Music Policy

Music is important because it can provide fulfilment throughout life. It is a powerful, unique form of communication that can change the way students feel, think and act. It transcends different cultures, abilities and generations.

Listening to and making music fulfils an instinctive human need for self-expression and creativity. It stimulates responses on both emotional and intellectual levels.

Besides being a creative and enjoyable activity, music can also be a highly academic and demanding subject.

Musical activities include performing vocally or with instruments, exploring sounds and composing as well as listening and responding to music of different styles and cultures. All these activities involve the musical elements of pitch, duration (rhythm), dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture and structure.

Music at Totsland Schools aims to: 

• Give every child the opportunity to experience enjoyment through a variety of musical activities and to respond to musical emotions

• Develop a child’s understanding of music through these activities

• Help children of all abilities develop positive attitudes and to experience success and satisfaction in music.

• Develop social skills through cooperation with others in the shared experience of music making.

• Give children the opportunity to perform music both vocally and with instruments

• Encourage the children to explore a wide range of sounds

• Give them the opportunity to compose music and express their ideas and feelings through music

• Experience listening to music of a variety of styles and cultures

• Develop a child’s appreciation of the richness of our musical heritage

• Provide an array of performance opportunities so children can feel part of a community.

• Encourage high standards in performance

• Be motivated to enjoy and succeed in music

• Encourage children to express ideas and opinions about music

• Give each child the opportunity to develop their musical talents

• Develop an appropriate vocabulary to help them understand and discuss their own work and that of others 

The following list of skills and attributes can be gained through participation in musical activities. It will be clear that these also contribute to the whole school curriculum.

• A sense of achievement – individual and collective

• Social skills such as co-operation, tolerance, self-confidence and perseverance

• Coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lips, cheek and facial muscles develops greatly

• Ability to use other languages to describe emotions (usually Italian words are used)

• Ability to read notation

• Ability to discriminate

• Listening skills

• Sensitivity to sounds

• Imagination and inventiveness

• Ability to analyse and solve problems
• Concern for accuracy
• Ability to memorise

• Develop attention to detail

• Communication skills, self-discipline and self-evaluation

• The illumination and extension of studies in other curriculum subjects

• Higher standards of application and concentration in all areas of work

We teach Music across our Early Years as an integral part of the Early years curriculum. We relate the musical aspects of children’s work to the objectives set out by our Early years’ curriculum

The Early Years curriculum is based on seven areas of learning aiming to promote all aspects of a child’s development. Music comes under the “Creative Development”. The  curriculum starts from birth and children progress through each stage of development aiming to achieve the Early Learning Goals by the end of their Pre-Kindergarten year.

Children sing songs, make music and dance, and experiment with ways of changing them. They safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.

Children use what they have learned about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes. They represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, art, music, dance, role play and stories.

 During the Early Years, children explore, experiment, practise, repeat and consolidate musical ideas and skills through singing, playing and movement; they have access to instruments appropriate to their age. Music by its very nature will develop skills and competencies in other areas of learning.

We teach Music across our Early Years as an integral part of the Early years curriculum. We relate the musical aspects of children’s work to the objectives set out by our Early years’ curriculum

The Early Years curriculum is based on seven areas of learning aiming to promote all aspects of a child’s development. Music comes under the “Creative Development”. The  curriculum starts from birth and children progress through each stage of development aiming to achieve the Early Learning Goals by the end of their Pre-Kindergarten year.

Children sing songs, make music and dance, and experiment with ways of changing them. They safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.

Children use what they have learned about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes. They represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, art, music, dance, role play and stories. 

During the Early Years, children explore, experiment, practise, repeat and consolidate musical ideas and skills through singing, playing and movement; they have access to instruments appropriate to their age. Music by its very nature will develop skills and competencies in other areas of learning.

Grade1, Grade 2, Grade 3

Students should be taught to:

Use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes play tuned and untuned instruments musically.

Listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music.

Experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.

Students should be taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They should develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory.

Students should be taught to:

Play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression.

Improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music

Listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory use and understand staff and other musical notations

 Appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians develop an understanding of the history of music.

• The Music Curriculum has been developed to be a skills-based, creative and spiral curriculum.

• Each class (Grade K to Grade 5) receives a total of one hour’s music teaching per week. 

• Differentiation is achieved by resource, task, support and outcome through teachers’ delivery.

• All students are encouraged to participate in and enjoy music lessons regardless of race, culture, gender, ability or physical limitations. A mutual respect and tolerance for all cultures will be promoted through the study of music.

• During music lessons students will be expected to work collaboratively in groups, as a whole class, in pairs and individually. Groups are chosen (by the teacher or students) appropriate to the task set. Children have the opportunity to work in groups of both mixed and same gender and ability.

• As an inclusive school Students with special educational needs are able to develop confidence through the expression of their feelings in music, as it is a subject in which success does not depend on academic ability.

• Children who demonstrate a talent for music through musical skills beyond their age will be given extra challenges through differentiated work, questioning and homework, and through extra-curricular activities and performing opportunities.

• Children are encouraged to use their own instruments, including the recorder, during composing activities.

• Students’ achievements are celebrated in display and performance opportunities. We celebrate the musical ability of all students, including those with musical talent, through regular performances.

• Additional music activities include a school orchestra. Peripatetic teachers are available for tuition at a fixed cost outside school hours.

• Endeavour to promote a dynamic approach to the development of music ensuring that music has a high profile at the School.

• To update and administer school music curriculum and oversee its implementation by other staff.

• Keep up to date with developments in music through reading and course attendance etc.

• Report back on courses attended.

• Encourage staff to go on appropriate in-service courses. 
• Advise and support staff with music.

• Be responsible for overall cataloguing, storage, purchase and upkeep of all school music resources and facilities. To organise any budgets made available from various funds and to ensure money is used to its best advantage.

• Regularly review and update the school policy statement and guidelines as required (outlining the aims, objectives and philosophy involved in music)

• To organise concerts for children to attend and organise concerts and workshops for children in school.

• Coordinate extra-curricular music activities as appropriate to staffing and pupil interest.

• Represent the school at external meetings in relation to music.

• Instruments are put away carefully after each session unless on display or in use in the music area.

• Instruments are stored appropriately according to size, weight and shape.

• Children are encouraged to take care when transporting instruments.

• Children are taught not to step over instruments and to handle all instruments with care and respect.

• Extra care is taken with electrical equipment and children’s attention drawn to the potential dangers posed by electric sockets, plugs and cables and the misuse of electronic instruments.

• Appropriate steps are taken to ensure hygienic use of blowing instruments.

• Totsland Schools are constantly informed by government guidance in relation to teaching music safely during the Covid19 Pandemic. Special considerations are given when singing and playing wind instruments in the classrooms.