Music
Intent
At Godolphin Primary School, our intention is to help children feel that they are musical and to develop a life-long love of music. Through our music curriculum, we nurture children who are kind, curious, and connected.
We promote kindness by introducing children to music from all around the world and across generations. They learn to respect and appreciate music from a wide range of traditions and communities, developing empathy and a deeper understanding of others through shared musical experiences.
We encourage curiosity by focusing on developing the skills, knowledge, and understanding needed to become confident composers, performers, and listeners. Children are given opportunities to explore, experiment, and be creative – building their musical skills in singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising and composing, and listening and responding to music.
Our curriculum helps children feel connected – to each other, to their heritage, and to the wider world. As they develop an understanding of the history and cultural context of music, and how it can be written down, they begin to see music as a powerful and universal form of expression.
Through music, children also build essential, transferable skills such as team-working, leadership, creative-thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and presentation and performance skills. These support their development as learners and as thoughtful, engaged individuals beyond the classroom.
Implementation
Teaching & Learning in Music
At Godolphin, we follow the Kapow Primary’s music scheme, which takes a holistic approach to music – the individual strands below are woven together to create engaging and enriching learning experiences:
- Performing
- Listening
- Composing
- The history of music
- The inter-related dimensions of music
Each five-lesson unit combines these strands within a cross-curricular topic designed to capture pupils’ imagination and encourage them to explore music enthusiastically.
Over the course of the scheme, 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.
Impact
After implementation of our music curriculum, pupils should leave Godolphin 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.
The expected impact of following the Kapow Primary Music scheme of work is that children will:
- Be confident performers, composers, listeners and will be able to express themselves musically at and beyond school
- 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, historical contexts in which it is developed
- Understand the ways in which music can be written down to support performing and compositing activities
- Demonstrate and articulate an enthusiasm for music and to be able to identify their own personal musical preferences
- Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the national curriculum for Music
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