Music

At Howard Park Community School our intent is to give children the opportunity to learn skill and knowledge within music to inspire them to become a musician themselves. Our children will be taught music in a way that ensures progression of skills, and follows a sequence to build on previous learning. Our children will gain experience and skills of a wide range of dimensions of music in a way that will enhance their learning opportunities, enabling them to use music in a wide variety of contexts, ensuring they make progress. Will aim to give children the opportunity to participate a wide range of musical experiences.

The aims of our Music curriculum are to develop pupils who:

  • Can sing and use their voices individually and in a group
  • Create and compose music on their own and with others
  • Use technology appropriately when composing
  • Have opportunities to learn a musical instrument
  • Understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated
  • Listen to, review and evaluate the work of great composers and musicians from a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions
  • Enjoy and have an appreciation of a range of different musical styles e.g. Classical, Jazz, Hip Hop, Pop, Rock etc.
  • Use and understand musical language and include musical features in their own work
  • Make judgements about the quality of music
  • Have opportunities to play a wide variety of instruments
  • Have different opportunities to take part in performances

How Do We Teach Music At Howard Park?

We follow the Kapow scheme of work and in doing so our music curriculum focusses on the following areas:

These are embedded in classroom lessons as well as fortnightly singing assemblies, various concerts and performances and the learning of instruments. The elements of music are taught in classroom lessons so that children are able to use the language of music to discuss it, and understand how it is made, played, appreciated and analysed. 

In the classroom, students learn how to play various un-tuned and tuned percussion instruments. By the time our pupils have left Howard Park at the end of Key Stage 2 they will have also experienced learning how to play the ukulele in year 5.  In doing so our children understand the different principles of creating music, as well as how to read a form of basic music notation. Children also learn how to compose focussing on different dimensions of music, which in turn feeds their understanding when listening, playing, or analysing music. Composing or performing using body percussion, vocal sounds and technology is also part of the curriculum, which develops their understanding of musical elements without the added complexity of an instrument.