Our Music Curriculum
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Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity that sparks pleasure, joy and self-expression;
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For many of our students, school will be the only place where they can freely access and enjoy music, so in addition to our music lessons we promote a natural integration of music in everyday school life, through class ‘working music’ and ‘meditation music’ playlists, and playground music;
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Our music curriculum allows individuals and groups the opportunity to develop their listening appreciation, practical composition and performance skills, and build characteristics like resilience, teamwork and creativity;
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Our lessons are delivered in partnership with Newham Music;
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We offer an after school music club where pupils can explore different music styles and enjoy working as a team to compose and perform;
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Choral singing is enjoyed and celebrated in weekly singing assemblies for all students, and in the performances of our school choir;
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Year 5 and 6 have weekly instrument lessons - currently they are learning to play the ukulele.
Covid adaptations to our music curriculum: Due to the government guidance around the safe teaching of music within schools our music offer has had to change significantly. Music lessons are now delivered as video lessons prepared by Newham Music. Lessons continue to cover the core music curriculum elements, and will also include informal musical moments lessons to immerse students in different music genres and introduce them to key composers and genres throughout musical history. We have invested in non-woodwind instruments that are safe to use in class, including wipeable percussion instruments, boomwhackers, body percussion, and ukuleles. We are able to sing in our extended bubbles in the weekly assembly, however our choir has been suspended pending government advice on lifting the current restrictions.
The Earlham Choir
"If I cannot fly, then let me sing" Stephen Sondheim
In choir we let our voices go free! We are exploring how to look after our voices, learning our vocal ranges, and enjoying singing songs from different genres and artists. As the year goes on we will be putting our learning into practice and performing at different events.
Our music learning
Here are some videos showing our music learning in Black and Asian History Month and our whole school Tune into Mental Health Week.
Through our music lessons in Black and Asian History Month we celebrated music from different black and Asian cultures. We explored music from different countries, and how it has influenced culture, beliefs, ideas, and even freedom movements.
Pupils listened, and appraised music, composed their own pieces and developed incredible performances that were shared at a special assembly - watch this video montage of our performances!
In Children's Mental Health Week we explored the ways in which music can capture, reflect and change our feelings and moods. As part of our music curriculum we listened to different styles of music and discussed the feelings that these pieces reflected, and then composed and performed our own mood music.
You can hear the children talk about how music helps their wellbeing, and what they learnt, in this video.