Intent

At Petham Primary School our music curriculum is designed to engage, inspire, and help children feel musical and develop a life-time love of music of all different musical styles and genres. Our curriculum aims to teach children about music from all over the world, from all different cultures and across generations teaching them to respect and appreciate the music from all different communities.

The music curriculum is based upon a foundation of developing essential knowledge, understanding and key skills which is built on year by year. The curriculum supports the children to explore and develop skills through a range of practical activities which encourage them to confidently take on the role of composer, performer, and audience member responding to music.

Our school core values are interwoven through the music curriculum.  Our pupils are actively encouraged to demonstrate leadership by having opportunities to help to lead whole school singing assemblies.  Organisation skills are developed when children are required to work together in small groups to compose and perform a piece and there is a need for them to collaborate effectively as a small team, often with a ‘leader’ taking responsibility for ensuring that the group works together.  A degree of resilience is expected and encouraged as the children need to overcome perhaps shyness or lack of confidence at performing to peers or a larger audience, and to accept that mistakes often need to be made and responded to along the route to the final piece of work.  The children are encouraged to use their initiative to consider alternative ways of creating certain effects or how to convey different moods and feelings through perhaps deciding which instruments to select or which kinds of sounds would be appropriate to which themes.  Within the music curriculum there are numerous opportunities for the children to develop their teamwork skills.  Listening to others’ ideas, contributing their own, working as part of a group rather than individually and experiencing the effect of sharing skills and ideas together all help to create well-rounded individuals. 

Implementation

We follow a broad and balanced Music curriculum that builds on previous learning, essential knowledge, understanding and key skills which is broken down by year group to show clear continuity and progress.

All classes receive weekly music sessions delivered by our class teachers that follow a programme that ensures progression of skills and covers all aspects of the National Curriculum.  The children musical enthusiasm is showcased each year in our Lower School Nativity and Leaver Performance.

Our Year 4's, are offered a whole year group class instrumental lesson of the ukulele , which is delivered by a specialist teacher from Kent Music.

In addition to our curriculum we offer all children across the school the opportunity to have private individual musical lessons run by Kent Music. We also arrange some specialists’ events such as local singing and instrumental concerts, church and community events. We also attend the annual Young Voice concert at the O2 arena each year.

Impact

The children’s musical journey through our curriculum is captured through our class display books, enabling the opportunity for children to review prior learning. We share the highlights of learning through videos and pictures with parents using Tapestry. 

Our sequence of learning is designed to progress by skill, allowing every child the opportunity to play tuned and untuned instruments, write their own scores and perform to an audience.

The children at Petham enjoy and value Music, and this is evident through the volume of children wishing to participate in our additional offer of musical instrument tuition, choir and 02 Young Voices. Learning to understand and appreciate the value of music in all aspects of life, and taking the skills learnt at Petham into the future.

Our children are actively encouraged to develop creatively both within and beyond the confines of the curriculum, and our continual and passionate engagement with The Arts is evidenced in our Silver Arts Mark Award, which underpins the school’s commitment to providing an enriching and inspiring creative experience for all pupils.  

In the spring of 2023 we were awarded a Silver Arts Mark Award in recognition of the emphasis we place on the value of the arts across our school, both as part of the curriculum and as a large part of the wider opportunities that we offer the children.