Intent

At Bierton C of E Combined School, music gives all children the opportunity to perform creatively and imaginatively as well as the ability to express themselves. It is a key part of all cultures and allows opportunities for cross-curricular learning.  At Bierton C of E Combined School, our intent is to inspire a love of music, promote understanding and give children the ability and confidence to make music.  

Implementation

At Bierton C of E Combined School, every child has access to a minimum of 1 hour dedicated music time each week delivered by the class teacher. At Bierton, we follow a scheme called Kapow, which provides teachers with pedagogical content knowledge to deliver well-planned and executed lessons to ensure our pupils receive the best education possible. Kapow has a progressive curriculum that provides the pupils with the tools to listen, understand, compose and play music from Reception upwards, with skills and knowledge increasing sequentially year on year. The scheme varies between a practical and theory-based approach, where pupils use a variety of different instruments but also take the time to understand the cause and effect they have on an orchestral environment. Whole-class practical musicianship is taught in music lessons throughout KS1 and KS2 (drumming, samba band, ukulele, band skills, classroom percussion).

Kapow exposes children to a huge range of musical genres that meet the National Curriculum statements. We use IT and apps such as Purple Mash within the music classroom and on stage to aid  music making, tuning,  composition, production and performance. All children have the opportunity to take part in extra-curricular musical activities in the form of lunchtime or after-school clubs. KS2 children have the opportunity to take instrumental lessons if they wish. 

Impact

Bierton C of E Combined School has a variety of students that are musicians, singers, composers, performers. We also listen to a wide range of music. Enjoyment of music is a key focus; enhancing well-being, self-confidence and a sense of achievement for the children. This is not only provided by the class teacher but also part of our local community. The peripatetic pupils at Bierton who take part in weekly music lessons are provided with the opportunity to perform in a concert at the end of term to celebrate their successes.  

 Music assessment is on-going throughout the year and children are encouraged to discover, identify and develop their own areas of strength. Alongside the ‘taught musical skills’, children learn to formulate an opinion and to participate and collaborate with others; enhancing collaboration skills and building an awareness of self and others. 

 Musical experiences stretch beyond the National Curriculum with opportunities to take part in outside events including Honeycomb Festival, Young Voices and Echoes. These provide the children with the chance to perform in a professional environment.  

Every child within the school is provided with opportunities to perform in both Christmas nativities and pantomimes as well as Year 5 and 6 productions. This enables children to demonstrate their music knowledge and offer feedback on key stage performances. There are multiple opportunities through the school for children to perform in themed assemblies. This allows children to develop their confidence and competence within the field of performing arts.  

 We want our children to leave Bierton C of E Combined School with an enjoyment and love of music. All children at our school will have experienced taking part in live performances to an audience; giving them increased confidence to speak and perform in public.  We hope that they will take this knowledge and their musical experiences with them into Year 7, where they can continue to build upon the skills they have learnt as they progress through their secondary education.