Our Music Intent

At Thomas Harding all children are offered a broad and balanced curriculum that is suitably challenging and based around our ASPIRE values. Our music units are logically sequenced to ensure that all children build on their musical skills and knowledge so links can be made and built upon both within and across year groups. As pupils progress through the school, their growing musical knowledge will deepen their understanding and appreciation of music and they will develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose and listen to the best examples of music from a wide range of genres and time periods. 

The curriculum is designed to  engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their own talent as musicians. The curriculum allows all pupils to acquire a wealth of knowledge and skills as the sequence and selection of topics builds on previous units and feeds forward - towards future learning. Children will have the opportunity to understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions of music: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure.

Our curriculum gives all pupils the opportunity to perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions including the works of great composers and musicians, developing children's ability to ASPIRE highly.

All will learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others. We believe that it is essential that each pupil has  the opportunity to learn a musical instrument,  to use appropriate musical notations and also to use technology appropriately. 

Our children leave Thomas Harding with an appreciation of the joy of music and the skills to listen to, compose, perform and appraise musical pieces.

Implementation for Music

• Charanga scheme is used as our base– it provides a broad curriculum with sequenced learning across each year group, as well as skill development tools for regular use
• The curriculum has been developed by our Music lead, to ensure that it meets the needs of Thomas Harding pupils and our Curriculum Intent.
• Teachers  deepen and extend  the children’s understanding  through our curriculum – it provides opportunities for more able pupils,  and encourages  curiosity and stimulates interest
• Scaffolding is clear in planning and resources and tasks – all pupils are expected to aspire highly and achieve their potential
• Key musical vocabulary is taught in every year group – and the  inter-related musical dimensions (pulse, pitch, rhythm, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure)
• Oracy and language skills are developed through our response to music – focus on musical language
• Music is used to develop reading/inference skills and to inspire writing across the curriculum
• Instruments from a broad range of countries and cultures are used in lessons to build opportunities to experience
• The Thomas Harding School Orchestra is run by a music specialist and a  peripatetic teacher
• We use a wide range of music in assembly – building in opportunities to appreciate and experience a range of music from different cultures, traditions and historical periods.
• Our children have the opportunity to perform in assemblies, school events, local and national concerts / festivals
• Children learning an instrument can bring these instruments to class lessons, all children have the opportunity to learn an instrument through curriculum lessons
• Training attended by Music Subject Leader alongside  staff training and CPD to develop teacher subject knowledge and skills
• School trips and visitors broaden children’s experiences and develop their cultural capital
• We are developing our use of writing in music lessons: written responses and written composition are encouraged and these skills are explicitly taught.
• Assessment – is used termly using Target Tracker
• Homework projects include musical tasks in all year groups

Impact

Over their time at Thomas Harding, pupils will have developed their knowledge, skills and understanding of the inter-related dimensions of music. They will have developed their composition and listening appraising skills. Pupils will have been equipped with musical skills and knowledge that will enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and for life as an adult in the wider world.

If successful, we will have inspired our pupils to develop a passion for music and to develop the aspiration to pursue a career in the field themselves.

Target tracker is used to record the progress that pupils are making in terms of knowing more, remembering more and being able to do more at the end of each term. This will record whether the children are working towards the age related expectation, at the age related expectation, or exceeding the age related expectation. 

These judgements will be made using first-hand evidence of how pupils are progressing, drawing together evidence from pupil interviews, observations of performances, work scrutinies along with  discussions with pupils about what they have remembered about the content they have studied. These judgements will inform the curriculum and whether children are ready for the next stage of their education.