Music
Intent
At St. Catharine’s, we make music an enjoyable learning experience. Music is a non-core foundation subject, and we believe that it is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. Music education at St Catharine’s engages and inspires pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. All of our children are given the opportunities to perform, compose and listen to music. They are encouraged to appreciate music at its core, participating in a variety of musical experiences.
Implementation
Singing lies at the heart of St Catharine’s, as we sing weekly in music assemblies and class. Pupils from Reception upwards are taught music weekly, we are lucky to have the opportunity to have the Wigan Music Service in Reception this coming summer.
Music Is Fun
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” ― Plato
Each Monday our Year 4 pupils are involved in the Wider Opportunities Project where each child has the opportunity to learn a musical instrument and perform on a termly basis.
Every year, children are given the opportunity to attend and perform at Young Voices and other opportunities such as the Summer Song Share. Following regular rehearsals at school, they are given the opportunity to perform alongside other local schools.
Impact
The teaching of music can have a fundamental impact on learning across the curriculum, within the Early Years, Key Stages One and Key Stage Two. For example, music provides opportunities to promote:
- spiritual development through developing pupils’ awareness of the power of music to take the listener out of the commonplace and helping pupils use music to express and reflect on their own thoughts and feelings;
- moral development through helping pupils exercise responsibility in the choices and decisions they and others make as part of the creative process, valuing their own and others’ work and recognising the effect of music;
- social development through helping pupils share music-making and develop a sense of social cohesion, recognising the value of different contributions and their own responsibility to support and enrich the work of others, and recognising the need for different roles in group performance;
- cultural development through helping pupils recognise how music influences and reflects the way people think and feel, relating music to the time and place in which it was created and performed, and through analysing, evaluating and reflecting on music from contrasting traditions and identifying how and why some aspects change or stay the same. Music provides opportunities for pupils to develop the key skills of: communication through presenting music to different audiences and discussing and sharing ideas with others.
- application of number through recognising pattern, sequence, order and rhythmic relationships;
- ICT through using a range of ICT to compose and perform music;
- working with others through taking different roles and recognising and supporting the different contributions of others in groups and ensemble work;
- improving own learning and performance through appraising their own work, recognising the need for perseverance, developing the ability to use time effectively, and increasing their ability to work independently;
- problem-solving through achieving intentions when composing and presenting performances to different audiences and in different venues.
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