Curriculum statement
Intent:
At Tillingbourne, we provide children with a broad and rich music curriculum. Our intention is to help children feel musical and to develop a life-long love of music. We focus on developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that children need in order 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 at Tillingbourne will develop the musical skills of singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising and composing and listening and responding to music. They will develop an understanding of the history and cultural context of the music they listen to and learn how music can be written down. Through music, our curriculum helps children to develop transferable skills such as team work, leadership, creative thinking, problem solving, decision making and performance skills. These are all vital to children’s development as learners and have a wider application in their general lives outside of school.
Implementation:
Our curriculum takes a holistic approach to music in which performing, listening, composing, history of music and the interrelated dimensions of music are all woven together to create engaging and enriching learning experiences. Each of our curriculum units combine these strands within a cross curricular topic designed to capture pupils' imagination and encourage them to explore music enthusiastically. Over the course of their musical journey at Tillingbourne, children will be taught how to sing fluently and expressively and play tuned and untuned instruments accurately and with control. 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. Tillingbourne’s spiral music curriculum returns and builds upon children’s previous skills and knowledge. In each lesson, pupils will actively participate in musical activities drawn from a range of styles and traditions, developing their musical skills and their understanding of how music works. Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work as well as improvisation and teacher-led performances. Lessons at Tillingbourne are ‘hands-on’ and incorporate movement and dance elements, as well as making cross curricular links with other areas of learning. Differentiation ensures that all lessons can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required. After school singing clubs, choir performances at local venues and productions help to develop the children’s love of music.
Impact:
Pupils will leave Tillingbourne equipped with a range of skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education and to be able to enjoy and appreciate music throughout their lives. Children will be confident performers, composers and listeners and will be able to express themselves musically at and beyond school. They will be able to show an appreciation and respect for a wide range of musical styles from around the world and will understand how music is influenced by the wider cultural, social and historical contexts of which it is developed. Our children will be able to understand the ways in which music can be written down to support performing and composing activities and will be able to demonstrate and articulate an enthusiasm for music and identify their own musical preferences.