Music Development Plan
Warmsworth Primary School: Music Development Plan Summary 2024-2025
Academic year that this summary covers: 2024-2025
Date this summary was published: September 2024
Date this summary will be reviewed: July 2025
Name of the school music lead: Hannah Kennedy
Name of school leadership team member with responsibility for music (if different): Rachel Train (Headteacher)
Henry Anderson (Curriculum Lead)
Name of local music hub: Doncaster Music Hub
Name of other music education organisation(s) (if partnership in place): No other formal partnerships
This is a summary of how our school delivers music education to all our pupils across three areas – curriculum music, co-curricular provision and musical experiences – and what changes we are planning in future years. This information is to help pupils and parents or carers understand what our school offers and who we work with to support our pupils’ music education.
Part A: Curriculum Music
This is about what we teach in lesson time, how much time is spent teaching music and any music qualifications or awards that pupils can achieve.
At Warmsworth Primary School, we are passionate about providing a broad-balanced curriculum and the wider arts are highly valued. We are committed to providing musical education and opportunities for all children, during their time at our school.
Alongside the 2014 National Curriculum, and the new Model Music Curriculum 2021, it is our aim to develop:
Children who have the skills and knowledge to succeed in the 21st Century
Children’s understanding and use of subject-specific words.
Children who can sing and use their voices individually and in a group.
Children who can create and compose music on their own and with others.
The use of technology appropriately when composing.
Opportunities for every child to learn a musical instrument.
Children who can understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated.
Children who love listening to live music.
Children’s enjoyment of music!
Curriculum
At Warmsworth Primary School, we use the Kapow Primary Music Scheme across the school.
This scheme of work fulfils the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum (2014).
The National Curriculum for Music aims to ensure that all pupils:
• Perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians
• Learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence
• Understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.
Class teachers use the Schemes of Learning, and through their knowledge of the children they teach, adapt it to ensure that every child can access and enjoy music within our school.
Sequencing and progression are clear throughout the Schemes of Learning for each year group and across the school.
We explore music through the inter-related dimensions of music: performing, listening, composing, the history of music.
We focus on developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that children need in order to become confident performers, composers, and listeners. Children develop the musical skills of singing, playing tuned and un-tuned instruments, improvising and composing music, and listening and responding to music.
Kapow Primary’s Music scheme has been designed as a spiral curriculum with the following key principles in mind:
• Cyclical: Pupils return to the same skills and knowledge again and again during their time in our school.
• Increasing depth: Each time a skill or area of knowledge is revisited, it is covered with greater depth.
• Prior knowledge: Upon returning to a skill, prior knowledge is utilised so pupils can build upon previous foundations, rather than starting again.
Our curriculum introduces children to music from all around the world and across generations, thereby helping them to develop an understanding of the history and cultural context of the music that they listen to and teaching them to respect and appreciate the music of all traditions and communities.
Pupils are taught musical notation and how to compose music. Composing or performing using body percussion and vocal sounds is also part of our curriculum, which develops the understanding of musical elements without the added complexity of an instrument.
As children progress through the school, we expect them to maintain their concentration for longer and to listen to more extended pieces of music. Children develop descriptive skills in music lessons when learning about how music can represent feelings and emotions. We teach them the disciplined skills of recognising pulse and pitch.
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.
Implementation
In accordance with the National Curriculum, we ensure that coverage of knowledge and skills is developed sequentially throughout the school. We have adopted the Kapow Scheme, to ensure that children receive quality music lessons throughout the year – we cover one unit per half-term and music is taught each week for one hour across the school.
Kapow provides a classroom-based, participatory and inclusive approach to music learning. Throughout the scheme, children are actively involved in using and developing their singing voices, using body percussion and whole-body actions, and learning to handle and play classroom instruments effectively to create and express their own and others’ music. Through a range of whole class, group and individual activities, children have opportunities to explore sounds, listen actively, compose and perform.
During music lessons, children are given opportunities to learn music-specific vocabulary in a meaningful context. The elements of music are taught in classroom lessons so that children are able to use the language of music to discuss it, and understand how it is made, played, appreciated and analysed. They will learn to recognise 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. The children are given opportunities to apply their skills and given a chance for collaboration through composition.
Music in EYFS
We teach music in Foundation Stage as an integral part of their learning covered during the year and as part of the specific area, Expressive Arts: Being Imaginative, identified in the Foundation Stage Framework (2014). We relate the musical aspects of the children’s work to the objectives set out in the Early Learning Goals (ELGs). Music contributes to a child’s personal and social development. ‘Counting Songs’ foster a child’s mathematical ability and songs from different cultures increase a child’s knowledge and understanding of the world. Children’s standards and achievements in Music are assessed in line with the School’s Assessment Policy.
DFE’s Model Music Curriculum
The DfE’s Model Music Curriculum 2021 states that: ‘In Years 3 or 4, it is recommended that each class should start a whole-class instrumental programme lasting a minimum of one term...Opportunities for development should continue beyond the mandatory term.’ At Warmsworth Primary School, our children learn to play glockenspiels across all of Key Stage 2 (yeas 3 to 6) and develop the children’s skills in reading musical notation and begin to perform songs with more complexity as they move in to upper Key Stage 2 (years 5 and 6).
Planning
Our Schemes of Learning and medium term plans show which of the units cover each of the National Curriculum attainment targets. The Schemes of Learning and medium term plans also detail the progression of skills and knowledge within each year group to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of EYFS, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. Lesson plans include guidance on differentiation to allow all children to access the music lessons and subject specific guidance is provided for teaching staff to allow non-music specialists to teach with confidence.
Adaptation
We recognise that there are children of widely different musical abilities in all classes, so we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child.
We achieve this in a variety of ways by:
• Setting open-ended tasks which could have a variety of responses;
• Setting tasks of increasing difficulty (not all children complete all tasks);
• Providing resources to support all children;
• Using classroom assistants to support the work of individuals or groups of children
Special Educational Needs (SEND)
We strive to remove barriers to learning for pupils with SEND. Adopting a positive and proactive approach will ensure that children with SEND are able to express themselves and take an active part in lessons. Explicit instructions and scaffolding will enable all pupils to achieve and succeed in music.
Assessment
Children are assessed against on-going Assessment for Learning (AfL) and assessments against learning objectives are carried out at the end of each unit to ensure all pupils are making progress. These assessments are then monitored and evaluated by the subject leader for music and support provided, as required.
Part B: Extra-Curricular Music
This is about opportunities for pupils to sing and play music, outside of lesson time, including choirs, ensembles and bands, and how pupils can make progress in music beyond the core curriculum.
There are many opportunities for pupils at Warmsworth Primary School to enhance their music education outside of our main curriculum offer.
In partnership with the Doncaster Music Service, we currently provide pupils with the opportunity to learn a variety of instruments through specialist peripatetic provision, including: guitar, woodwind, brass and violin. These lessons are usually in small groups and include loan of the instrument for the duration of the lessons. This lessons are currently provided free of charge to all pupils and are funded through the main school budget as part of our commitment to curriculum enhancement.
Children who take up this opportunity are also invited to attend weekly rehearsals with for our Warmsworth Primary School Band, led by one of our external peripatetic teachers. This band, and other ensembles (guitar, woodwind, brass and strings) have the opportunity to perform to their parents and our wider community in class and key stage assemblies, school music events and concerts etc, throughout the school year.
Our partnership with the Doncaster Music Service enables us to sign-post our children to the other opportunities provided by the Doncaster Music Service, to enable our children to extend their knowledge and skills further, including weekend bands and orchestras etc.
The school also has a choir run by our Music Subject Lead, which have performed in school as well as part of the Doncaster ‘Sing Out!’ performance at the Doncaster Dome for the past 3 years in connection with Doncaster Music Hub. In recent years, staff from our school have undertaken professional learning with The Royal Opera House on their 'Create and Dance' and 'Create and Sing' programmes and we continue to use their learning resources and training to enhance our provision.
Part C: Musical Events and Experiences
This is about all the other musical events and opportunities that we organise, such as singing in assembly, concerts and shows, and trips to professional concerts.
Music enables our children to express themselves and build self-esteem.
Our children at Warmsworth Primary School are given numerous opportunities throughout the year to perform in front of an audience and develop their confidence and performance skills.
During EYFS and KS1, all our children take part in our school's Nativity performances and all our children in KS2 perform a production in the spring term. Children in KS2 also have opportunities to perform in music and choir concerts for parents during the year, to showcase their learning of their voice or a musical instrument.
Each week, the children take part in singing assembly in their relevant Key Stage, to foster a love of singing and develop an awareness of music from different genres, time periods and countries. This complements and enhances their subject knowledge of music further.
The children in our Key Stage 2 choir have the opportunity to perform in front of a large audience at ‘Sing Out!’ at Doncaster Dome each year, to celebrate singing and music in our local community. This is organised by the Doncaster Music Hub and is a highlight for many of the children and staff who attend each year.
We have other opportunities during the school year, where children can attend other musical and drama performances at local theatres, as the opportunities arise, eg. In 2024, some of our children attended workshops at CAST in Doncaster, whilst others attended theatre performances at the Sheffield Lyceum Theatre. Where out-of-school events are attended, we request a voluntary contribution from most parents, however those eligible for Pupil Premium are provided with these opportunities free of charge and the school subsidises these places.
In the future
This is about what the school is planning for subsequent years.
At Warmsworth Primary School, we will continue to value the wider arts and support children in exploring their talents, knowledge and understanding.
We will continue to provide opportunities for all children to express themselves through music and the creative arts; to incorporate more opportunities to watch music in the wider community; and to inspire children to continue learning to play a musical beyond primary school.
We will continue to work effectively with our current musical partnerships with the Doncaster Music Hub and The Royal Opera House to enhance our school music provision and explore new partnerships as they arise.
We will seek further opportunities for our pupils to experience live music, either in school or in our wider community, to further foster the love of the arts and allow children to explore their musical talents and provide enjoyment for years to come.
We are very proud of our music provision at Warmsworth Primary School and will continue to invest in the arts into the future.
Further information
Should you wish to find out more about our music provision at Warmsworth Primary School, please view our Music section of the website through the link below: https://www.warmsworth.doncaster.sch.uk/page/music/107347 or alternatively contact the school office via telephone (01302 852200) or email (secretary@warmsworthschool.co.uk) and request to speak to the Music Leads in school.
Our Local Doncaster Music Hub has further information about the opportunities available in the local area – please follow the link below for more information:
https://doncastermusichub.org/
The Department for Education has published a guide for parents and young people on how they can get involved in music in and out of school, and where they can go to for support beyond the school – please follow the link below for more information.
Warmsworth Primary School
September 2024
Warmsworth Primary School