Music
Intent
Our goal is to make music an enjoyable learning experience. We encourage children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which we aim to build up the confidence and cultural capital of all children. Our teaching focuses on developing the children’s ability to sing in tune and with other people. Through singing songs, children learn about the structure and organisation of music. We teach them to listen and to appreciate different forms of music. As children get older, we expect them to maintain their concentration for longer and to listen to more extended pieces of music. Children develop descriptive skills in music lessons when learning about how music can represent feelings and emotions. Also, we teach the children how to work with others to compose music and perform for an audience.
Implementation
The whole-school music curriculum is delivered by a professional music teacher from Leeds City Council’s ArtForms, ensuring high-quality, specialist teaching for all pupils.
The curriculum enables children to sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate, with clear skills progression in line with the National Curriculum and its inter-related dimensions of music. This ensures that musical knowledge and skills are built systematically as children move through the school.
To support staff subject knowledge and ensure consistency across school, regular CPD sessions and staff meetings are planned to review music provision and further develop teachers’ confidence and understanding.
We continue to build our bank of musical instruments to enrich children’s musical experiences. As part of this commitment, every Year 4 child learns to play the ukulele, giving all pupils the opportunity to develop instrumental skills.
Children of all abilities and backgrounds benefit from being taught by real musicians, ensuring inclusive access to high-quality music education. Pupils are taught to use appropriate musical language to discuss, understand and analyse how music is created, performed and appreciated.
Opportunities for participation and performance are continually developed, allowing children to perform for wider audiences and gain confidence as musicians. All children experience performing beyond the classroom and are made aware of further musical opportunities available to them.
Our school choir, led by a professional music teacher, provides additional opportunities for pupils to perform in competitions and festivals and to engage with the wider community.
Music at Hugh Gaitskell Primary School is further strengthened through our school song, which reflects our school ethos: “I am powerful, I am strong”.
Impact
Whilst at school, children have access to a varied and inclusive music programme that allows them to discover their strengths, as well as identify areas they may wish to develop further. The integral relationship between music and the learner provides a rich foundation through which pupils develop key skills such as achievement, self-confidence, collaboration, awareness of others and self-reflection.
Music also supports children’s understanding of culture and history, both in relation to themselves and to communities and traditions from across the world. Pupils are encouraged to enjoy music in a variety of ways — as listeners, creators and performers. They learn to dissect and understand the different elements of music, sing with confidence, and feel and respond to pulse and rhythm.
Children develop an understanding of how to improve and extend musical skills that may be less familiar to them, enabling them to pursue these interests both in and beyond school.
By the end of each cohort year, children will achieve age-related expectations in music and retain the key knowledge and skills appropriate to their stage of learning. All pupils are given opportunities to develop their instrumental flair and to use music as a powerful form of expression.