St John the Baptist CE VA Primary School Music

At St John the Baptist School, within the teaching and learning of Music in our curriculum, our intent is that children are first and foremost given musical learning experiences and opportunities that will foster their appreciation of music as an expressive art form.

Music is a vehicle for personal expression and we recognise the importance that having a broad and balanced curriculum must play in children’s lives. Through music teaching in our school, we will strive to support children to understand how sounds are made and organised into musical structures; know how music is made through singing and a variety of instruments; know how music is composed and written down; know how music is influenced by the time, place and purpose for which it was written and give children opportunities to develop and master their knowledge, understanding and skillset within the inter-related dimensions of music. ; pitch, rhythm, structure, timbre, tempo, metre, dynamics, texture and appropriate musical notations, with these concepts progressively built upon through different musical activities throughout the children’s’ time at school.

The teaching of Music at St John the Baptist school is approached through the Inside Music scheme, which is part of the Voices Foundation charity. We use Inside Music to ensure cohesion and continuity between Year groups and can track coverage and progress effectively using the unit suggestions set out by the scheme. There are three distinct programmes based on age group for Early Years, KS1 and KS2. Each programme ensures that performing, which is central to the teaching process of music lessons, is primarily (but not limited to) singing, allowing children to experience the collective and personal act of making music.

Likewise, listening and thinking during musical activity are of the utmost importance with many opportunities to hone these skills utilised during lesson time e.g. listening to imitate and listening in audience.

In Year 4 children will also have lessons delivered by a specialist music teacher where children will be taught to play a tuned instrument (currently guitar) and will gain confidence in playing as part of a group and in some cases soloist pieces, to widen their opportunity for musical development and acheivements.

The school also meets weekly to take part in a hymn practise as part of collective worship, where children are encouraged to find and build confidence in using their singing voice through collective rehearsal and performance. 

In addition to the core curiculum, pupils from Year 2 upwards can have individual piano tuition funded by parents and guitar tuition (group or individual) from Year 5.

The school choir, made up of children from Years 3-6, perform in a local Carol Concert and Music Festival, organised by the Hertford and Ware Primary Schools' Music association.

At St John the Baptist School, we hope to foster a shared and personal love of music, be it performing,  listening, or both and encourage the children to take up wider opportunities for musical learning in their lives such as the school choir or individual piano and guitar lessons. We strive to ensure the children go to their secondary schools ready for the musical curriculum they will receive at KS3.

We will always adjust our planning and delivery of Music lessons throughout school accordingly, dependent on the needs of the children and assessment for learning that is ongoing within lessons.