Music
Imagine a life without music! Listening to, appreciating, singing along to and making music is an important part of a child’s experience at school. When adults remember back to their days at school, the songs they sang, the shows they performed in and the instruments they played together will be at the forefront of their memories. Music is a language that connects people all over the world.
The aim of our music curriculum is to inspire pupils to develop a love of music. We aim to use music to stimulate and develop creativity, to increase self confidence and to promote the shared sense of achievement from singing and playing together.
To see the way that teaching and learning in music supports our school’s wider curriculum vision, click below:
Charanga Music School
At Overfields Primary School, we use the scheme of work and resources developed by Charanga Music School.
The Charanga Musical School Scheme provides teachers with week-by-week lesson support for each year group in the school. It is ideal for specialist and non-specialist teachers and provides lesson plans, assessment, clear progression, and engaging and exciting whiteboard resources to support every lesson. The Scheme supports all the requirements of the national curriculum.
Charanga has a very clear musical progression for both key stage 1 and key stage 2. You can view this progression below:
All pupils in Reception to Year 6 work through six units during the year. These units include listening and appraising music, singing, playing instruments, improvisation, composition and performance. The children play a range of tuned instruments (glockenspiels, xylophones, recorders etc.) and un-tuned percussive instruments. The scheme involves a lot of games where the children first learn then practice musical skills such as finding the tempo, copying rhythms, learning musical notation and singing.
Charanga has a vast array of music from all over the world. Working through the scheme, our children classical, jazz, funk, choral, rock, hip-hop and many other musical styles. They also encounter music from all across the globe including Latin America, Africa, India and Europe.
To view the knowledge and skills, together with the title and style of the main piece, click the appropriate year group below:
Tees Valley Music Service
We work closely with the Tees Valley Music Service (TVMS) who are the Lead Partner in the Tees Valley Music Education Hub and a music service working in schools and colleges across the Teesside area. TVMS currently provide specialist music provision in our Reception, Year 2 and Year 4 classes. They also support with professional development of staff and organise special events where schools across the Tees Valley perform together. You can visit the TVMS website by clicking the image below:
Sing Together
During the school closures in 2020 and 2021, we created a page on our website where we could encourage our pupils to sing at home. We are now back in school together and enjoying singing again in assemblies and in class, however we are keeping our ‘Sing Together’ page so any of our pupils who want to share these songs at home can do so. Click the choir below to visit the Sing Together page:
The National Plan for Music Education
In 2021, the Government produced a National Plan for Music Education. This document contained a new vision to enable all children and young people to:
- learn to sing, play an instrument and create music together
- have the opportunity to progress their musical interests and talents, including professionally
There is a useful webpage that explains the aims and intentions of the National Plan for Music Education and how it will affect children and young people both in and out of school. You can visit this page here.
Every child should receive a great music education. Learning about music and having the opportunity to play musical instruments and make music together is a vital part of a rich and rounded education. Music plays a key role in brain development. It helps to develop language, motor skills, emotional intelligence and collaboration skills.
The Power of Music to Change Lives: A National Plan For Music Education – Department for Education
