At St Joseph’s, the intention is that pupils gain a firm understanding of what music is through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, analysing, and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions, and musical genres.
Our objective at St Joseph’s is to develop a curiosity for the subject, as well as an understanding and acceptance of the validity and importance of all types of music, and unbiased respect for the role that music may wish to be expressed in any person’s life.
The National Curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:
- Perform, listen to, review, and evaluate music
- Be taught to sing, create, and compose music
- Understand and explore how music is created, produced, and communicated.
We are committed to ensuring pupils understand the value and importance of music in the wider community, and are able to use their musical skills, knowledge, and experiences to involve themselves in music, in a variety of different contexts. The music curriculum ensures pupils sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. This is embedded in the classroom activities as well as the weekly singing assemblies, various concerts and performances, the learning of instruments, and the joining of one of our many musical ensembles.
The elements of music are taught in the classroom lessons so that pupils are able to use some of the language of music to dissect it, and understand how it is made, played, appreciated, and analysed. In the classroom, pupils learn how to play an instrument, from all four main instrument groups of wind, strings, percussion, and keyboards. In doing so understand the different principle of each method of creating notes, as well as how to read basic music notation. They 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 and vocal sounds is also part of the curriculum, which develops the understanding of musical elements without the added complexity of an instrument. Whilst in school, pupils have access to a varied programme, which allows pupils to discover areas of strength, as well as areas they might like to improve upon.
At St Joseph’s, pupils have the opportunity to learn the following instruments with school instruments available for hire:
- recorder
- flute
- violin
- cello
- ukulele
- guitar
- drums
The integral nature of music and the learner creates an enormously rich palette from which a student may access fundamental abilities such as achievement, self-confidence, interaction with and awareness of others, and self-reflection.
Music will also develop an understanding of culture and history, both in relation to pupils individually, as well as ethnicities from across the world.
Pupils are able to enjoy music, in as many ways as they choose- either as a listener, creator or performer. They can dissect music and comprehend its parts. They can sing and feel a pulse. They have an understanding of how to further develop skills less known to them, should they ever develop an interest in their lives.