Curriculum Intent

At St Thomas’s Centre, children gain a firm understanding of what music is through listening, singing, playing, evaluating and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions, and musical genres. We are committed to ensuring children understand the value and importance of music to their own and others’ lives and well-being and also the impact music has in the wider community.

The music curriculum ensures children sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. This is embedded in the classroom activities and special assemblies. Through the musical program Charanga, teachers can produce inclusive lessons for all children to access the musical curriculum in a fun and engaging way, further promoting a love of learning. Teachers deliver music following the Charanga programme, designed specifically for the teaching of music in primary schools. Charanga lessons are planned in sequences to provide children with the opportunities to review, remember, deepen and apply their understanding. The elements of music are taught in classroom lessons so that children can use some of the language of music to dissect it, and understand how it is made, played, appreciated and analysed.

Throughout the child’s journey at St Thomas’s Centre, their musical skills and understanding are built year on year, from singing nursery rhymes, action songs from memory to performing simple rhythm patterns on tuned and untuned percussion instruments. Throughout all of this, the child’s enjoyment of music is a key element, running alongside the ‘taught’ musical skills and objectives.

Key Stage 1 overview

Pupils should be taught to in Key Stage 1:

• use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes

• play tuned and untuned instruments musically

• listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music

• experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.

Key Stage 2 overview

Pupils should be taught to KS2:

• play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression

• improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music

• listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory

• use and understand staff and other musical notations

• appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians

• develop an understanding of the history of music.