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Castle Bromwich Infant School

    Music

    Intent 

    Our Music curriculum is designed to inspire a lifelong love of music through the values of Kindness, Perseverance, and Belonging. We believe music is a universal language that connects us all and provides children with opportunities to express themselves, collaborate with others, and experience joy and achievement. Through singing, playing instruments, composing, and listening, children grow in confidence, creativity, and self-belief. We nurture kindness by encouraging children to listen to one another and perform with care and respect. We promote perseverance by helping them to practise, refine, and improve their skills. We foster a strong sense of belonging by celebrating every child’s contribution to our shared musical community. Our curriculum builds on the Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 programmes of study, enabling all children to develop the knowledge, skills, and appreciation needed to become expressive and thoughtful musicians.

    Curriculum Drivers
    Big ideas
    Mapping
    • Learning for Life 
    • Learning together; Making connections
    • Learning and Living Healthily 
    • Learning and Living in our Community and the Wider World
    • Using our voices expressively and creatively 
    • Explore and play tuned and untuned instruments
    • Listen to a range of high-quality live and recorded music 
    • Experiment with sounds
    • Progression of skills and knowledge 
    • Builds on, embeds and deepens prior learning
    • Practical exploration, creation and reflection underpin teaching and learning

    Implementation

    Music is taught through engaging, practical experiences that encourage children to explore, create, and perform with confidence and enjoyment. Lessons are sequenced to ensure progression in musical knowledge and skills, with continuous opportunities to revisit and build on prior learning. Teachers model enthusiasm and resilience, providing an environment where kindness and encouragement allow children to take creative risks. Perseverance is promoted through practice, rehearsal, and reflection, while a sense of belonging is built through shared performance, teamwork, and celebration of individual and group achievements. Assessment for learning, questioning, and feedback help every child to make progress, and learning environments are rich in musical vocabulary, instruments, and opportunities for exploration through play and collaboration.

     

    Teaching
    Support and challenge
    Retaining Knowledge
    • Modelling through clear presentation of subject matter
    • Responsive and adaptive to the needs of children
    • Assessment for learning throughout
    • Promoting independence through learning and play
    • Impactful questioning that promotes deeper thinking and talk
    • Promoting the use of everyday language, the language of learning e.g. compare, analyse etc . . . and subject-specific vocabulary e.g. pulse, tempo, rhythm 
    • Developmentally appropriate, which leads to high levels of productivity
    • Scaffolding through resources, models, peer support and adult interaction
    • Addressing errors at the point of misconception
    • Delving deeper through questioning, both adult-led , and child-led
    • Use feedback, learning conversations, play partnering and sustained shared thinking strategies to reinforce and extend learning

     
    • Sequential mapping and skills progression that revisits and reinforces taught content
    • Learning environment that reinforces taught knowledge and encourages application to new learning, with continuous provision inviting children to turn to music as part of their play and exploration
    • Apply skills and knowledge into new contexts by making links to previous learning

    Impact

    Through our music curriculum, children become confident, creative, and expressive individuals. They demonstrate kindness in their collaboration, perseverance in their learning, and a strong sense of belonging within the school and wider community. By the end of KS1, pupils will have learnt a range of songs, play simple instruments with control, and talk about the music they hear using appropriate vocabulary. They understand that music is not only an art form but a way to connect, communicate, and care for others. Our outcomes reflect this success: children make excellent progress from their starting points, with the vast majority achieving or exceeding age-related expectations. More importantly, they leave KS1 with a love of music that enriches their wellbeing and helps them to flourish as kind, resilient, and connected learners.

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