What is the intent of Music at Mandeville Primary School?

‘Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity.’ (DfE Music Programmes of Study 2013)

At Mandeville, children follow the National Curriculum and learn Music by taking part in listening, singing, playing instruments, improvising, composing and performing music, encompassing a variety of musical styles, genres and historical periods. All children are given the opportunity to sing regularly with others and to develop the skills and confidence to sing a solo part. They also learn to play both un-tuned and tuned musical instruments (recorder and glockenspiel) as part of their class music lessons and take part in various performances across the school year.

Alongside developing musical knowledge, skills and understanding, the pupils experience the joy that music can bring and learn the role that music can play in promoting mental health and well–being. They also learn that by using their ‘learning powers’ and by reflecting critically, they can experience a sense of achievement as they progress, which in turn promotes self-confidence.

How is Music organised at Mandeville Primary School?

Music at Mandeville is taught using 'Kapow', however Year 2 follow the Charanga scheme to support their confidence in playing the recorder and learning musical notation.

Each unit of work sees the children listen and appraise music, where they are able to hear music that they may not have access to otherwise. The music that is shown ranges through a variety of different genres and historical time periods. After listening and appraising, the children then have the chance to complete a range of musical activities which help to embed the Inter-related Dimensions of music (pulse, rhythm, pitch, tempo, dynamics, timbre, texture, structure and notation) through repetition. Most children throughout the school will play the glockenspiel. Mandeville is also fortunate to work alongside Herts Music Service who offer free music lessons for one class for one term. They hire out a wide variety of instruments and provide quality teaching of those instruments. Our children so far have had the opportunity of learning the violin, JSax and the clarinéo.

Music at Mandeville inspires and encourages fluency, control and expression when singing and playing instruments. All Mandeville children have the opportunity to perform to an audience. Our Year 2 and Year 5 children perform at the South Mill Arts and we put on our Summer Concert for those children who learn an instrument both inside and out of school to support those taking part in extra-curricular activities.

EYFS children take part in a Christmas Choir production, performing songs to an audience; our KS1 children perform a Christmas nativity; and we have the KS2 performance in the summer term, where we can showcase our singing as well as the talents of solo artists.