Music

Why is Music important to us as a school?

With many schools beginning to exclude music from their curriculum to make room for other subjects, we feel at St. Joseph’s Music is an extremely important subject for all children to learn and can lead to better brain development, increases in human connection, and even stress relief. Below is 20 reasons why music is so important to our school and why we still have it as part of our curriculum.

1. Musical training helps develop language and reasoning: Students who have early musical training will develop the areas of the brain related to language and reasoning. The left side of the brain is better developed with music, and songs can help imprint information on young minds.

2. A mastery of memorization: Even when performing with sheet music, student musicians are constantly using their memory to perform. The skill of memorization can serve students well in education and beyond.

3. Students learn to improve their work: Learning music promotes craftsmanship, and students learn to want to create good work instead of mediocre work. This desire can be applied to all subjects of study.

4. Increased coordination: Students who practice with musical instruments can improve their hand-eye coordination. Just like playing sports, children can develop motor skills when playing music.

5. A sense of achievement: Learning to play pieces of music on a new instrument can be a challenging, but achievable goal. Students who master even the smallest goal in music will be able to feel proud of their achievement.

6. Children stay engaged in school: An enjoyable subject like music can keep kids interested and engaged in school. Student musicians are likely to stay in school to achieve in other subjects.

7. Success in society: Music is the fabric of our society, and music can shape abilities and character. Musical education can greatly contribute to children’s intellectual development as well.

8. Emotional development: Students of music can be more emotionally developed, with empathy towards other cultures. They also tend to have higher self-esteem and are better at coping with anxiety.

9. Students learn pattern recognition: Children can develop their math and pattern-recognition skills with the help of musical education. Playing music offers repetition in a fun format.

10. Better SAT scores: Students who have experience with music performance or appreciation score higher on the SATs.

11. Fine-tuned auditory skills: Musicians can better detect meaningful, information-bearing elements in sounds, like the emotional meaning in a baby’s cry. Students who practice music can have better auditory attention, and pick out predictable patterns from surrounding noise.

12. Music builds imagination and intellectual curiosity: Introducing music in the early childhood years can help foster a positive attitude toward learning and curiosity. Artistic education develops the whole brain and develops a child’s imagination.

13. Music can be relaxing: Students can fight stress by learning to play music. Soothing music is especially helpful in helping children relax.

14. Musical instruments can teach discipline: children who learn to play an instrument can learn a valuable lesson in discipline. They will have to set time aside to practice and rise to the challenge of learning with discipline to master playing their instrument.

15. Preparation for the creative economy: Investing in creative education can prepare students for the 21st century workforce. The new economy has created more artistic careers, and these jobs may grow faster than others in the future.

16. Development in creative thinking: children who study the arts can learn to think creatively. This kind of education can help them solve problems by thinking outside the box and realizing that there may be more than one right answer.

17. Music can develop spatial intelligence: Students who study music can improve the development of spatial intelligence, which allows them to perceive the world accurately and form mental pictures. Spatial intelligence is helpful for advanced mathematics and more.

18. Children can learn teamwork: Many musical education programs require teamwork as part of a band or orchestra. In these groups, students will learn how to work together and build camaraderie.

19. Responsible risk-taking: Performing a musical piece can bring fear and anxiety. Doing so teaches kids how to take risks and deal with fear, which will help them become successful and reach their potential.

20. Better self-confidence: With encouragement from teachers and parents, students playing a musical instrument can build pride and confidence. Musical education is also likely to develop better communication for students.

What are the aims of Music?

We aim for all pupils to:
•    Perform, listen to and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians
•    Learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others and have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument
•    Understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

How is Music structured?

Music is taught weekly allowing for 6 units per year group (Rec-Y6) per year. Nursery cover music through Expressive Arts and Design.

Music will be taught as a discrete subject in weekly lessons throughout a half term. Alongside this, opportunities will be taken for cross-curricular links to be made in other subject areas. As an example, children may use geography enquiry skills to discover mountains, forests and hills; they may then use movement and instruments to a piece of music linked to the topic such as Grieg – Peer Gynt – In the Hall of the Mountain King.

1.    When possible, the learning in music will be enhanced by enrichment activities. We have a wide range of performances throughout the year, many of which include whole class singing, which parents are encouraged to attend. 
        Examples include:
•    Regular coffee mornings for Macmillan, Mince Pies and Merriment, Mothers’ Day
•    Class assemblies provided by every year group over the school year
•    Christmas performances with every child in the school participating
•    Easter concert with EYFS and KS1 children
•     Regular school masses with hymns being sung 
2.    In addition, we have specific instrumental performances with the children who participate in instrumental tuition performing for their parents.
Examples include:
•    Music assemblies
•    BIRD Christmas concert
•    Musical Extravaganza evening
3.    Choir and some classes take part in a variety of events to entertain parish and other parts of the community.
Examples include:
•    Choir at World Peace day event at Dunwood  Park
•    Choir at Manchester People First Christmas concert
•    Year 6 at various carol singing events as fundraisers
•    Choir at SVP Christmas dinner
•    Years 3 and 4 and choir at BIRD Christmas concert
•    Choir at Churches together soup lunch  

How do we ensure quality teaching and learning?

The curriculum for Music has been set out by the National Curriculum objectives, this has then been further developed through the scheme of Charanga, which we follow from Reception up to Year 6. A progression document has been developed for teachers to follow to ensure quality teaching and learning. It covers music knowledge and skills taken from the Charanga scheme. 

What do we hope children will get from Music? 

Children should be encouraged to be creative and curious. They should be helped to develop their understanding of sounds by exploring instruments, songs and instrumental music.
We hope as a school music will: improve academic skills, develop physical skills, cultivate social skills, refine discipline and patience, boost self-esteem, introduce children to other cultures and above all that children will find an enjoyment in the subject. As a school we also hope children will find a love of music and one day put their knowledge and skills to their future careers.

What we teach across the school in this subject: