Music
Curriculum Intent (Vision)
Music gives the soul a universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything else. (Plato)
Our vision is to nurture, grow and build a passion in our children for music. This will allow the children to express themselves creatively through performing, composing and experiencing music practically. We offer pupils the opportunity to experience these things through various instruments, tasks and musical experiences. In addition, our weekly singing assemblies value music and help to promote a love for this subject.
Implementation of the curriculum
Our music curriculum is delivered through the Hampshire Music Service. Through the planned curriculum, children experience a rich music curriculum that gives children the opportunities to experience, grow and develop musically. All music lessons are taught by specialist teachers who are passionate and inspirational. The music curriculum at Manor Field is organised into Curriculum Music, ‘Listen to Me’ scheme and ‘Beyond the Beat’ scheme.
Curriculum Music is taught weekly in Year 3 and 6. These lessons are planned to cover National Curriculum objectives. In Year 4, children receive weekly ‘Beyond the Beat’ lessons which are designed to give children the opportunity to start learning classical musical instruments and encourage them to work together as a team to compose collaboratively. ‘Listen to Me’ is taught in Year 5 and is a whole-class instrumental and vocal teaching programme for primary aged children. This approach helps children make an informed choice when wanting to learn an instrument at a higher level because children are exposed to and taught to a play a range of musical instruments such as, ukulele, clarinet, samba, African drumming and keyboard. At the end of each half term, parents are invited to attend a short music concert or to join in with a lesson.
In addition to our music curriculum, we also offer Taiko drumming as an after-school club: Manafirudo Taiko. There are only three youth Taiko groups in Hampshire and we have one of them. If you haven’t experienced Taiko Drumming, check it out on YouTube. It’s amazing!
Education should develop each child's personality and talents to the full. It should encourage children to respect their parents and their own and other cultures. Article 29, UNCRC.
We also provide weekly tuition sessions for some of our children to learn how to play the clarinet and the violin. This is funded through our Pupil Premium funding.
Manor Field have recently been donated a Gamelan set and the children have started a journey into music from Indonesia. Gamelan refers to the traditional Indonesian percussion orchestra and to the set of musical instruments used. A specialist music teacher has been running ‘Listen to me’ style lessons on the instruments. The children are all really enjoying it and appreciate how special it is to be using a new set of instruments at the school.
Impact of our curriculum
At Manor Field Junior School we can judge the success of our music curriculum in the following ways:
- Develop a love of music in various forms, the desire to listen to, perform and inspire curiosity in different genres and instruments seen through increased levels of participation.
- Pupil conferencing shows children happy, engaged, creative, enthusiastic and motivated to do well and challenged.
- Learning walks by subject leaders, senior leadership team, governors or external visitors – shows evidence of our intent in action and progress.
- Evidence of learning is shown with photographs, video and recordings alongside planning and end of unit assessments.
- Compositions and musical appreciation showcase the skills and knowledge experienced and taught.
- Appreciation of how music can contribute to mood, relaxation, mental health and wellbeing.
- High quality performances are shared with fellow pupils, parents and visitors.
We strive to ensure that our children‘s attainment is in line with or exceeds their potential when we consider the varied starting points of all of our children.