Music Curriculum Statement  

Bishop Chavasse Church of England Primary School  

Our School Vision:  

Bishop Chavasse Church of England School Policies are all underpinned by respect and our school parable 'The Wise and the Foolish Builder', which forms the basis of our whole school vision, highlighting the importance of wisdom, compassion and honesty.  

Bishop Chavasse School values every wonderfully and uniquely created child and adult; inspiring everyone to fulfil their potential, as we achieve excellence together. As Jesus teaches through the parable of the house on the rock: we grow in wisdom, supported by the compassion of God to establish firm, honest foundations on which every child can build.   

Music plays a key role in every aspect of our lives, wherever and whoever we are and engages areas of the brain more than any other activity. Therefore, music has become an integral part of Bishop Chavasse, both in and out of the classroom. Through our high quality and engaging curriculum, children acquire a love of music and develop their talent as musicians, which will increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. 

Intent 

At Bishop Chavasse, every child will engage in fun and engaging lessons in order to fulfil their potential in being a musician. Children will learn, revisit, build upon and extend their knowledge and skills sequentially to enable them to go further and perform with confidence. Songs are at the heart of every lesson, enabling children to listen, sing, perform, compose and improvise pieces of music from a variety of genres, eras and world locations in order to show compassion towards different cultures.  

All children will develop and use musical vocabulary with growing confidence and will be able to identify the key elements of music, as relevant to their key stage. Children will have many opportunities to perform in a range of contexts from class performances to Collective Worship and school concerts for parents and the wider community. All children will have a range of extra-curricular music activities available to them to further develop their music experience. 

Implementation 

Music is embodied in our whole school environment and is taught to all children from Reception to year 6 on a weekly basis. All teachers plan lessons using Charanga’s “Model Music Scheme”, designed and based upon the Government’s Model Music Curriculum, 2021. Each lesson ensures that children have the opportunity to sing and play instruments and throughout each term, children will learn to compose, perform and improvise pieces of music. The curriculum is designed to nurture and challenge all children to become accomplished musicians, sharing their achievements through regular, individual and group performances. Music in Early Years is taught in line with the Early Learning Goals, with a curriculum based around movement within music, supporting children in building the basic skills that underlie the key concepts of music. 

Staff notation is taught sequentially from year 1 through to year 6 and used within all lessons. Children learn to play a range of tuned and untuned instruments throughout their time at Bishop Chavasse. In KS1, children learn to read notation and play rhythms using percussive instruments and tuned instruments such as chime bars, bells and boomwhackers. Children in KS2 will learn to progress their musical understanding through learning to play glockenspiel, recorder, ukulele and keyboard. One year group in KS2 will receive lessons from a specialist teacher to further their learning and the training of staff. 

Impact 

Every week, children engage in a whole school singing worship, where they develop a range of vocal and performance skills, using an established repertoire of hymns, reflecting our school values of wisdom, compassion and honesty. Collective Worship starts with welcoming music, which is carefully selected on a weekly basis. Each week, there is a composer of the week and one of their famous compositions is heard as children enter worship every day. By the end of week, children are able to recognise a new piece of music and name the composer who wrote it. Each term focuses on composers from a different musical period. Collective Worship ends every day by children and staff singing.  

We have two school choirs (KS1 and KS2), who have weekly rehearsals to further their musical learning through a broad and diverse range of songs and vocal exercises and games. Currently, we have 40 children in KS2 choir, with a waiting list for further students, and 30 children in KS1 choir. The choir have further opportunities to perform and be part of their wider community (developing the ‘cultural capital’ to make aspirational choices and experience success beyond their time at school) through singing regularly for and with the residents at a local care home.  

Children are keen to take their music learning further, by learning other instruments outside of class. We have 5 visiting instrumental teachers, offering violin, singing, woodwind, keyboard, ukulele, drums and guitar and band lessons. We currently have 78 children receiving individual/group instrument lessons in school. 

We provide pupils across the school numerous opportunities to perform throughout the year. In KS1, there is an annual Nativity performance, in which music plays a key part, whilst KS2 have an annual Carol concert. Within this, all children have the opportunity to perform in larger groups to develop their confidence and performance skills. These performances embed our Christian ethos, learning the Christmas story through song. In the Spring, all children perform in our school concerts as part of their class. These concerts also enable children who learn an instrument outside of their class lessons to perform solo pieces. 

Music is at the heart of Bishop Chavasse School, with new initiatives such as Ukulele lessons reforming our music curriculum. Our enriched curriculum enables children to be prepared for accessing music in KS3 and as they become members of a wider community outside school, fulfill their potential.