"They will soar on wings like eagles" (Isaiah 40:31)
Respect / Responsibility / Courage / Trust / Perseverance / Compassion
Intent
We have chosen to deliver the Kapow Music scheme of work to meet the aims of the EYFS framework and the national curriculum. The intent is to ensure that Music lessons are an enjoyable experience for pupils and teaching staff. First and foremost, we aim to help children to feel that they are musical and to develop a life-long love of music. The focus is on developing skills, knowledge and understanding so that children can become confident performers, composers, and listeners. The Kapow curriculum 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.
Implementation
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. Our cyclical scheme of work aims to increase depth of knowledge and build on prior skills. It is based on the following 5 key strands:
These are interwoven to create engaging and enriching lessons.
Each half-term unit combines these strands within a cross-curricular topic which captures pupils’ imagination, encouraging them to explore music enthusiastically. 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.
Children at Salhouse have opportunities to join a Salsa band, play ukulele in our weekly singing assemblies and take individual music lessons. Music is an integral part of the school day, featuring in Collective Worship and our fun music assemblies. Church services linked to the Christian calendar and school performances also enable the children to enjoy music. Each year the school participates in the Norfolk County Music Festival.
Impact
The impact of our teaching is constantly monitored through formative and summative assessment through learning objectives within each lesson and an end of unit performance.
Pupils leave Salhouse equipped with a range of skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education and to be able to enjoy and appreciate music throughout their lives. We expect that children will:
✓ Be confident performers, composers and listeners and will be able to express themselves musically at and beyond school.
✓ Show an appreciation and respect for a wide range of musical styles from around the world and will understand how music is influenced by the wider cultural, social, and historical contexts in which it is developed.
Understand the various ways in which music can be written down to support performing and composing activities.
✓ Demonstrate and articulate an enthusiasm for music and be able to identify their own personal musical preferences.
✓ Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Music.
Grebes have learned the song ‘Animal Tracks’ by Mountain Man which has only two chords, Am and C. Year 4 have learned to strum these two chords and some are singing at the same time! We hope you enjoy this performance. The children were excited and nervous to play it in Celebration Assembly this morning. They persevered through the nerves and did brilliantly!
Kingfishers enjoyed their music lesson all about Mussorgsky’s ‘Night on Bald Mountain’. (Click here to see a live performance of the whole piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52iOdAVU4C8) They were asked to imagine what kind of story this instrumental piece of music could be telling, with the only non-musical clue being the title. Children first listened, then they did quick sketches of the story the music suggested, before responding to the music with physical movement. Each group’s performance was different. In the videos here you will see asteroids hitting Earth, a gun fight, a huge monster attacking.
After the lesson, Kingfishers enjoyed their first ukulele lesson, learning the chords C and Am and playing some games. Children who have had lessons with Mr. Bell got the chance to show off their skills.
Our Ukulele Ensemble and Salsa Band both performed at the Norfolk County Music Festival last Friday with excellent results. Our Ukulele Ensemble were given the highest marking of ‘Outstanding’ for what the judge called “an exceptional performance, both artistically and technically.” The confidence of this group comprised of 41 children from Years 4 to 6 grew as the performance went on and the last song, ‘Green, Green Grass’ by George Ezra, was described as having “fantastic confidence and strength of rhythmic playing, particularly on the stops. Love expressive singing. Nice keyboards too.”
Our Salsa Band received ‘Highly commended +’ for “a generally correct and creditable performance with greater evidence of artistic interpretation.” Children also had to persevere through some technical hitches. We are very proud of all the children who took part, for the dedication to practice and their performances on the day. A big thank you goes to Mr Leaver, Mr Bell and Mr Weitz for their support and time in getting the children ready for the performances.
Video links:
Salsa Band: https://fb.watch/qZrDZoeQ0B/
Salhouse Ukulele Ensemble: https://fb.watch/qZs66pb5Ix/
Every Friday at Salhouse we enjoy our Music assemblies. This week we had a special performance by Miles from Year 4 on the keyboard. He has been learning the instrument at school with Mr Bell and at home with his dad, and he wowed us all by playing Green, Green Grass, Starlight and Kingston Town.
Are you learning an instrument? (It doesn’t matter what level you’re at!) Would you like the chance to show off your skills to the whole school? Then just let your teacher know and we will arrange a date!
Grebes have been learning Green, Green Grass by George Ezra on ukulele and after just four rehearsals were ready to perform it to the whole school!
Our amazing Salsa Band is back with several members making their debut in this performance.
Today we began to learn about how music is written down. Kingfishers were so interested and knowledgeable that they began to create their own compositions using crotchets, quavers and rests. They learnt the names of the notes and recorded these underneath then performed their compositions to the class.
Today we had special performances from Toby and Blossom. Since his last guitar performance, he has passed Grade 1 and is now working on some Grade 2 pieces. Blossom, meanwhile, has been hard at work on the piano and she demonstrated how she likes to sing the notes she is playing on the keys. Finally, Grebes played some jazz ukulele to Miles Davis’s ‘So What’ and Frankie even volunteered to improvise a solo on the spot!
Kingfishers worked in pairs to write an 8 beat per bar that fitted in with a piece of music.Â
Currently Grebes are learning to play So What by jazz legend Miles Davis.Â
We have learned to play the chords and are just beginning to learn the C Lydian scale so we can write and improvise our own melodies to go with the backing track. (Click here to hear the backing track.) We also enjoyed this jazzy version of a song we learned before Half-Term, Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’.Â
