Music at The Grove
Welcome to The Grove music page
Intent
At the Grove School we are passionate about every child receiving a high-quality musical education across the year groups. We want the children leaving our school to feel empowered to embrace musical experiences and emboldened to have their own musical opinions and ideas about different genres. We want them to feel happy and confident with music as a subject and skilled enough to partake in musical clubs, classroom discussions, improvisations, cross-curricular learning and to have a good understanding of basic musical terminology, e.g. dynamics and tempo.
We use the Charanga musical curriculum which we have adapted to ensure that each term children are introduced to a range of musical genres and activities in a two-year rolling programme. The lessons begin with listening activities, focusing on a key song/piece for the unit. They then develop into aural activities and eventually performance experiences. Alongside this a range of other complimentary pieces are introduced and the children gain skills in musical discussion, rhythmic activities and singing. They are designed to be fun and are really enjoyed by the children and staff!
Implementation
From EYFS to year 6 the children are taught to recognise and appreciate a range of different musical genres. This not only broadens their musical experiences but, over time, embeds greater listening skills and allows them to place their listening into a musical timeline. The Charanga units – which we have adapted to complement our own curriculum and mixed year groups – are closely aligned with the National Curriculum and also cover many of the aspirational elements of the Model Music Curriculum, published in March 2021.
The Charanga units take us through a range of different musical genres, which we are hoping to expand to include some more Classical styles.
Currently the children complete units incorporating:
- Nursery rhymes
- Funk
- Traditional Western songs
- Disco
- Western Pop
- Blues
- Latin
- Baroque
- Bhangra
- RnB
- Hip Hop
- Reggae
- Rap
- Rock
- Jazz
Charanga really champions the core skills:
- Listening
- Understanding
- Composing
- Improvising
- Singing/Instrumental Performance
Which become progressively more challenging as the children progress through the school and have benefited from the musical teaching they have had previously.
IMPACT
Music learning is loved by teachers and children across school. The successful approach to the teaching of music at The Grove School will result in a fun, engaging, high quality music education, that provides children with the foundations for their musical literacy that they can take with them once they complete their primary education.
Assessment at The Grove School uses formal strategies (snowflake and sunshine tasks, quizzes) and informal strategies and summative tasks.
Children at The Grove School will:
- demonstrate a love of music and an interest in further study in this field
- retain knowledge that is pertinent to music with a real life context.
- be able to articulate their understanding of musical concepts and genres.
- demonstrate a high love of musical skills through their performance
- work collaboratively to create musical performances, including opportunities to participate in musical workshops with professional musicians.
- be given the opportunity to engage in public performances through stage productions, assemblies and concerts.
- be able to articulate their understanding of musical concepts and be able to discuss music using rich language.
- achieve age related expectations in music at the end of their cohort year.