Vision

At Springfield, we understand that music is a universal language with creativity at its core. Our high quality music curriculum aims to engage and inspire pupils to develop both a love of music and their skills as musicians. We provide children with a range of opportunities to cultivate their cultural understanding and develop their musical competencies, such as appreciating and understanding a wide range of music from different traditions. As our pupils progress through our curriculum, we also teach them to engage critically with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians. By the time our children leave Springfield, they have been equipped with this knowledge and understanding as well as having an appreciation of a breadth of musical forms. We know that by providing regular opportunities to actively engage with music we can increase our children’s self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. There is a clear link between music and wellbeing and we value the power sharing music can have on our mood and our feelings

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.

How we plan for and teach music

Across the school, we follow the Kapow music scheme. The Kapow 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 high-quality resources to support every lesson. Kapow supports all the requirements of the National Curriculum for music.

In the Early Years (EYFS), music and movement is part of every-day learning. The children are taught new songs and dances linked to the topics they are learning by their class teachers. During their time in Nursery and Reception, our children build a repertoire of familiar songs and ways of dancing. Additionally, the children are encouraged to explore a range of percussion instruments, both with an adult and independently. As the children progress into Key Stage 1 and throughout Key Stage 2, each class has a weekly music lesson.

At our school we are committed to providing a range of musical experiences for our pupils, alongside the music curriculum. We have developed strong links with the Apollo Music Project, which brings live classical music to our children.

How we evaluate learning in music

Class teachers regularly assess children’s progress in music. This takes place through watching and listening to children’s performances, evaluating their ability to use technical vocabulary precisely in the correct context and reviewing children’s written and recorded responses.
Children are also involved in peer and self-assessment opportunities against specific criteria and are taught to analyse their performances to draw out areas of strength and next steps.

For more detailed information about music learning in each year group, take a look at our music subject overview here:  Music at Springfield