Our Lady of Compassion Catholic Primary School
To live as Jesus taught us
Our Lady of Compassion Catholic Primary School
To live as Jesus taught us
OLC MUSIC CURRICULUM
“The fact that children can make beautiful music is less significant than the fact that music can make beautiful children."
~ Cheryl Lavendar ~
OUR ETHOS
At Our Lady of Compassion School, in line with our Catholic ethos, we believe that everyone has a special part to play in God’s plan. As a fully inclusive school, we welcome all children with their individual strengths and needs and strive to give them the best opportunities to be able to participate in school life, progress and achieve their full potential. We believe that all children are entitled to a rich and diverse curriculum that is delivered through high quality teaching and differentiated to meet the needs of all children. The school has a supportive ethos, and our approaches support the children in developing their collaborative and independent skills, as well as empathy and the need to recognise the achievement of others.
OUR CURRICULUM INTENT
At Our Lady of Compassion School, we are committed to providing our children with a curriculum and a learning experience which stimulates and inspires them, whilst preparing them for life outside school. We aim to develop children as true lifelong learners, hungry for knowledge and understanding, and proficient at transferring learning skills into a wide range of areas. To support us in achieving this aim, we implement the Kapow Primary’s Music scheme. The intention of this scheme is first and foremost to help children to feel that they are musical, and to develop a life-long love of music. There is a 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 will develop the musical skills of singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising and composing music, and listening and responding to music. They will develop an understanding of the history and cultural context of the music that they listen to and learn how music can be written down. Through music, our curriculum helps children develop transferable skills such as team-working, leadership, creative thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and presentation and performance skills. These skills are vital to children’s development as learners and have a wider application in their general lives outside and beyond school.
Kapow Primary’s Mixed-Age Music scheme of work enables pupils to meet the end of key stage attainment targets outlined in the national curriculum and the aims of the scheme align with those in the national curriculum.
OUR CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION
Kapow Primary’s Music scheme takes a holistic approach to music, in which the individual strands below are woven together to create engaging and enriching learning experiences:
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. Children in Year 4 and Year 6 also benefit from choral lessons delivered by the MAC Choral Director.
The instrumental scheme lessons complement the Kapow Primary scheme of work and allow lower key stage pupils to develop their expertise in using a tuned instrument for a minimum of one term as recommended in the Model music curriculum. Children at OLC benefit from learning an instrument for a term; last year, the children benefitted from Ukulele lessons delivered by the Solihull Music Service – these will again be implemented in the next school year.
Kapow’s Music mapping document shows which of the units cover each of the national curriculum attainment targets as well as each of these strands within it. The progression of skills and knowledge document shows the skills that are taught within each phase and how these skills develop year on year to ensure attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage.
The Kapow Primary scheme follows the spiral curriculum model where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon. Children progress in terms of tackling more complex tasks and doing more simple tasks better, as well as developing understanding and knowledge of the history of music, staff, and other musical notations, as well as the interrelated dimensions of music and more.
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 are ‘hands-on’ and incorporate movement and dance elements, as well as making cross curricular links with other areas of learning.
Adaptive teaching ensures that lessons can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils in building a foundation of factual knowledge by encouraging recall of key facts and vocabulary.
Strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to be able to deliver a highly effective and robust music curriculum. Each unit of lessons includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support ongoing CPD, aiding teachers in their own acquisition of musical skills and knowledge, so as to deliver lessons of a high standard that ensure pupil progression.
OUR CURRICULUM IMPACT
The impact of our music curriculum is currently monitored through formative assessment opportunities. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives and at the end of each unit there is often a performance element where teachers can make a summative assessment of pupils’ learning. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils by providing a highly visual record of the key learning from the unit, encouraging recall of practical skills, key knowledge and vocabulary.
As an outcome of the knowledge rich curriculum offered, pupils should leave primary school 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: