At Pocklington Junior School, we understand the importance of music on our pupil’s social, motor and language development. Music also has the ability to ignite and inspire children’s imagination and it is for these reasons that we teach music weekly.
We follow the Kapow Scheme of learning which allows all children to see themselves a musician as well as developing a lifelong love of music. The scheme allows us to focus on developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that children need in order to become confident performers, composers, and listeners. It introduces children to music from all around the world and across generations, teaching children to respect and appreciate the music of all traditions and communities.
Children will develop the musical skills of singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising and composing music, and listening and responding to music. They will develop an understanding of the history and cultural context of the music that they listen to and learn how music can be written down. Through music, our curriculum helps children develop transferable skills such as team-working, leadership, creative thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and presentation and performance skills. These skills are vital to children’s development as learners and have a wider application in their general lives outside and beyond school.
Kapow’s music teaching takes a holistic approach to music, in which the individual strands of learning are woven together to create engaging and enriching learning experiences. These strands are:
- Listening and evaluating
- Creating sound
- Notation
- Improvising and composing
- Performing
Each unit of work combines these strands within a cross-curricular topic designed to capture pupils’ imagination and encourage them to explore music enthusiastically. Over the course of the scheme, children will be taught how to sing fluently and expressively, and play tuned and untuned instruments accurately and with control. They will learn to recognise, demonstrate and name the interrelated dimensions of music – pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics – and use these expressively in their own improvisations and compositions.
In each lesson, pupils will actively participate in musical activities drawn from a range of styles and traditions, developing their musical skills and their understanding of how music works. Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work as well as improvisation and teacher-led performances.
Lessons are ‘hands-on’ and incorporate movement and dance elements, as well as making cross curricular links with other areas of learning. Where pupils need additional support, this will be given through the differentiation of activities and support needed this ensures that lessons can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required.
Performance is a key aspect of the music curriculum, and at Pocklington Junior School, pupils can play various instruments taught through our peripatetic music teachers. Pupils have the opportunity to learn to play the guitar, piano, violin and drums. Through our RE calendar, we attend church termly where pupils are able to learn and perform a variety of hymns and songs to the congregation assembled. The highlight of the performing year comes for Year 6 as they prepare and perform an end of year production for a large audience.
Where can I find out more?
To find out more about our curriculum, please click here to see our Wonder Learning curriculum. Click here to see our current learning journeys for this term.