Music
At St. Edmund’s, Music, particularly singing, is central to our school community. We aim to engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. We listen to music, sing and play music together as part of our whole school and class worship, but also for pleasure. The children have regular opportunities to perform to each other, to visitors and to their parents, for example in Masses and assemblies, at the Christmas, Easter and end of year performances. We are part of the Abingdon Partnership and we take advantage of all the opportunities that come with this, particularly the ‘Music Flood’, in September and the orchestra days.
At St. Edmund’s, we follow the Early Years Framework and the National Curriculum for Music in our music lessons. In Nursery and Reception, Music is part of ‘Expressive Arts’ and from Year 1 upwards, Music is taught as a separate subject, with three strands: listening and appraising, composing and improvising, and performance. We use selected units from the scheme ‘Charanga’ but we have also set aside particular units where the focus is on preparing for a performance. In Year 3, the children spend a term learning a musical instrument, taught by a specialist from Oxfordshire County Council Music Service.
The following document lays out the Music Curriculum that the children follow from Nursery to Year 6.
You may find the following documents helpful:
The National Curriculum for Music
Mr Joe Shaw is the Subject Lead for Music. If you require more information about how Music is taught, please contact him via the school office.