West Leigh Infant School

Intent

At West Leigh Infant School, it is our intent that we make music an interactive, creative, enjoyable and inclusive learning experience for all our pupils through the Voices Scheme of Work. They begin their musical journey in Reception and we build upon this every year to ensure their musical abilities develop. We encourage children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which we aim to build up their confidence and self-expression, inspire creativity and help them to develop their musical potential. Our teaching focuses on developing the children’s ability to understand pulse and rhythm and follow a beat. Through singing songs, children learn about the structure and organisation of music as well as having fun. We teach them to listen and to appreciate music from different cultures and genres of music. They develop descriptive language skills in music lessons when learning about how music can represent different feelings, emotions and narratives. Musical vocabulary is taught such as volume, pitch, beat and rhythm, pulse, tempo and note values and we encourage children to discuss and evaluate music using these terms.

Implementation

The music curriculum ensures pupils sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. This is embedded in classroom activities as well as weekly singing assemblies, celebrations and performances. Each year group has two opportunities to perform as a whole class/year group which include musical performances. These experiences give the children the opportunity to showcase their skills in front of a live audience and develop their confidence in musical arts.

Extra-curricular activities such as choir and recorder lessons are offered to enhance children’s musical experiences. The elements of music are taught in classroom lessons through the Voices Scheme. This results in the children being able to use the language of music to discuss, understand, make, play, appreciate and evaluate their own musical creations.

Impact

During their time in school, children have opportunities to engage in their own musical journey. Our music lessons aim to develop an understanding of culture and history, both in relation to pupils individually, as well as musical cultures from across the world. Children are able to enjoy music, in as many ways as they choose - either as listener, creator and performer. They can discuss music and develop an understanding of how it is created. They can sing, feel a pulse, build rhythmic skills both individually and in a group. They discover their potential for singing and playing and hopefully, with encouragement, seek out opportunities to further develop these skills in the future and continue to enjoy and embrace music in their lives.