Music at Florence Melly

Music Curriculum Rationale

At Florence Melly we are musicians! We want our children to love music. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be music producers, songwriters, composers or rockstars! We want them to embody our core values. We all believe that: “if you can DREAM it, you can do it”. The music curriculum has been carefully crafted so that our children develop their musicial capital. We want our children to remember their music lessons in our school, to cherish these memories and embrace the musical opportunities they are presented with! Recently, our school have invested in providing specialist ukulele lessons for pupils in KS2. The ukulele sessions have replaced the Brazilian Samba drumming sessions which we offered to KS2 earlier in the academic year. Bringing music alive is important at Florence Melly Community Primary School.

Curriculum Intent

The music curriculum promotes curiosity and a love and thirst for learning. It is ambitious and empowers our children to become independent and resilient – like all curriculum areas. 

We want to equip them with not only the minimum statutory requirements of the music National Curriculum but to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. For example, at Christmas our children were whisked off to Liverpool Hope University to participate in a special Christmas concert in front of their parents. The concert was set in the beautiful chapel and the children’s sang a whole host of festive songs, spreading Christmas cheer to all those who attended. What a great start to the festive season it was! We are committed to putting music on the map here at Florence Melly Community Primary.

We want our children to use the vibrancy of our great city to learn from other cultures, respect diversity, co-operate with one another and appreciate what they have. We achieve this by providing a strong SMSC curriculum, with British Values and our core values placed at the heart of everything we do. This often feeds into the music curriculum. For example, as part of our World Day for Cultural Diversity celebrations, we invited a specialist into school to deliver expert gamelan workshops for our pupils. Gamelan music originates from Indonesia, where it is used as part of religious ceremonies and communication. What a unique and wonderful way to celebrate World Day for Cultural Diversity.

We enrich their time in our school with memorable, unforgettable experiences and provide opportunities which are normally out of reach – this piques their interests and passions. For example, earlier this year we provided our pupils with the opportunity to experience the full Royal Liverpool Philharmonic experience. Three year groups experienced a unique performance by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In the fantastic surrounding of the Philharmonic Hall, the children were treated to music from around the world which celebrated and reinforced the fundamental British Values. The event was a resounding success and many of the children commented what a wonderful and memorable experience they had. We firmly believe that it is not just about what happens in the classroom, it is about the added value we offer to really inspire our children.

Curriculum Implementation

In July 2018, a complete audit of the music curriculum was conducted. On the back of the findings from this audit, the music curriculum has been carefully built and the learning opportunities and assessment milestones for each year group crafted to ensure progression and repetition in terms of embedding key learning, knowledge and skills. At Florence Melly Community Primary School we use the Charanga Musical School scheme – which provides our teachers with week-by-week lessons for each year group in the school from ages 5-11. This scheme provides lesson plans, assessment, clear progression, and engaging and exciting whiteboard resources for every lesson. Our music scheme is based on: Listening and Appraising; Musical Activities – creating and exploring; and Singing and Performing.

Music subject specific characteristics, which we expect the children to demonstrate, have been developed and shared with all stakeholders. These characteristics underpin all work in music and form a focal point for display areas and provide a common subject specific vocabulary for staff and pupils. These characteristics are:

• A rapidly widening repertoire which they use to create original, imaginative, fluent and distinctive composing and performance work.
• A musical understanding underpinned by high levels of aural perception, internalisation and knowledge of music, including high or rapidly developing levels of technical expertise.
• Very good awareness and appreciation of different musical traditions and genres.
• An excellent understanding of how musical provenance – the historical, social and cultural origins of music – contributes to the diversity of musical styles.
• The ability to give precise written and verbal explanations, using musical terminology effectively, accurately and appropriately.
• A passion for and commitment to a diverse range of musical activities.

We empower our staff to organise their own year group curriculums under the guidance of our subject leaders. Teachers are best placed to make these judgements. Staff develop year group specific long-term curriculum maps which identify when the different subjects and topics will be taught across the academic year. The vast majority of subjects are taught discretely but staff make meaningful links across subjects. They link prior knowledge to new learning to deepen children’s learning. Our children are taught the right, connected knowledge.

Our short-term plans are produced on a weekly and daily basis. We use these to set out the learning objectives for each lesson, identifying engaging activities and resources which will be used to achieve them.

We encourage staff to teach a weekly music lesson. This was a notable change after the music audit. This helps to ensure sufficient time is allocated to music and that musical subject matter can be revisited frequently. We believe that by crafting our curriculum this way, we improve the potential for our children to retain what they have been taught, to alter their long-term memory and thus improve the rates of progress they make. 

Curriculum Impact

We use both formative and summative assessment information in every music lesson. Staff use this information to inform their short-term planning and short-term interventions. This helps us provide the best possible support for all of our pupils, including the more able. The assessment milestones for each phase have been carefully mapped out and further broken down for each year group. This means that skills in music are progressive and build year on year. 

Our staff use music formative assessment grids to systematically assess what the children know as the topic progresses and inform their future planning. These formative assessment grids then inform summative assessment judgements for each topic.

Assessment information is collected frequently and analysed as part of our monitoring cycle. This process provides an accurate and comprehensive understanding of the quality of education in music. A comprehensive monitoring cycle is developed at the beginning of each academic year. This identifies when monitoring is undertaken. Monitoring in music includes: book scrutinies, lesson observations and/or learning walks, pupil/parent and/or staff voice.

All of this information is gathered and reviewed. It is used to inform further curriculum developments and provision is adapted accordingly.

At Florence Melly Community Primary School, we are MUSICIANS!

Key Documentation

Please use the links below which set out the vibrant Music curriculum on offer to our pupils.

	Flo		Flo
Music Curriculum Map		Characteristics of a Musician		Music Milestones

 

Latest Music Activities

Check out just some of the wonderful activities our children get up to in Music. Please visit our Twitter and Flickr feeds for more fantastic activities.

	Flo		Flo
Liverpool Hope Carol Concert		Investigating Pitch in Year 4		A Drumming Masterclass
Clarinet Lessons		Brazilian Samba Drumming		St Aidan’s Church Christmas Performance

Music programmes of study: Key Stages 1 and 2

Purpose of study