Music
Music at West Cliff aims to inspire children to develop creativity, imagination, self-expression, a life-long love and appreciation of music through performances, clubs, singing and instrumental music tuition.
Children compose, play and perform on a range of instruments as well as begin to read music. The listen and appreciate to a wide range of styles of music and participate in community events such as MusicPort Festival.
We are very proud of our school choir!
Intent
At West Cliff School we provide children with musical experiences which are creative, enjoyable, challenging and confidence-building, based on the central activities of singing, listening, composing, playing instruments musically.
The aims of the Music curriculum at West Cliff Primary School are to enable pupils to:
- be taught within the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage and National Curriculum and beyond.
- realise their full potential in an individual, creative and imaginative way and to value their own capacity for producing a range of music.
- understand and communicate ideas and feelings through the language of music.
- develop aesthetic awareness and the ability to make informed critical judgements;
- understand cultural diversity and appreciate different values and traditions.
- gain enjoyment from participation in and appreciation of musical activities within school, the local environment and the wider community.
Implementation
In EYFS, Expressive arts and design is one of the seven areas of the early years foundation stage and is used to develop a child's imagination, creativity and their ability to use media and materials. Children do this in range of ways including singing songs, making music and responding to a range of music. All these approaches to expressive arts help children to represent and understand their own feelings and ideas. In our EYFS provision music is taught sometimes discretely through songs and rhymes and children have free access to a range of instruments.
In KS1 and KS2 our music curriculum covers the National Curriculum and beyond, focussing on the progressively developing skills of singing songs, listening, composing and playing instruments musically.
Our music curriculum is arranged so that the skills of singing, playing instruments, understanding musical elements such as pitch, rhythm and dynamics, notating music, composing, evaluating and understanding digital music are taught progressively to every year group. Pupils learn about a range of musicians and musical forms - modern, traditional and from a range of cultures. One unit of music is delivered per term. Music is taught as a discrete subject in class, by the class teacher or by our music specialist teacher on our staff.
Each child produces a music book which is a visual record of their learning across the Arts, including music. Each teaching unit leads to a completed piece of work or performance; this may be individual or collaborative and will be recorded in some way either in their music book or digital media saved into Dropbox.
Our music curriculum is supplemented and enriched regularly by a wide variety of community groups, professional musicians and organisations. Several groups are involved in school and visit to provide workshops and specialist teaching. Pupils are regularly invited to share their work and participate in cultural events featuring the arts such as Musicport, Eskdale Festival, Whitby Christmas Festival and Krampus Run.
Children also access instrumental teaching through our music hub. Peripatetic teachers teach many pupils across the school in individual or group lessons. Extra-curricular music is offered across the school, from our popular school choir to ukulele playing.
Impact
Standards in music are high and music holds a high profile in school. Our choir and percussion groups have given regular performances for the community. The school has held Artsmark Gold status for several years. The school is well along its Artsmark journey once more.
We are an Arts Award centre and many of our pupils gain an Arts Award during their time here.
