Children are given opportunities to develop their understanding and enjoyment of music through performing and composing, listening to and appraising music.  Through the teaching of music we aim to introduce the children to a wide variety of music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions.  We encourage their active involvement in music making whether that be in class, group opportunities across the school or externally.

Please visit the website section under Parents - Music Tuition for further details regarding individual and group musical instrument sessions.  We also run a choir and ukulele group at school - please contact the school for details and current timings as they can change.

Children also enjoy the opportunity to sing and the school productions in EYFS/Key Stage 1 and 2 each year provide a lovely opportunity for performance to an audience. 

'Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon.'

National Curriculum Music (2014)

At Waddesdon Village Primary school, we primarily teach music through the 'Kapow Primary' scheme of learning. This programme follows the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum (NC) and supports the Department of Educations non-statutory guidance for the National Curriculum, the March 2021 Modern Music Curriculum (MMC).

Through this 'Kapow Primary' music programme the children develop their understanding, make musical judgements, apply their new learning, develop their aural memory, express themselves physically, emotionally and through discussion and create their own musical ideas. Many of the music units are cross-curricula so linked to topics.  The children not only learn about music; they become musicians who are able to share and perform using their new skills.

Key aspects of 'The power of music to change lives: a national plan for music education' published on 25 June 2022 is now within our planning and action phase.

EYFS

Early Learning Goals in the EYFS statutory framework and the Development Matters age ranges for Three and Four-Year-Olds and Reception are followed. The most relevant statements for music are taken from the following areas of learning:
• Communication and Language
- Listen carefully to rhymes and songs, paying attention to how they sound.
- Learn rhymes, poems and songs.
• Physical Development
- Combine different movements with ease and fluency
• Expressive Arts and Design
-Explore, use and refine a variety of artistic effects to express their ideas and feelings.
- Return to and build on their previous learning, refining ideas and developing their ability to represent them.
- Create collaboratively, sharing ideas, resources and skills.
- Listen attentively, move to and talk about music, expressing their feelings and responses.
- Sing in a group or on their own, increasingly matching the pitch and following the melody.
- Explore and engage in music making and dance, performing solo or in groups.

• ELG (Expressive Arts and Design and Being Imaginative and Expressive)

- Sing a range of well-known nursery rhymes and songs.
- Perform songs, rhymes, poems and stories with others, and (when appropriate) try to move in time with music.

Key Stage 1 - Year 1 and 2

Pupils 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.

Key Stage 2 - Years 3- 6

Pupils 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.

Pupils 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 impact of our Curriculum delivery is that by the time they reach the end of key stage 2, the children become more confident performers, can express themselves musically beyond school, have an appreciation for musical genres from across the world and that this is all linked to British vales and the schools promotion of SMSC (spiritual, moral, social and cultural development). 

For more information please contact the subject leader, Mrs Tennant, alternatively please look at your child's class page.