Music at Primrose Hill

Intent:

The intention of the music curriculum at Primrose Hill Primary is to provide children with a rich musical experience, to help children to feel that they are musical, and to develop a life-long love of music. We focus on developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that children need in order to become confident performers, composers, and listeners. Our curriculum introduces children to music from all around the world and across generations, teaching children to respect and appreciate the music of all traditions and communities. 
The wide range of core resources have been developed specifically to motivate and capture each individual’s personal interest as well as developing substantive knowledge in the nine dimensions of music:

• Pulse
• Rhythm
• Pitch
• Tempo
• Dynamics
• Timbre 
• Texture  
• Structure 
• Notation 

Children will develop the musical skills of singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising and composing music, and listening and responding to music. They will develop an understanding of the history and cultural context of the music that they listen to and learn how music can be written down. Through music, our curriculum helps children develop transferable skills such as team-working, leadership, creative thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and presentation and performance skills. These skills are vital to children's development as learners and have a wider application in their general lives outside and beyond school. Through Charanga,  the children develop their understanding, make musical judgements, apply their new learning, develop their aural memory, express themselves physically, emotionally and through discussion and create their own musical ideas. 
 

Owlcotes Elements 

Musicality

During their time at Primrose Hill,  pupils are offered a  range of opportunities to foster a love of music.

Reception children will take part in 'Boomwhackers' and sing rhymes and songs as part of their daily routines. All year groups sing and perform at Christmas to their parents and peers.

From Year 3, children are offered the opportunity to learn musical instruments from external music teachers and will learn to play a different instrument for each year group during Enrichment sessions.

Groups of children have the opportunity to see and experience live music throughout the year such as the Artforms Big Sing and Leeds Youth Music Prom as well as seeing visitors in school like the English National Opera.

Confidence to Perform

After practising instruments in Enrichment sessions, each group is given the opportunity to perform in their Key Stage assembly.

Christmas time invites parents in to school see children perform Christmas songs and plays and UKS2 perform a Carol Concert at Pudsey Parish Church,

The school choir perform regularly throughout the year such as at the Pudsey Lights Switch On.

Our annual end of year concert gives all the children who have been accessing music lessons throughout the year to perform to a large audience along side singing at the school band.

Music of the Week

Each week in school children listen to a piece of music from different genres. Children think about which instruments they can hear, where the music comes from and discuss the musical elements within it.

Listening to music is fundamental to musical understanding. By learning to listen critically, pupils will not only expand their musical horizons but also gain a deeper understanding of how music is constructed and the impact it can have on the listener. Listening to a broad range of music also helps develop other areas of musical activity, including composing and performing. Music is one of the central building blocks of any culture and the shared knowledge of music is crucial cultural capital in understanding where we came from and our place in the world. An inclusive approach to this cultural capital is represented in this document to encourage pupils to be open minded in their listening as well as knowledgeable about the breadth of musical genres in the world today.

The link below shows the music we have listened to so far this year which includes famous composers, Western Classical Music, Popular Music  and Traditional Music from around the world.

Enrichment lessons at Primrose Hill

Children in Key Stage Two take part in an afternoon of Enrichment lessons every week.

Enrichment lessons have been designed to enrich our curriculum teaching by providing opportunities for children to learn certain elements of some subjects in smaller groups.

Enrichment units run on a 5 or 6 weekly programme which ensures that by the end of their school year every child in every year group (from year 3-6) has taken part in every Enrichment unit.

Enrichment lessons, where possible, are planned and delivered by staff in school who have specific skills or expertise in that particular subject, for example, music enrichment lessons are planned and delivered by the music leaders.

Music Champion School Status

In Sept 2023 were presented with Leeds Music Education Partnership Champion School Status in recognition of an ongoing commitment to music education. We are very grateful for the support we have received from Artforms to provide fantastic music opportunities for the children in our school.