Aims of teaching music

We believe that helping children to take their first steps into the magical world of music can help our children to achieve our school’s core purpose:

To help children to do today what they will be able to do independently tomorrow by becoming confident, successful life-long learners and responsible citizens.

How does music contribute to this? For us, music is a way to ignite all areas of child development and skills that our children will need to become successful life-long learners, including intellectual, social-emotional, motor, language, and overall literacy. It helps the body and the mind work together. Exposing children to music during early development helps them learn the sounds and meanings of words. Dancing to music helps children build motor skills while allowing them to practice self-expression. Music helps strengthen memory skills too.
In addition to the developmental benefits, simply put: music bring us joy. Just think about listening to a good song in the car with the window down on a beautiful day. That's joy.

Aspiration: we want our children to develop a love of music that will inspire them to continue to enjoy different aspects of music throughout their years of schooling and into the wider world. We hope that the experiences we provide will inspire our children to play musical instruments and participate in productions, drama groups throughout their school years and beyond.

Independence: children are taught a range of skills over time to help them to develop independence and confidence in singing; playing a range of tuned and untuned instruments and appreciating a growing range of different styles of music. They learn appropriate vocabulary that will help them to develop their musical skills and knowledge.

Motivation: we aim to develop children’s motivation and to capture children’s interest in music so that they develop into confident musicians who enjoy performing to others and can appreciate music in its different forms. To achieve this, we deliver our music curriculum in a fun, exciting way which engages all children, especially children with SEND. We ensure our music is inclusive for all level and abilities, and brings out the very best in each child. We want our children to develop their self-confidence and self esteem, and feel motivated to share with each other, their parents and the wider community.

We include singing in school assemblies.  Some songs are traditional favourites and others are newly taught.  We select songs which reflect British values, ways of living together, empathy and understanding of other people and the world around us. Direct links are made with Bible stories and Christian messages. Children celebrate their the harvest festival with songs, prayers and readings.  Foundation children are taught the Christmas nativity story through references to the songs they have learnt for their Christmas play.

From the early beginnings in the Foundation Stage where children learn to handle and explore musical instruments, our Year 2 children learn to play recorders and tuned percussion instruments.

We are aware of the excellent cross curricular opportunities music in our school provides. In addition to reinforcing our learning in maths, English, science and the foundation subjects, we use our listening skills for musical appreciation in dance lessons, drama and art work. We use music to encourage calmness and well being in our PSHE lessons, encouraging the children to think about the feelings and emotions that carefully selected pieces of music may provoke. We invite theatre groups into school where children enthusiastically engage in singing, dance and acting with a professional cast. We hope such experiences aspire our children to participate in productions, drama groups throughout their school years and beyond.

We are fully aware that music is an ideal tool for communication, and we provide plenty of opportunities for children with special educational needs or disabilities, or children who find learning more challenging. They have additional access to sound making equipment, instruments, listening centres, and music programmes on iPads. We have a state-of-the-art sensory room where these can be facilitated. Our music provision is fully inclusive, and all children are included in our singing, class music lessons and concerts and productions.

We use ICT whenever possible to support our learning. Each class has a listening centre, and musical creations can be recorded on class iPads. Our younger children use Tocca Tocca Band and 2Simple music on Purple Mash.

“Music can change the world, because it can change people.”                                          

Paul David Hewson

Music has a huge impact at Market Weighton Infants School! By engaging in musical activities, we create enthusiastic learners within all area of our curriculum. Our children develop increasing confidence and self-assurance. They are willing to tackle new ideas and have a go at new challenges. They are able to share their thoughts, listen to the ideas of others and practise teamwork and collaborative learning. They appreciate the enjoyment of doing things together.

We like to share our love of music and celebrate our musical achievements with our friends, parents, governors and the wider community in Market Weighton throughout the year. In October, children learn a harvest song to sing to the rest of the school. At Christmas, every child in the Foundation Stage participates in a Christmas production with singing, music, dressing up and drama.  Y1 participate in an Easter Concert for their parents. Our school year always finishes with a Y2 Leaver’s Production, which is a celebration of how much the children have achieved since their first days in Foundation Stage. We feel immensely proud of the achievements of all our children, and each year our production demonstrates the power of music in raising confidence and self esteem. Every child in Year 2 has a part on the stage. Children volunteer to take lead acting parts, solo singing and duets, and astound us with their accomplished performances. Singing and music has given them their chance to shine, to demonstrate their capabilities and skills, to give them confidence and self belief, and to move on to the junior school with a sense of achievement and knowledge they can succeed.