Article 29. “We have the right to develop our personalities, talents and abilities to the full” ‘Can I sing my song? I made it up myself’ Roman

Article 31. We have the right to rest, relax, play and to take part in cultural and creative activities. ‘Music is fun, I like to sing and play on the instruments!’ Eleanor

As stated in the national Music Curriculum, ‘Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity.’

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Intent

At Fairisle Infant and Nursery School we aim to provide a high quality music education where children are engaged and inspired to develop their talents as musicians. We want to increase their self-confidence and creativity and to give children a sense of achievement.

We believe that music is an important area of the curriculum for all children to have the opportunity to excel at. We provide engaging and exciting opportunities for children to develop their love of learning through music lessons and activities in and out of the classroom. We aim to provide children with a love of the arts, which will continue to develop, as they become life-long learners.

In the Early Years, children have continual access to explore and experiment with a wide range of musical instruments, along with using music to express themselves. This supports other areas of learning and celebrates all cultures and ways of life. Years 1 and 2 then build upon the exploration to begin to use music vocabulary. The children are taught music skills through practical composition where they can use instruments, voices and body percussion.

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Implementation

We use ‘Charanga’ Music School as our primary teaching tool and can access other resources such as ‘Sing-Up’ and ‘Out of the Ark’ to enrich children’s singing further. 

The Charanga Musical School Scheme provides teachers with week-by-week lesson support for each year group in the school. It is ideal for specialist and non-specialist teachers and provides lesson plans, assessment, clear progression, and engaging and exciting whiteboard resources to support every lesson. The Scheme supports all the requirements of the national curriculum. Charanga deliver fun interactive activities and revisit, practice and teach all the key skills to make progress.

We have a music room full with tuned and untuned instruments, where the children can create their own music or play and sing along together. In singing assemblies, we come together to sing, celebrate and enjoy music, cultures and composers. Children get the opportunity to sing a wide variety of songs and love our interactive Singing Assemblies that promote a love of music.

Children are given the opportunity to perform at Christmas concerts to families, friends, classes and school at our special Fairisle’s Got Talent event.  Here they can showcase their confidence in applying their musical skills if they so wish.  During the year we provide workshops and invite visitors to support us in providing an engaging fun musical experience. We also offer during specific terms after school clubs run by school staff e.g. singing club, glee club and pop stars.

At Fairisle we work closely with the Music hub and schools in our Trust to continue to strengthen our teachers to support teaching and learning. 

Through the Music curriculum, pupils 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.

Each of these skills are covered through our progressive planning and plays a key role in expanding children’s music knowledge and developing their confidence in music.

^{*All Images from Charanga}