Fern Hill Music Rationale
'Music touches the heart of our humanity and its sense of wonder has influenced societies throughout history. For many pupils, the music that they love will be part of the narrative of their lives...'
- Amanda Spielman
Music Curriculum: Intent
Love of Learning
Music enriches all our lives. It connects us to our past, to our communities, to places around the world and significantly, it connects us with our emotions. It can offer us excitement and challenge, or peace and relaxation. At Fern Hill, we believe that every child should be able to experience music and to progress. Our children are encouraged to appreciate and participate in music across a range of different styles and through different opportunities - from listening to performing. Music lessons at Fern Hill offer engaging activities for musical appreciation, exploration and creativity. We sing together in key stage assemblies every week and children listen to their peers performing using voice and playing instruments in concerts and assemblies throughout the year. In addition, we offer our children wider opportunities for musical instrument learning via the Kingston Music Service and choral singing in after-school and lunchtime clubs.
Knowledge
Our pupils become knowledgeable about musical styles, and the interrelated dimensions of music. Carefully planned knowledge, concepts and vocabulary have been mapped out to ensure our pupils can recall the style indicators, musical history and interrelated dimensions of music. Lessons are sequenced via the Charanga, Musical School scheme of work, ensuring progress from years 1 to 6.
Skills
Our children learn vocal and instrumental skills with a range of tuned and untuned percussion instruments, including recorders, glockenspiels, ukuleles and keyboards. They are encouraged to innovate and create their own musical compositions, using notation.
Empathy
Whilst learning about music, children will explore their emotional reactions and connections to a wide variety of musical compositions, from a range of historical periods and across a range of different styles from around the world. They will have the opportunity to explore music from their own communities and consider the impact and significance particular styles, or pieces, have had on societies through time. Thus enhancing their cultural capital. They will reflect on the benefits of music appreciation on their own well-being and that of others.
Success
Our pupils’ successes as musicians are celebrated through purposeful opportunities, which enable them to demonstrate and present their knowledge and skills through performance to their peers and the wider school community.
Music Curriculum Implementation: what is taught and when
All units include these six core principles and concepts to ensure that the overarching Music rationale is achieved:
Musicianship is developed by each lesson and all sequences of learning include these key concepts:
Music Curriculum: Impact and Assessment
Each learning sequence ends with the children having the opportunity to perform one of the songs explored throughout the sequence.
Children are always provided with an audience. All sequences end with a performance opportunity with a specified audience and performances are recorded and shared on the Google Classrooms for parents to enjoy and for subject leadership monitoring.
Children are assessed by teaching staff against the report criteria at the end of the year and against agreed learning objectives at the end of each learning sequence throughout the year.
In the MMC, pre-assessment quizzes are available to identify children who may need targeting through the unit.
Enrichment and Performance
Class assemblies, singing assemblies and diamond assemblies provide regular opportunities for children to perform, throughout the year.
Annual opportunities to perform include: concerts at Christmas, including KS2 performances in All Saints Church, Kingston, the Year 6 Production in the Summer Term and various end of year performances for other year groups.
Instruments are learned in every year group, beginning with percussion and including recorders, glockenspiels, ukuleles and keyboards in KS2.
School wide exploration of the history of music, different musical genres and famous composers, is led through singing assemblies and continued in Music lessons. Additional links are made across the curriculum such as in Dance, Geography and English to deepen and broaden children’s knowledge of music from a range of periods and cultures.
Whenever the opportunity arises year groups will participate in an annual borough-wide celebration of music at the Rose Theatre in Kingston.
At Fern Hill, we have strong links with Kingston Music Service, who provide us with external tutors to take individuals for specialised music lessons, during the school day. We currently have children learning to play the piano, guitar and violin.
Inspiration 