Music

Charanga’s scheme ‘follows a spiral approach to musical learning, with children revisiting, building and extending their knowledge and skills incrementally. In this manner, their learning is consolidated and augmented, increasing musical confidence and enabling them to go further. Teachers can adapt their teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of the children they teach.’ (taken from the Scheme Overview on the Charanga website)

EYFS

The children in Nursery and Reception sing songs as part of everyday learning. They begin with familiar action rhymes and nursery rhymes which link to their half termly curriculum themes and their weekly stories. They learn to use different untuned percussion instruments to accompany different stories.

KS1

As shown above, each unit has a social theme, combined with a unique musical spotlight. In Years 1 and 2 children are introduced to key vocabulary such as pulse, rhythm and pitch. They begin to learn to copy back rhythm patterns and simple scales on the Glockenspiel. Lessons involve listening, playing, singing, performing and composing or improvising with up to 3 notes at a time. Some of the genres that are introduced are Hip Hop, Pop, Reggae, 20th and 21st Century Orchestral and Jazz.

Children in Year 2 are taught to play the Recorder.

Lower KS2

Children in lower KS2 are introduced to the names of the notes and their lengths. In Year 3 and 4 the children follow the Charanga scheme. Each session involves playing, listening, singing, performing and composing or improvising with up to 5 notes at a time. Children continue to develop their skills in playing the Glockenspiel (and from 2024 the Recorder) by following either the written music score or by learning the patterns by ear. Genres include Reggae, Soul, R&B, Electronic Dance Music and Funk.

Upper KS2

Children in Year 5 and 6 are expected to know and use the key Italian terms for dynamics and tempo as well as to recognise and talk about key signatures and time signatures. Every session includes elements of singing, listening, playing, performing, composing or improvising with up to 7 notes on the Glockenspiel. Children are encouraged to talk about what they can hear and to be able to give detailed responses to whether they like a particular piece of music or not. They are encouraged to make links to other parts of the curriculum and to their wider experiences when listening to music in class. As well as the genres already covered in the years before, they are now introduced to Gospel, Minimalism, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Film Music, Disco and Musicals.

As part of Collective Worship, all children learn to sing hymns and songs frequently with the whole school. They learn actions to accompany these songs and develop their performance skills through participating in class assemblies and events such as Eucharist and productions to parents.

The school has a choir formed of children in KS2 who enjoy learning to sing songs together. They will often perform at local events and services where possible.