Music
"A new command I give you: love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another," (John 13:34).
Inspired by Jesus’ example, the Trent school community aims to
serve one another in love.
We show kindness to others because God has shown us great kindness.
We live thankful lives because every good thing comes from God.
And we persevere, not giving up, because God is our helper.
As a school we use music to praise and worship God regularly, reflecting on the Christian messages of kindness, thankfulness and perseverance that are conveyed in the songs which we sing.
As we learn about music from different cultures, music through time and how to play different instruments we live our Christian values in other ways, showing kindness and perseverance as we work and perform together and help each other to progress. Performances within the wider community give us further opportunity to live out and share our values.
Intended Curriculum
At Trent, each child begins to develop the key skills of a musician, giving them the knowledge and confidence to perform, compose and understand music from a wide range of times and places. Pupils experience and understand music through the development of three key skills: Performing, Creating, and Theory and Listening.
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At Trent, the study of music involves engaging pupils in lessons that enable them to understand and access increasingly complex musical ideas and skills through a focus on practical music making. Doing this through a breadth of topics allows pupils to experience wide ranging musical traditions, and develop skills in a range of instruments, voice and technology. With this in mind, we have established a school curriculum plan for music as an entitlement for all pupils that is:
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Aspirational in terms of instilling in our pupils a desire to achieve the highest levels of success through providing them with the opportunities to excel in terms of their development of skills and knowledge. Such high aspirations are clearly identifiable in the progressive and increasingly challenging key objectives of each unit;
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Logical, and broad and balanced in terms of the areas of subject content we have selected which reflect the guidance and the demands of the National Curriculum. For example pupils experience music from throughout history and from around the world, as well as performing on instruments such as recorders, ukuleles and mixed percussion;
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Progressively more challenging from Reception through Year 6 both in terms of the complexity of the subject knowledge we want our pupils to acquire and also the skills which they develop. These anticipated outcomes in knowledge and skills acquisition are detailed in the objectives of the scheme of work for each topic;
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Built upon and has continuity with the provision for music established in the Early Years Foundation Stage, and designed to be a solid foundation for skills and knowledge developed in the Key Stage 3 Curriculum and beyond.
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Inclusive in terms of delivering the same curriculum to all of our pupils irrespective of specific learning needs or disabilities and differentiating where necessary through, for example, in class support and alternative learning activities.
Curriculum Delivery
At Trent, we implement a practical approach to learning and teaching in music that develops our pupils as young musicians. Through lessons centred on performance and composition, our pupils develop understanding of musical vocabulary, analysis, notation and historical and geographical context alongside performance and composition skills.
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The focus on performance and composition throughout schemes of work in music helps to make learning activities relatable and engaging, as pupils learn and perform music which has real-life context. As children progress through Trent they revisit key skills and knowledge in a variety of contexts, with increasing degrees of complexity.
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Music lessons are interactive and practical, and pupils often work as a class, small group and individually within one lesson. Pupils use a variety of ‘real’ instruments as they progress through the school (including mixed percussion, recorders, ukuleles and keyboards) and listen to a breadth of professionally recorded music from history and around the world. Pupil work is recorded through videos and sound recordings, ensuring the focus remains on the key objectives (rather than attempting notation which could be much too tricky, for example), although pupils do develop skills in creating graphic and score notation as they progress through the school, enabling them to work on single pieces for a number of weeks. Prior learning is constantly revisited and built upon, forming solid foundations of musical understanding.
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Each scheme of work has clear objectives and anticipated outcomes. They are also carefully structured to enable pupils to build skills through each lesson, culminating in the completion of a performance or composition.
The curriculum has been carefully planned to enable children to develop their understanding and skills as they progress through the school.
Impact
Each scheme of work has clear objectives and set outcomes for pupils in terms of knowledge, understanding and skills acquisition. Lessons are differentiated to ensure that all children are challenged. We ensure that when assessing pupils, evidence is drawn from a wide range of sources to inform the process, including interaction with pupils during lessons, observing and interacting with pupils while they are practising and refining skills, and listening to final performances of learnt pieces or compositions. The outcomes of each lesson and scheme of work serve to inform the teacher’s developing picture of the knowledge and understanding of each pupil and to plan future learning accordingly. Outcomes are used to build an emerging picture of what the pupil knows, understands and can do.
At the end of each year, we make a summative judgement about the achievement of each pupil. At this point teachers decide upon a ‘best fit’ judgement as to whether the pupil has achieved and embedded the expected learning goals, exceeded expectations or is still working towards the goals. These decisions are based on the professional knowledge and judgement that teachers possess about the progress of each pupil, developed over the previous three terms, which allows an informed and holistic judgement of attainment to be made. Achievement against the learning goals for music at the end of the year is used as the basis of reporting progress to parents.