is constructed in such a way to offer clear progression and enable the children to shine.  We supplement this with a listening programme led by the class teacher.  Through this two pronged approach we introduce our cohort to different musical genres and cultures, from musical heritage to modern times, covering a diverse range of composers from different backgrounds and traditions.  The aim of this being, to allow  all pupils to believe that they can be musical and inspire a life-long connection with this creative form.   .

Our Intended Coverage

Our Musician in Residence delivers units on a rota basis in KS1 & KS2 that alternate each half term.  Our method of teaching means strands are revisited and learning extended throughout the course of the year. During the half terms in which Year Groups are off rota, KS1 & KS2 class teachers will deliver sessions that either pre-teach or recap / extend the concepts covered by our Musician in Residence.  In Year 3, the Music Hub teacher delivers a whole year of weekly Whole Class Ensemble Teaching sessions, focussing on developing skills in playing the Ukulele. 

Through the delivery of a knowledge rich curriculum children in EYFS build a focused and sequenced body of knowledge which students are able to remember. In the EYFS Music comes under the title of Expressive Arts and Design (EAD). Singing and music forms a key experience across the EYFS, as a precursor to both language and rhythm. The children take part in singing and dancing on a daily basis, it is built into the routine of the day such as the ‘Count to one hundred’ song, ‘days of the week’ song and our ‘special child’ song. Children will be exposed to a variety of different music from nursery rhymes to classical to rap. They will explore how sounds can be changed by experimenting with pitch and tempo, using their voices and body percussion. They will learn how sounds and instruments can be used and adapted to tell a story by studying composers. The children will incorporate musical instruments into our learning. As part of our Christmas Nativity the children learnt a variety of songs and how to sign them as well. There are plans to develop our own ’musical shed’ where children will have independent access to a range of musical instruments and ‘improvised sound instruments’.  These ongoing experiences are also supplemented by weekly sessions with our Musician in Residence.
 

By the time children leave Reception they will be expected to:

• Be imaginative and expressive
• Sing a range of well-known nursery rhymes and songs
• Perform songs, rhymes and stories with others and, when appropriate,  try to move in time with music.

Assessment in Music

As music is a creative subject, care needs to be taken so that assessment practices do not stifle creativity and narrow outcomes.  Therefore, assessment in music should focus around the development of skills and the building of knowledge.

• Formative assessment is an ongoing process throughout music sessions, with interaction between teachers and children about learning forming an essential part of the reflective learning process. 
• Musical learning will be assessed both by the Musician in Residence during sessions, and through evidence collected by class teachers of these sessions. Each unit will build up to a given end point task, allowing further assessment opportunities. Recording examples of performances at the beginning and end of each rotation will provide evidence of progression, as well as mid-points of processes where appropriate.
• Where other music curriculum opportunities may arise, these can be recorded as audio or visuals files and photographs.
• Throughout, the children will be encouraged, through tasks and targeted questioning, to reflect critically upon their own achievements and those of others.