Music
At Pashley, we follow the East Sussex scheme for music called ‘Charanga’. This gives children the opportunity to listen to and appraise, explore and perform across a range of different musical styles. In music activities, children are encouraged to develop their listening skills and discriminate between varying sounds and musical elements, eg. Pitch, rhythm and tempo. Through ‘Charanga’ children are able to develop their skills of improvisation and composition. The repetitive nature of the scheme ensures that the children have plenty of time to revisit and embed skills. Music is used to enhance the whole curriculum as part of our project-based learning.
Music at Pashley gives children the opportunity to express themselves and be creative. In music lessons children will:
- Listen to and respond to a range of musical styles. (These styles will reflect the diversity of society and the multicultural world.)
- Play musical games
- Sing
- Play the instruments (tuned and untuned.)
- Improvise
- Compose
- Share/perform
In Early Years children will build their repertoire of songs (including songs from around the world) and then move on to developing their own music using their voices and instruments. They enage in six units-
- Me
- My stories
- Everyone
- Our World
- Big Bear Funk
- Reflect, Rewind and Replay
Keystage 1 children follow Charanga’s ‘Model Music Curriculum’
In Year 1 children will listen to music carefully, sing given songs, thinking about the about geographical origin of the music. They will also sing as part of an ensemble and learn how to play instruments to known music and then begin composing their own using composition charts. They will be introduced to use some musical terms. Year One children complete three unites per year in addition to their spring performance and fortnightly singing assemblies. These units are-
Introducing Beat- How can we make friends when we sing together?
Exploring feelings through music –How does Music make the world a better place?
Explore sound and create a story
How does music teach us about looking after our planet?
In Year 2 children consolidate and develop skills from Year One and they extend their knowledge and experience of musical concepts, e.g. pulse, rhythm and pitch. Then we work together as a band (playing tuned and un-tuned instruments) and sing as an ensemble. They will also develop creativity through improvising and composing within a song. The children will gain confidence in creating graphic scores and move towards representing their own ideas in this way. During the year, they complete three Charanga units in addition to their end of year performance and fortnightly singing assemblies. These units are-
HoHoHo A song with rapping and improvising for Christmas
Focus on Dynamics and tempo How does music teach us about the past?
Exploring improvisation How does music teach us about looking after our planet?
Throughout their time at Pashley, children are given performance opportunities to apply all the skills they have learnt, within the classroom, within the school and even outside the school to invited guests and with other schools. In Early Years, we enjoy a fantastic Nativity play! We always look forward to our brilliant ‘Spring time parade’ from Year 1 children and Year 2 blow us away with their end of year show!
During our singing assemblies every fortnight, children are given the opportunity to watch some live performances, engage in vocal warm-ups and sing a wide variety of well loved songs. It is a time that all children love, when we come together and are united by song!
