At King Edward Primary School our music provision is devised to foster a lifelong love of music by exposing children to diverse musical experiences and igniting a passion for music. By listening and responding to different musical styles, finding their voices as performers and composers which enables them to become confident musicians.
‘There is music in every child. The teacher’s job is to find it and nurture it.’ Frances Clark.
We teach children to perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians.
We encourage children to learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence.
We help children to understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the interrelated dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.
To ensure our pupils have the best opportunity to acquire and nurture their musical talents and awareness, we use ‘Charanga’ in Years Reception to 6, a programme that teaches the children to listen and respond to a variety of musical genres, through the medium of singing, playing instruments, exploring form and composing their own musical creations.
Our EYFS children are encouraged to make music using a wide variety of percussion instruments. Every child from Year 1 has access to their own recorder. Individual glockenspiels are used widely in music lessons from Reception to Year 6. Children in Year 4 take part, as a whole class, in weekly trumpet lessons with a peripatetic music teacher. Lead musical experts come into school at key points to take and support lessons alongside our own staff team.
Peripatetic teachers deliver weekly lessons with over 80 children from Year 3 upwards in violin, trombone, trumpet, guitar and keyboard. We are extremely proud of our amazing choir, with over 50 children, who meet every week and have performed at a wide variety of events such as the North Shields Victorian Market, Durham Cathedral and also alongside the Northern Sinfonia Orchestra as part of an opera project.
Our children regularly perform in productions from the Christmas Nativity to the Harvest Festival and the fabulous end of Year 6 Leavers Production.
‘Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and light to everything. We must give children the musical tools they need for a lifetime of music making and enjoyment.’ Plato
