MUSIC

At West Twyford Primary School we value music. Music is taught by a subject specialist and we are pleased to have been awarded a Music Mark. We are also a Silver Singing School for which West Twyford was the Lead School in a multi-school project and hosted a series of singing workshops and concerts. In addition our KS2 pupils have successfully performed in the Music For Youth festival including performing in the National Festival in Birmingham.

EYFS and KS1 pupils use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and performing chants and rhymes. They play tuned and untuned instruments. Year 2 pupils have the opportunity to lean to play descant recorder. Pupils listen to live and recorded music and compose their own graphic scores.

All KS2 pupils learn to play an instrument as follows: Year 3 – J Sax, Year 4 – Ukulele, Year 5 –Djembe and Year 6 – Keyboard.

All KS2 pupils have the opportunity to perform in solo and ensemble contexts including regular concerts. They sing confidently and play with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression. Pupils improvise and compose music and use and understand musical (staff) notation. They have opportunities to experience live and recorded music from diverse cultural backgrounds, to take part in music workshops led by professional musicians, and to learn about the history of music.

Intent

At West Twyford Primary School we value music. We want our children to love music and to have no limits to their musical ambitions. They may become music producers, songwriters, composers or rockstars! Our vision is to give children access to an engaging and fun music curriculum reflecting the diverse world they live in now, but at the same time giving them access to musical styles throughout history.  

We hope they will continue to grow in confidence, progress through the musical curriculum and become passionate in their responses to music. Added to this, we want children to become more independent learners within this area, reflect upon their learning and develop resilience within the musical world. As a school, these are our aims: 

• To offer opportunities to sing, play instruments, compose, perform, listen and appraise. 

• To encourage awareness, enjoyment and appreciation of the diversity of music. 

• To develop imagination and creativity. 

• To help children of all abilities develop positive attitudes and to experience success and satisfaction in music. 

Implementation 

Music is taught by a subject specialist.  

EYFS and KS1 pupils use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and performing chants and rhymes. They play tuned and untuned instruments. Year 2 pupils have the opportunity to lean to play descant recorder. Pupils listen to live and recorded music and compose their own graphic scores. 

All KS2 pupils learn to play an instrument as follows: Year 3 – J Sax, Year 4 – Ukulele, Year 5 –Djembe and Year 6 – Keyboard. 

All KS2 pupils have the opportunity to perform in solo and ensemble contexts including regular concerts. They sing confidently and play with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression. Pupils improvise and compose music and use and understand musical (staff) notation. They have opportunities to experience live and recorded music from diverse cultural backgrounds, to take part in music workshops led by professional musicians, perform in regional  music festivals and to learn about the history of music. 

Impact 

We aim to foster a love and increasing enthusiasm for music amongst our children, and a potential for life- long music making. The curriculum enables all pupils to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence necessary to engage fully with the subject. Children perform confidently, compose their own music and are able to listen to and appraise diverse musical styles. They access a wide variety of musical activities including singing, composition, learning to play instruments, music technology and music workshops, giving them practical hands-on experience.  Children are also given the opportunity to extend their education in a variety of ways, for example extra-curricular instrumental groups, choirs and performances both in and outside of school.  

We are pleased to be annually awarded a Music Mark and are currently beginning our next Artsmark journey, having been an Artsmark Gold School.  We are also a Silver Singing School, for which West Twyford was the Lead School in a multi-school project and hosted a series of singing workshops and concerts. In addition, our KS2 pupils have successfully performed in the Music For Youth festival series including performing in the National Festival in Birmingham. 

Music for Youth feedback

Feedback:

You took us on a fascinating, engaging and mesmerising journey with this creative performance. I really appreciated the concept of entering the performance space already singing – setting the musical atmosphere right from the very start.
What a wonderful array of onomatopoeic words you wove into the mix – developing the vocal material into a very effective four-part ostinato – well done to all of you for your singing discipline here! It was a clever idea to have the single hand chime notes to secure the pitch. 

Vocally the words were very clear throughout – you had to work hard to enunciate these, (especially  as there were quite a few tongue-twisters amongst them!) but I could hear every word!

And a dab to finish with – very classy!