Music Curriculum Rationale

At Hadrian Primary School we are musicians! We want our children to love music. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be music producers, songwriters, composers or rockstars! We want them to embody our core values. The music curriculum has been carefully crafted so that our children develop their musical capital. We want our children to remember their music lessons in our school, to cherish these memories and embrace the musical opportunities they are presented with! Recently, our school have invested in providing Apple Garage Band lessons for pupils in KS2. This supports our drive to expose children to technology used in Creative Industries; our largest developing industry in the uk. We have also invested time ensuring that all of our staff have become certified as an Apple Teacher. Bringing music alive is important at Hadrian Primary School.

Curriculum Intent

The music curriculum promotes curiosity and a love and thirst for learning. It is ambitious and empowers our children to become independent and resilient – like all curriculum areas. For example, for the last 10 years, we have planned, choreographed and put on our 'Summer Spectacular' show in partnership with our local theatre, 'The Customs House', allowing all children to take part in a real life experience, performing songs and dances to both their parents and audiences from across our community. We want to equip them with not only the minimum statutory requirements of the music National Curriculum but to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. We are committed to putting music on the map here at Hadrian Primary School.

We want our children to use the vibrancy of our great city to learn from other cultures, respect diversity, co-operate with one another and appreciate what they have. We achieve this by providing a strong SMSC curriculum, with British Values and our core values placed at the heart of everything we do. This often feeds into the music curriculum. For example, as part of Cultural Diversity celebrations, we have provided drumming lessons for LKS2 pupils; developed their understanding of the wider world through worldwide music and meaning. We have also launched 'song of the week' across school since returning to school in September. Each class in school listens to a new piece of music from around the world. They learn of the idea behind the music, its message and its cultural links. In assemblies we listen to a variety of worldwide music. At Hadrian we are constantly listening, engaging and exploring new sounds!

We enrich our children's time in school with memorable, unforgettable experiences and provide opportunities which are normally out of reach – this piques their interests and passions. For example, back in Christmas 2019 our KS2 Choir were whisked off to London to participate in a special Christmas concert in front of HRH Princess Royal. The concert was set in the beautiful chapel and the children sang a festive songs, spreading Christmas cheer to all those who attended including members  of the Mission to Seafarers from across the world. The event was a resounding success and many of the children commented what a wonderful and memorable experience they had. We firmly believe that it is not just about what happens in the classroom, it is about the added value we offer to really inspire our children.

Curriculum Implementation

Each year we undertake an audit of the music curriculum with support from our local music hub. On the back of the findings from these audits, the music curriculum is carefully built upon and the learning opportunities and assessment milestones for each year group crafted to ensure progression and repetition in terms of embedding key learning, knowledge and skills. At Hadrian Primary School we are currently using use the Oak National Academy scheme – which provides our teachers with week-by-week lessons for each year group in the school from ages 5-11. This scheme provides lesson plans, assessment, clear progression, and engaging and exciting whiteboard resources for every lesson. Our music scheme is based on: Listening and Appraising; Musical Activities – creating and exploring; and Singing and Performing. We also provide who class tuition including Garage Band, Ukulele and Guitar. 

Music subject specific characteristics, which we expect the children to demonstrate, have been developed and shared with all stakeholders. These characteristics underpin all work in music and form a focal point for display areas and provide a common subject specific vocabulary for staff and pupils. These characteristics are:

• A rapidly widening repertoire which they use to create original, imaginative, fluent and distinctive composing and performance work.
• A musical understanding underpinned by high levels of aural perception, internalisation and knowledge of music, including high or rapidly developing levels of technical expertise.
• Very good awareness and appreciation of different musical traditions and genres.
• An excellent understanding of how musical provenance – the historical, social and cultural origins of music – contributes to the diversity of musical styles.
• The ability to give precise written and verbal explanations, using musical terminology effectively, accurately and appropriately.
• A passion for and commitment to a diverse range of musical activities.

We empower our staff to organise their own year group curriculums under the guidance of our subject leaders. Teachers are best placed to make these judgements. Staff develop year group specific long-term curriculum maps which identify when the different subjects and topics will be taught across the academic year. The vast majority of subjects are taught discretely but staff make meaningful links across subjects. They link prior knowledge to new learning to deepen children’s learning. Our children are taught the right, connected knowledge.

We encourage staff to teach a fortnightly music lesson. This helps to ensure sufficient time is allocated to music and that musical subject matter can be revisited frequently. We believe that by crafting our curriculum this way, we improve the potential for our children to retain what they have been taught, to alter their long-term memory and thus improve the rates of progress they make. 

Curriculum Impact

We use both formative and summative assessment information in every music lesson. Staff use this information to inform their short-term planning and short-term interventions. This helps us provide the best possible support for all of our pupils, including the more able. The assessment milestones for each phase have been carefully mapped out and further broken down for each year group. This means that skills in music are progressive and build year on year. We record evidence of progression on Seesaw and use this to inform future planning. Assessment information is collected frequently and analysed as part of our monitoring cycle. This process provides an accurate and comprehensive understanding of the quality of education in music. Monitoring in music includes: Seesaw (online app) scrutinies, lesson observations and/or learning walks, pupil/parent and/or staff voice. All of this information is gathered and reviewed. It is used to inform further curriculum developments and provision is adapted accordingly. Our last monitoring visit took place on Tuesday 5th October 2021.

At Hadrian Primary School, we are MUSICIANS!

Additional Reading to enhance music

Examples of additional texts we use to enhance our Music curriculum:

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly - Pam Adams

The Three Little Pigs - Mara Alperin and Ag Jatkowska

A Squash and a Squeeze - Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

We're Going On A Bearhunt– Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury

Giraffes Can't Dance – Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees

Musical Max – Robert Kraus

The Gingerbread Man – Ladybird

Macbeth – Anna Claybourne and Tom Morgan-Jones

The Firework Maker's Daughter - Philip Pullman

What a Wonderful World - Ashley Bryan

Useful Links

Here are a few links to websites that you might want to try:

https://https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/bring-the-noise/eyfs-ks1-music-play-it-bring-the-noise/z4sq92p

https://gb.abrsm.org/en/inspire/explore-classical-100-and-be-inspired/

Teach yourself recorder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYDRLHj6vDQ&list=PLGbTO82eAIaxvszSGFoe84q1C4d_3Lpj1