Music
At Waingroves Primary School, we want to foster a love of making music and performing throughout all the Key Stages of a child’s development.
We want to develop a love of music and for children to be inspired by famous musicians, melodies and all different types of music from different genres. We want children to enjoy making music, improvising, singing and playing tuned and untuned instruments. We want children to rehearse making music and to perform on a stage and to an audience.
All of these opportunities for learning will increase confidence in themselves as performers; give them the attitude of ‘ having a go’ - not being scared to make mistakes – one of our Embark Learning Powers. They will learn about key elements of music from the simplest repetitive rhythms in EYFS to singing and repeating melodies and learning tunes on the glockenspiel in Key Stage 1 and time signatures, major and minor keys and elements of music such as texture, timbre and tempo in Key Stage 2.
At Waingroves, we follow the Charanga Music Scheme, aligned with the Model Music Curriculum. We have been embedding this scheme for the past year and a half now, trialling different topics and seeing what works for us as a staff. We intend to continue with this scheme next year and in future years.
We currently spend 1 hour per week teaching Music across Key Stages 1 and 2. In Early Years, music is taught for 30 minutes. In Reception, the class follow the Original Charanga scheme, because the Model Music Curriculum has not been developed yet for Reception. In Early Years, the children also do a lot of singing throughout the school day.
Every child in Year 3 receives specialist Music tuition from the Music Partnership specialists in Djembe drumming. Year 4 children are taught to read music in the Summer term and learn how to play the recorder using Charanga. Our Year 6 children are taught ukelele by specialist teachers from the Derbyshire Music Partnership.
Our SEND children access the Music curriculum at their level of access and teachers adjust their lessons accordingly to accommodate their needs and to support them.
Our children at Waingroves are keen musicians and are given the opportunity to learn a tuned instrument with individual tuition, which is paid for by parents.
Mr Nick McCann offers guitar lessons to 5 pupils in total; 4 in Year 6 and 1 pupil in Year 5.
Mrs Becky Deans offers clarinet lessons to 8 pupils currently, Four in Year 5 and four in Year 6. They are working towards a performance in front of their parents and the whole school in July. Mrs Deans also does a demonstration for Year 4 children on her clarinet to encourage children to start playing the instrument.
We are currently looking into Mr McCann offering a guitar club starting in September, which will hopefully be open to Year 3 and 4 pupils and will have 6 places. All of the instruments are loaned by the Derbyshire Music Partnership.
Mrs Gage runs a very successful choir on Wednesday lunch times, which has 20 members from Y3 to Y6. The choir rehearses from 12.30 until 1pm. They are currently working towards their performance to parents in July.
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.
Mrs Gage also takes singing assemblies on Mondays. The assembly always has a hymn and then 2 or 3 other songs. These are done on a 3 week cycle; they are introduced in week 1, worked on in week 2, towards a final performance in week 3. Sometimes the children do themed singing such as football songs for the Euros. The children sing lots of pop songs together with songs from singing assembly books and ‘Singing Sherlock’. They also occasionally sing songs in rounds and in different languages. At Christmas time they sing carols and Christmas songs.
Musical performances at Waingroves:
· Year 3 and Year 5 sing carols and Christmas songs for their Christmas performance.
· Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 take part in a Christmas play every year singing original songs.
· Year 3 perform to the school with their drumming on Djembe drums.
· Year 4 perform an original Easter play and perform Easter songs in the Spring term.
· Year 6 perform a concert on ukeleles.
· Year 6 perform in their end of year performance and sing songs linked to the play.
· The choir performs to parents in July.
This year the whole school visited the Derby pantomime, Mother Goose at Derby Arena.
Embark opportunities: Embark federation offer a musical theatre day once per year where children go to experience singing and music workshops with a West End star.
Derbyshire Music Hub: in the Summer Term of 2023, Year 4 took part in a series of singing workshops with Rachel Wilkes. The children learnt various songs and one of their own and then sang them with other Embark schools at Kilburn Junior school in front of parents and carers.
Music is assessed by the childrens’ class teacher through the Charanga scheme.
Evidence which shows the pupils are achieving their intended outcomes is through their love of singing and performing in assemblies, concerts, performances, at Chapel or as part of the Embark Federation at Embark events. The children always perform amazingly well and love to sing and make music in lessons.
Our subject, especially through the Charanga scheme builds on their previous knowledge and gives our pupils the musical skills and knowledge they need to take their learning forward to the next level.
To see a copy of our Music policy and our Music Development Plan, please visit the Policies page.
