Welcome to Northcote’s Music Page!
Our Music subject leader is Mrs Ashton.
Our curriculum
Northcote Music Long-term plan:
Music Policy
Our Northcote Curriculum is designed with the intent to maximise the potential of all of our pupils; intellectually, socially, morally, emotionally and culturally. We take every opportunity to encourage a love for learning within all of our pupils, based around a resilience for learning and achieving greatness. Most importantly we allow our children to learn in a safe and stimulating environment, where their views are valued.
Implementation – We use Sing-Up (an on-line resource) to support our music teaching as it is a very clear and comprehensive scheme of work which covers all the National Curriculum and Model Music Curriculum requirements in a full and progressive way. Northcote work with a local music hub alongside a specialist music teacher who delivers music lessons from children from Year 1 to Year 6. The challenges are differentiated and allow all children to take part with extra support provided for children if necessary. Music is for all – this includes those children with SEND.
It is our aim that all children will develop a love and appreciation of music through playing instruments and singing; listening and appraising; and performing and sharing. We want all children to know they are musical beings and to give them opportunities to find their musicality.
As soon as children start nursery they learn to sing and sing to learn. They count, learn shapes, colours, days of the week, develop their phonics, sequence familiar stories and learn about the world around them through songs and actions. This learning journey will be built on and be enhanced throughout their time in EYFS. Our younger children are given opportunities, both teacher-led and through continuous provision, to explore the elements of music with hands on experience of musical instruments.
KS1 children build on these skills with curriculum led music teaching and learning which offers many opportunities for cross-curricular links, for example; English and Stories, Geography and the Weather and Science and Our Bodies and others.
KS2 children learn to play the ukulele, starting from Year 3 and will build on their skills throughout forthcoming years. Classes that do not learn an instrument are in receipt of teaching and learning that follows The National Curriculum objectives. This involves preparing for school performances and assemblies and building on listening and appraising skills through a broad range of genres.
Children from Years 2 to 4 have visited the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic to enjoy their fabulous schools’ concerts and having seen and heard the magnificence of their full orchestra, raise the aspirations of our budding musicians.
We are always looking for opportunities for our children to perform having sang at the Liverpool Philharmonic, Liverpool Football Club and St. Georges Hall. We appreciate the value of these experiences for our children not only in terms of making special memories but essentially to build performance skills and confidence. Our school works in collaboration with 6 other local schools; here the subject leaders meet and discuss aspects of the music curriculum, sharing good practice and ideas for purposeful teaching and learning.
Impact – The children’s aptitudes and talents are nurtured from EYFS to the end of KS2 through musical activities including singing, listening and appraising and performing and sharing. Our approach is a mixture of developing musicality through curriculum coverage and the introduction of instrument tuition to develop skills in all the elements of music. As the children develop their knowledge and skills throughout the key stages their performances in and outside of school grow in maturity and confidence. This is reflected in our termly assessment data as teachers see their students’ progress within a year and, in the long-term, throughout a key stage. Class teachers collect video and photographic evidence to help inform the monitoring process and to help inform future planning. Subject and school leaders monitor the impact of our curriculum provision through completing regular monitoring, that includes listening to the voice of our children.