Music at Yohden Primary School

Intent

At Yohden Primary School we intend to give all children a quality music education which will engage and inspire them to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians. This in turn will increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. Our children will develop a critical engagement with music allowing them to compose, listen with discrimination to the beat in a musical canon. Through the well-structured music teaching, based on the Charanga scheme, at Yohden Primary School we aim to promote an enjoyment of music, self-expression, participation and performance in singing and instrumental activities and develop confidence and skills in thinking critically about music, singing, playing, improvisation and composition.  

Implementation 

 At Yohden we are using Charanga to teach our weekly 45-minute music lessons. Each Unit of Work comprises the of strands of musical learning which correspond with the national curriculum for music: 

• •      Listening and Appraising 
  •      Musical Activities 
  •      Warm-up Games covering skills such as keeping the pulse, rhythm work and pitching 
  •      Singing 
  •      Playing instruments 
  •      Improvisation 
  •     Composition 
  •     Performing 

Charanga Musical School Units of Work enable children to understand musical concepts through a repetition-based approach to learning. Learning about the same musical concept through different musical activities enables a more secure, deeper learning and mastery of musical skills. Musical teaching and learning is not neat or linear. The strands of musical learning, presented within the lesson plans and the on-screen resources, are part of the learning spiral. Over time, children can both develop new musical skills and concepts, and re-visit established musical skills and concepts. Repeating a musical skill doesn’t necessarily mean their progress is slowing down or their development is moving backwards! It's just shifting within the spiral. Mastery means both a deeper understanding of musical skills and concepts and learning something new. 

Teachers at Yohden are encouraged to follow their assessment of the children’s needs and where appropriate make changes to the scheme or add additional interventions to close the gaps and achieve progress.  

Children also take part in a weekly while school singing assembly lasting for 15 minutes and listen to different genres of music following a music calendar to enrich their experience of music.