Welcome to Music.

Music at HCPS is led by Mrs Overment

“Music gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” - Plato

Intent

We aim for every child in our school to become a musician. Every child has the opportunity to learn how to play a variety of musical instruments and by Year 6 to have progressed to be able to choose which they feel strong at to develop further in class ensemble. All children have the opportunity to listen to a variety of different music from history and other cultures and to listen, appraise, sing, perform, improvise and compose. We want children to leave our school with a rounded musical experience, confidence in what they can do, an appreciation of the joy of singing, playing, making music and performing, and a general love of music.

Implementation

We use an exciting website called Charanga Musical School in our Music lessons. This helps to teach musical knowledge and skills in spiral progression, through learning to sing, play instruments, improvise and compose to many different pieces of music. We use music from different cultures and genres throughout history as a starting point, including classical, samba, jazz, reggae, soul, R&B, hip hop, rock and pop. We perform in class at the end of every lesson.

EYFS children start their musical journey by singing and experimenting with sounds on musical instruments using the units on the Charanga scheme. They access music through continuous provision throughout the week, as well as an hour Music lesson on a 3 week cycle. 

Using Charanga in Key Stage 1, children learn about key musical concepts through singing and playing percussion instruments, including djembe drums and glockenspiels, in weekly 30 minute lessons.

Using a mixture of Charanga and other resources, in Key Stage 2, children have now changed from learning how to play the recorder to learning how to play the keyboard from Year 3 onwards. This is to encourage a deeper understanding of one instrument throughout KS2. They continue to develop their musical knowledge and skills through singing and playing a variety of other instruments, including glockenspiels, various percussion instruments and steel pans, in a 1 hour lesson on a 3 week cycle. They also learn about and have the opportunity to have a go at playing other instruments such as the trumpet, trombone, saxophone, drum kit and electric guitar.

All children in Key Stage 2 have the opportunity to access Charanga Music World (YUMU) at home to support and enhance their musical learning, with the lessons they do in school accessible to practise at home.

Extra-Curricular Music

Key Stage 2 children have the opportunity to sing in a choir after school and in Year 6 there is a band club which starts after Christmas and performs at the Year 6 Leavers Show.

Choir children have regularly competed at Hornsea Music Festival in July and there are many more opportunities for children in music clubs to perform throughout the year, including the Big Brid Sing at Bridlington Spa, singing for pensioners, Christmas concerts, our Year 6 Leavers Show and other community events. We are gradually reintroducing our Music clubs after Covid, which will eventually include more singing clubs again.
 

Mrs Swinden’s Key Stage 2 Performing Arts Club provides the opportunity for more singing, with rehearsals and performances of shows such as ‘Annie’ and ‘The Lion King’ for parents and the rest of the school to watch. Due to not being able to perform their show during lockdown, Mrs Swinden arranged for the cast of 'The Lion King' to perform a song together on video. This was shown on 'Look North' and was even watched by Janique Charles, who plays Nala in the West End show. She also recorded the children a special message on television!

Children have more opportunities throughout the year to experience live music with visiting groups and concerts from the Schools' Music Service, as well as the much anticipated visits every few years from the Mighty Zulu Nation!

From Year 4, children have the opportunity to have guitar lessons in school. These are provided by a private music teacher and are paid for by parents.

In Key Stage 2 we have drum kit lessons, again paid for by parents, provided by the East Riding Schools' Music Service.

We also have more extra-curricular music lessons available for the whole school through an outside service called 'Music Box'. They provide lessons in keyboard, drum kit and general musicianship. Parents will need to pay for this service and communication is directly between parents and Music Box itself, however lessons take place within school time. These lessons are currently on hold within school due to Covid, and take place online for previous pupils. Please enquire if you wish for your child to take part in Music Box lessons.

All children who have extra-curricular music lessons have the opportunity to play their instruments in class ensemble where they can.

If you are interested in any extra-curricular music opportunities for your child, please enquire at the school office

Performances

The children in Key Stage 2 perform in class at the end of every lesson. This is recorded on video and watched back at the start of the next lesson so that the children can see and hear their progress and understand what they need to do to improve. They also watch each other’s videos to try to improve their work. There are also sometimes opportunities for them to perform to other children and parents in assemblies and shows. Videos of some of the children's class performances can be seen on the Music pages on the blog. The choir and guitar pupils perform regularly for parents and the public, and Music Box pupils have performed yearly for their parents. The whole of Year 6 perform songs for parents at their annual leavers show.

Impact

The children can best describe the impact of Music at our school with their quotes below. These sum up the impact of their lessons, learning about different musical instruments and styles, extra-curricular opportunities and performances. We hope that, through covering all aspects of the National Curriculum in Music, children progress to finish their time at our school with the skills, knowledge and understanding to enjoy a deeper appreciation of all aspects of music- listening, singing, playing, composing and performing- and a desire to continue their musical journey at secondary school.

Pupil Voice

A few quotes from our Key Stage 2 children:

"My favourite activity in Music is improvising because I like creating my own rhythms."

"I enjoy playing the recorder because of all the different notes I can make." 

"I enjoy playing different instruments because I learn how to play them in different ways and I learn new rhythms and patterns. I have learnt that it is not easy to play instruments but I need to keep trying."

"My favourite activity is drumming because I like to work out which patterns I can make. I have learnt that in Music you need to know maths a lot!”

"I have learnt how to play the guitar. I enjoy it because my grandad and dad play the guitar and my favourite guitar player is Stevie Ray Vaughan. That has inspired my joy in playing the guitar."

”I like bossa nova music after learning about it in our jazz lesson.”

”My favourite instrument is the keyboard and I have got one for Christmas!”

Music Mark

In recognition of a commitment to providing a high quality music education for all children, we have been awarded Music Mark School status since 2018.

(Please see Blog pages for more videos)