Music

Subject vision

Our ambitious music curriculum ensures that all children see themselves as musicians at Goose Green. By the end of Year 6, our pupils have developed the skills required to listen to, perform and compose music, fostering a love for music and developing the potential for life-long musical enjoyment or study.  

Making music supports our pupils’ moral resiliency, and by developing their talents as musicians, children are also able to build their self-confidence, creativity, a sense of achievement and self-reflection.

Our diverse and inclusive curriculum provides opportunities to listen to, and learn about, high quality music from around the world, raising multicultural awareness and developing the children's understanding and appreciation of the history and origins of music.

The children experience a range of opportunities to listen to and perform live music at prestigious venues, providing them with knowledge and cultural capital, no matter their starting point.

How do children learn Music at Goose Green?

At Goose Green, all classes from Nursery to Year 6 receive a weekly music lesson from a specialist teacher. The curriculum has been devised by the specialist, to meet the requirements of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (Expressive Arts), the National Curriculum and suggested approaches from The National Plan for Music and The Model Music Curriculum, with the aim to deliver high-quality music for all. 

The music curriculum is taught progressively, beginning in EYFS, where music is an integral part of children’s learning journey. Singing and music-making opportunities are used frequently to embed learning, develop musical awareness, express feelings, support their imaginations and develop creativity.

Music lessons comprise of performing, listening, composing/ improvisation and musicianship, with knowledge built upon through the years. Children learn to recognise and name the interrelated dimensions of music: pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics.

In addition to the weekly music lessons, KS1 and KS2 have weekly singing assemblies, where children develop the skills to sing as an ensemble, develop expression and control and prepare for performances. This is another opportunity to celebrate diversity by learning new songs in other languages, from other cultures, using Makaton and British Sign Language, as well as learning and revisiting key vocabulary. 

In KS2, during Whole Class Instrumental lessons, all children learn to play musical instruments such as the ocarina, ukulele, steel pans, keyboards, African drums and Samba instruments. The children's instrumental learning builds up to ensemble performances, where every child has learned and practised their part, ensuring everyone is included and all have been challenged in their learning.

All children have regular opportunities to perform at Goose Green. This may be during lesson time, at the end of a unit of work, in special recitals and performance assemblies, and during more ambitious performances at key times of the year such as Christmas, International Evening, Black History Month, Artsweek and our annual end of year Carnival.

We have regular visitors from specialist musicians, who work with our pupils and offer further performance opportunities and we have created pathways for musical progression beyond Goose Green.

As well as the specialist music teacher, we have a team of peripatetic music teachers who visit the school each week. These lessons are paid for by parents and carers or subsidised by the school through Pupil Premium funding. We have music teachers for choir, guitar, drum kit, piano, violin, steel pans and Rock Band.

How do we know what children have learned?

• Questioning 
• Pupil Learning Reviews
• Learning walks
• Quizzing and retrieval practice
• Feedback 
• Performances
• Progress matches the curriculum intent