Music Development Plan

Overview

This is a summary of how our school delivers music education to all our pupils across three areas – curriculum music, co-curricular provision and musical experiences – and what changes we are planning in future years. This information is to help pupils and parents or carers understand what our school offers and who we work with to support our pupils’ music education.

Part A: Curriculum Music

Our Context

We are a Primary School in Rotherham that represents a wide range of cultures. There is a high level of deprivation which is strongly linked to the town as a whole. Rotherham is one of the 20% most deprived authorities in England and about 21.8% (10,910) children live-in low-income families. When we designed our Music curriculum, we took into consideration the impact Music can have on Cultural capital and Social capital.

Our primary focus is on nurturing young minds, and our commitment to this journey is built upon the strong foundations of love and respect. At East Dene we provide a caring environment in which children are able to flourish academically, socially and emotionally, without hindrance.

At our school, music is an integral part of the curriculum, with all children from Year 1 to Year 6 receiving one hour of dedicated music instruction each week. This consistent exposure helps to foster creativity, enhance listening and performance skills, and build a deeper appreciation for music across all year groups.

Our Curriculum

“The Power of Music- Music is all around us. It is the soundtrack to our lives. Music connects us through people and places in our ever-changing world. It is creative, collaborative, celebratory and challenging. In our schools, music can bring communities together through the shared endeavour of whole-school singing, ensemble playing, experimenting with the creative process and, through the love of listening to friends and fellow pupils, performing. The sheer joy of music making can feed the soul of a school community, enriching each student while strengthening the shared bonds of support and trust which make a great school.”

(Department for Education, Model Music Curriculum)

At East Dene our vision is for our children to become independent, confident, successful and life-long learners with high aspirations and the learning agility to make a positive contribution to their community and the wider society now and in the future.

In music, we want our children to gain experiences that prepare them for experiences later in life. We want our children to develop a sense of belonging within school and their local area and celebrate the wide variety of people and cultures.

Our music curriculum is developed around the Model Music Curriculum using the Charanga’s scheme for the Model Music Curriculum. This follows a differentiated, spiral approach to musical learning which responds to the national requirements for musical education. Within each unit of learning, students revisit existing knowledge and skills and then build upon and extend them incrementally. In this manner, learning is consolidated and augmented, allowing for increasing musical confidence, while constantly being gently challenged to go further.

Children’s cultural capital is then developed further by children taking part in musical instrument lessons. At East Dene, specialist teachers deliver tailored recorder lessons to the Y3 pupils. This year, children in 4 will be having whole class Ukulele lessons. The children have an opportunity to become a member of the school choir, which gives all year groups a chance to come together to make ever lasting memories. The children are also going to be taking part in numerous musical activities outside of school. This will include One Voice, Big Blast and singing in the community.

Music Concepts

We recognise the interconnected nature of the elements in music and the way in which they also weave throughout all of the concepts and ideas in music. These interconnected elements of music and concepts are visited and revisited in progressive contexts in every unit.

Part B: Co-curricular Music

Our School offers a range of opportunities to experience music beyond that of the taught lessons. This includes

School Choir: Our pupils have the opportunity to be a part of the Choir that enriches their exposure to music and gives opportunity to perform in front of peers and the wider community beyond the school gate. We have performed at the Rotherham Minster and taken part in One Voice at Magna.

Assemblies: Assemblies give pupils the opportunity to sing and perform.

Dedicated Performance: Our pupils have the opportunity to perform at numerous times of the year. This includes Christmas performances, End of year performances, East Dene’s Got Talent and Big Blast at Magna. Children also have the opportunities to walk musical performances. These include pantomime performances from outside agencies and Key Stage 2 have the opportunity to go to the Opera at Sheffield City Hall.

Music of the Week Calendar: Every week in school, we share a featured genre of music or event and listen to a variety of artists within that category. We listen to these tracks in assemblies and in class. We encourage the children to listen and think about how the music makes them feel. Our discussions look at where in the world it was made and when in our history was it created. Over time, we are beginning to recognise characteristics of different genres as well.Rotherham Music Service: The service comes in to teach recorder lessons in year 3 at the end of their lessons, children have the opportunity to perform at Magna for the Big Blast.

Part C: Musical Experiences

Our school recognises the importance of experiential learning and music and performance plays a part in this. We give our children lots of experiences that include visits to the theatre visits from performing artists and shows, exposure to live music performances. Our Pupils have opportunity to perform in assembly, in the community and as part of our shows and performances.

Musical knowledge is split into 3 parts: tacit, procedural and declarative knowledge. We use this to give the children the opportunity to perform.

At East Dene, we also show progress in music by technical, constructive and expressive outcomes. Whilst some aspects of the music curriculum are linear, such as the development of technique on an instrument, some aspects need consolidation of the procedural knowledge to move forward in the progression of the learning. The quality in performance is also an important part of musical judgement.

In The Future

This is about what the school is planning for subsequent years.

At East Dene, in the future we want to give out children even more opportunities to build their cultural capital and musical ability.

Establish More Community Partnerships: Reach out to local nursing homes, supermarkets, and other venues to create a network of performance opportunities for the expanded choir program

Composition and Creativity: Encourage students to compose their own music, drawing inspiration from different cultures and styles.

Musical Traditions: Teach students about music’s role in different cultural celebrations and traditions. Organise school events that celebrate diverse musical heritages.

Music Industry Knowledge: Educate students about various careers in the music industry.