Curriculum Intent

At St Thomas Primary School our aim is to develop a love of music and an appreciation of the wide variety of musical styles from across the world, and encourage children to explore and experiment to find their own areas of interest.

The aims of teaching music in our school are to develop pupils who:

• Acquire the skills and knowledge of a variety of types of music and ways of expressing their own interests and musical abilities.
• Promote a life-long love of music and appreciation for music and the role it can play in spiritual health, mental health and cultural development.

Special Educational Needs Disability (SEND) / Pupil Premium / Higher Attainers

Research suggests that arts participation has a greater effect for younger learners and in some cases, higher attainment for disadvantaged pupils. The wider benefits of music and art education show long term positive benefits to learning and an increasing sense of well-being for all pupils.  

Curriculum Implementation

Music follows the planning principles of St Thomas School with planning based on the National Curriculum, Focus Education Documents on Progress in the National Curriculum and Skills Progression Documents with defined progress for each year group. However, planning starts for teachers at St Thomas with assessment for learning and one of the core strengths of all teaching staff is knowing the starting point and end point for the children and planning activities which develop skills and reinforce previously taught skills. This on-going process of Assessment for Learning allows teachers to plan subsequent lessons which build upon the children’s achievements. As music is primarily a practical lesson, most assessment of chilren’s learning is based on AfL with strong elements of verbal feedback for the children, allowing them to focus on the learning they have done so far and the steps they need to take next so that they become aware of the steps they need to implement to improve. 

Curriculum Impact

Music has the ability to have a massive impact on the health and wellbeing of all individuals and all children at St Thomas will receive regular opportunities to take part in Music through:

• Singing assemblies,
• Instrument practice with school teaching staff,
• Regular planned lessons linked to the Topic of Learning for the year group exploring different musical themes, styles, eras and composers.

Children will

In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• Children meeting ARE in music at end of cohort year
• Children aware of key vocabulary and terms associated with Music.
• Children of all ages have the opportunity to use instruments and other musical forms to express themselves.
• Children will have an awareness of the musical opportunities for them at St Thomas Primary School,
• Children will gain experience of performing for an audience.