Music at Thorndown Primary School
Subject Leader
Miss Kate Medlow – Year 4 Teacher
Curriculum Intent
‘A high-quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement.’ (Department of Education, National Curriculum)
At Thorndown Primary School we seek to provide opportunities for all our children to sing, play, perform, develop a life-long love of music, develop their skills and appreciate a wide variety of musical forms. We aim to encourage children’s understanding and enjoyment of music through an active involvement in listening, appraising, composing, improvising and performing, providing the opportunity for our children to develop their individual skills, sharing their experiences and cooperating with others. Through our curriculum, we aim to help our children to develop an awareness of musical traditions from a variety of cultures and music from different eras. We support them to develop an understanding of musical terms and to use this vocabulary in their learning. Children use musical notations beginning with pictures/symbols in KS1 and progressing to stave notations in KS2. We promote British Values in our music curriculum from a very early age. Our children learn about the need to establish a clear set of rules when listening, performing and composing: working together as a team, taking turns with the instruments, listening when someone is playing and deciding on whose ideas are going to be used in a composition. Our children are encouraged to make choices about the music they like to listen to and are respected for their individual preferences. Children are encouraged to appreciate the fact that music from all cultures and traditions around the world develops and contributes positively to British music. Children are taught songs that reflect our strong heritage in Britain.
Implementation
At Thorndown, we plan our Music curriculum taking objectives from the National Curriculum as the statutory framework. Starting in September 2021, we began implementing the objectives from the New Model Music Curriculum (March 2021). From EYFS to Year 6, we have designed a progressive curriculum that builds musical skills year on year and is cross-curricular.
Click here to view the whole school Music Curriculum
Click here to view the whole school Music Progression Document
To view the progression documents for each year group please click on the Year Group below
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Click here to view the key musical vocabulary
What does SMSC (Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural education) look like in Music at Thorndown?
