At Halam C of E Primary School, Music is fully inclusive to every child. Music provides all children with the opportunities to develop and extend skills, and an opportunity to express their individual interests, thoughts and ideas.

Our school aims to follow the specifications of the National Curriculum; providing a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum and ensuring the progressive development of musical concepts, knowledge and skills by using the musical program Charanga. We believe that music plays an integral role in helping children to feel part of a community, therefore we provide opportunities for all children to create, play, perform and enjoy music both in class and to an audience. Through assemblies and performances, children showcase their talent and their understanding of performing with awareness of others. Lessons enable children to develop their skills, appreciate a wide variety of music and begin to appraise a range of musical genres.

Early Years Foundation Stage

Activities and experiences for children are based on the seven areas of learning and development. All activities will provide elements of learning from the Prime Areas (PSED, Physical Development, Communication and Language) and specific areas (Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the world, Expressive arts and design) of learning. This provision links to the National Curriculum Programme of Study for Music, beginning in Key Stage 1.

In Key Stage 1, children are taught to:

• use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
• play tuned and untuned instruments musically
• listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music
• experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.

In Key Stage 2, children are taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They should develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory.

Children are taught to:
• play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression
• improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music
• listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
• use and understand staff and other musical notations
• appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians
• develop an understanding of the history of music.

At Halam C of E Primary School, all children are involved in singing and performing at church services three times a year. EYFS and Key Stage 1 children learn and perform the Christmas Nativity with Key Stage 2 children singing the songs alongside them. The summer performance is predominantly performed by upper Key Stage 2. EYFS, Key Stage 1 and Lower Key Stage 2 have minor parts in the play and all children sing the songs. Halam C of E Primary School also has yearly musical performances such as the 'Carols and Mince Pies' concert in which all children have the opportunity to sing and to play any musical instruments that they learn in school or at home. A Joint Schools concert is organised by The Minster School in which the family of schools, including Halam, are invited to bring children to rehearse for the day and perform to parents in the evening. These events are fully inclusive and allow the children to have opportunities to perform to an audience. We take part in music events and opportunities such as visits to the Halle Orchestra.

At Halam C of E Primary School, a child may access fundamental abilities such as: achievement, self-confidence, interaction with an awareness of others, and self-reflection. Music will also develop an understanding of culture and history, both in relation to the children individually, as well as ethnicities from across the world. Children are able to enjoy music, in many ways- either as listener, creator or performer. They can sing, feel a pulse, add rhythms and create melodies in a group and they can further develop these skills in the future and continue to enjoy and embrace music in their lives.