At Moat Farm Infants we provide opportunities for all children to play, create, perform and most importantly enjoy music. We allow them to develop the skills to appreciate a wide variety of musical forms.

The objectives of teaching music in our school follow the EYFS and National Curriculum and enable children to:
• Perform; through singing and by having the opportunity to learn a musical instrument.
• Compose; by creating their own music with others using their voices and both tuned and untuned instruments.
• Transcribe; through knowing and understanding how music is created and organised into musical structures and to understand musical terms.
• Describe; by listening to a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions. Children are taught how to use musical language such as tempo and pitch when describing music.

We intend for children to experience a high-quality musical education which is taught across subjects, is based on their interests and reflects current events. The curriculum should engage and inspire children to develop a love and curiosity of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their creativity and self-confidence.
We want each child to develop their own preferences for musical styles by introducing them to a range of different genres of music in different cultures, styles and historical periods.
Children will be given opportunities to acquire skills and then revisit them to progress and embed the skills through different themes and activities. Where teaching objectives are repeated, children will use the skills they have already learnt to compose in new ways, experimenting with different instruments, styles and genres.

The music curriculum ensures children perform, compose, transcribe and describe. This is embedded in classroom activities as well as in weekly singing assemblies, various concerts and performances.

We invite performers into school so that the children experience new styles of music and we also give the children the opportunity to become performers themselves both in class and to larger audiences through Christmas productions, our summer festival and assemblies.

Through our Genre of the Week, all children are given opportunities to listen to a wide range of music which enables them to develop their musical preferences and to describe what they hear using appropriate musical language.

In EYFS children begin their musical journey by listening to and singing songs and rhymes.

In both EYFS and in our SEND classrooms, staff provide children with opportunities to explore musical instruments and to perform in small and large groups. Children access songs and instruments in structured musical sessions with our music specialist as well as exploring music through play. Musical instruments and songs are provided in our provision both indoors and outdoors for children to use to perform. This gives children opportunities to compose their own music and deepen their love of music.

In Year 1, children build on their learning from EYFS. They continue to perform and explore songs and new musical instruments in music sessions with our music specialist. The children have the opportunity to compose and transcribe using symbols and a variety of instruments/sounds.

In Year 2, children revisit and build on the skills that they have already learnt to further deepen their knowledge. They move onto learning the ocarina with our musical specialist where they perform, compose and transcribe music.

In KS1, children have the opportunity to take part in Rocksteady sessions where they learn to play a guitar, keyboard or drums. This allows children to further develop as musicians by playing a number of instruments and performing in termly Rocksteady assemblies. All children take part in weekly singing practise sessions where they learn songs chosen for them based on current events or songs which they have expressed an interest in learning. Songs are also taught in class which help children to embed concepts such as the number bonds song in maths and brain break songs to help with children’s mental well-being.

During their time at Moat Farm Infants, children are given a wide range of musical experiences across the curriculum, which helps them to develop a deeper understanding as well as a love and appreciation of music. They develop the skills of listening, performing, composing and describing and can use musical terms correctly to express themselves. Children say that they “enjoy playing musical instruments” and “like listening to music”.

We ensure our curriculum is monitored regularly and reflect upon what has been taught to ensure we are providing a broad and balanced curriculum for our children. On entry to Reception, 12% of children are on track and by the time they leave us in Year 2, 91% of children are on track in music.

– We share learning intentions in music sessions.
– We consolidate previous learning through retrieval practise questions.
– We give opportunities for children to listen to and describe music through our weekly genre of the week.
– We use correct musical language so that children develop a secure understanding of the terms used in music.
– We give opportunities for the children to sing and learn a range of tuned and untuned instruments.
– We give opportunities for children to compose and perform, for example all children take part in Christmas and summer festival performances.
– We provide children with SEND access to the curriculum through adapted planning and resource support.
– We complete weekly assessments within lessons and termly assessments based on skills taught throughout previous weeks.