Richmond Hill Primary AcademyMusic
Music at Richmond Hill Primary Academy
The Trust Ensemble are excited to perform next week at The Don Valley Festival. We have the wonderful Lily on piano, Bradley on glockenspiel and Sadie on clarinet. The children have worked exceptionally hard in preparation for the event and we look forward to seeing them perform their rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle and Mamma Mia.
Here is a preview of one of our practice sessions:
In Year 4, the children are currently working towards the 'Big Sing' with Opera North. This years performance is a rendition of Alice in Wonderland- 'Wonderland Restored'. The children have had exceptional feedback from the singers and musicians during their in schol workshops meaning we have high hopes for the perfomance! Also, this year for the first time they have been learning the Samba drums with the wonderful Louise Patterson from The Doncaster Music Service.
Here is a preview of Year 4 Samba:
For the first time this year Year 5 have started to learn the Ukulele with Louise Patterson from the Doncaster Music Service. They wowed the whole school recently in our music assembly with their performance of Waka Waka (This Time for Africa). The children and their teachers have taken so much enjoyment out of the lessons and have made excellent progress already.
Here is the live performance:
Our music assemblies this year have inspired many different children to share a live performance with us of their music learning both in and out of school time. Some children have purchased their own instruments so that they can practice at home.
This is a solo recorder perfomances from one of our Y6 pupils:
https://youtube.com/shorts/mwseUzjiLnM
Please see the link below for RHPA Music Developement Plan:
/uploads/547/files/SchoolMusicPlanWebsite2425.docx
Approach to teaching music
Music makes an important contribution to the life of every school and should be celebrated, promoted and encouraged. It helps build pupils’ self-esteem and self-discipline and leads to higher standards across the curriculum. Research clearly demonstrates the cognitive benefits that music gives young children particularly in Key Stage 1, suggesting music can support the development of literacy, numeracy and listening skills. The Department for Education has stated that a high-quality music education can improve self-confidence, behaviour and social skills as well as improve academic achievement across the curriculum. A huge investment has been made Nationally through the introduction of the New Model Music Curriculum which emphasises the importance of a rich, fulfilling music curriculum for all children in education.
At Richmond Hill Primary Academy, we have engaged and invested in an award-winning programme that provides high quality, consistent music education throughout school. Charanga Musical School have created a New Model Music Curriculum scheme which is a world-leading music teaching and learning platform, which is recognised internationally as promoting a modern and vibrant class music programme across the whole school that supports all the requirements of the national curriculum and underpins Ofsted’s wish to see continuous genuine music making.
As professionals we are all highly committed to embedding our core CARE values; Collaboration, Aspiration, Resilience & Endeavour, we strive to ensure that our pupils become active, collaborative and resilient learners. Our aim is to ensure all children are provided with a music curriculum that creates opportunities to be creative and expressive with the skills and knowledge they develop. Encouraging creativity teaches children some of the most important life skills such as problem solving, empathy, communication, responsibility, commitment and dedication, as well as discipline. At Richmond Hill our passion is to provide a safe environment where children can succeed in the future, be inventive, resourceful and imaginative, and arts education supports this.
Charanga New Model Music Curriculum
The Scheme provides assessment, clear progression, and engaging and exciting resources to support every lesson. It adopts an integrated, practical, exploratory and child-led approach to musical learning.
The Scheme of Work is built on the following principles:
● Children will develop their skills in inquiry and critical thinking.
● Children will begin to feel and learn about social connectivity.
● Children will learn about and deepen their musical understanding and connect this with
their place in their community.
● Children will become globally aware and understand what it means to become a citizen of
the world.
● Songs and singing lie at the heart of the learning process.
● An authentic musical experience is at the heart of musical learning.
● At each age and stage of development, musical learning is drawn from engaging with the
songs in each unit.
● The scheme is fun, modern, inclusive and engaging.
● The scheme is flexible and can be used as a structured approach to music teaching or can
be turned into a customised model for an individual school or class.
● The scheme will help children to understand and connect with different styles of music
from various cultures, particularly where cultures intersect.
● Children will gain an understanding of historical and cultural contexts related to music.
● Children will form their own musical opinions and learn to make their own musical
decisions.
Learning Progression
The spiral design of this scheme provides the opportunity for children to be immersed in music-making activities that deepen over the course of the six school years. More specifically, musical elements and concepts that are introduced to young children are continually revisited in more complex and intricate ways as children progress through subsequent year groups. As lessons progress through the units and year groups, key learning is repeated, musical skills are reinforced and the learning deepens. Children quickly become familiar with the musical activities, through which they acquire new, or reinforce previous, musical knowledge and understanding. This spiralled approach leads to more secure, deeper learning and musical mastery, enabling children to develop their knowledge and understanding of music as it relates to culture and their world experiences both in and outside of school.
Assessment
Assessment of the music curriculum should consider the ‘whole child.’ This includes observing behaviour such as engagement, posture, enjoyment and expression because this is what make music fun!
As the Charanga Curriculum is an integrated, practical, exploratory and child led approach we should be aware that the skills and knowledge taught are built upon and revisited constantly over the primary years. In order to assess at a class level it is important that we keep this in mind. As each lesson comprises of the key strands of musical learning from the New Model Music Curriculum we should aim to assess each area across the 5 or 6 lessons which consist of a unit of work. This is supported by analysing and recording perfomances from the beginning of the unit and then end of the unit.
Music Assembly
At Richmond Hill, our children have a weekly Music assembly which focuses on a range of elements from the New Model Music Curriculum. We begin each half term with a discussion of our Social Question which derives from the Charanga New Model Music Curriculum. The questions include, 'How does music connect us with our past?' through to 'How does music help us think about our environment?' We then move on to learning a seasonal song and exploring BBC Ten Pieces. BBC Ten Pieces is a fabulous free resource which supports the curriculum by exposing children to a range of classical music through an engaging website. At the end of each half term, our assemblies finish with performances from classroom music lessons by specific year groups, allowing every year group to perform several times throughout the year.
KS1 Choir
New to this coming academic year 2024/2025, will be our KS1 Choir taught by Mrs Elmore. This is an exciting new project, which will see our KS1 children take part in an informal choir of approximately 20 children in school time. It will be taught weekly and there will be perfomances at the end of each term both in school and within the community. Our first performance of Christmas carols was an absolute hit and had the KS1 yard in tears on the last day!
Rainbow Connections Choir
The children in KS2 at Richmond Hill are extremely lucky to have the opportunity to be a part of Paul and Debroah Mellors Rainbow Connections Choir. The Mellors offer high quality musical training for beginners and professionals. Having spent mant years in the industry they are fully aware of the high expectations needed to have a career in the entertainment industry- holding a reputation of students moving onto securing places at top colleges and gaining work within the industry. With many successes the children within the choir have taken part in a variety of shows, competitions and performances. Take a look at our school Twitter page or Rainbow Connections for videos and photographs of our choirs amazing work!
First Access
This year we are very excited to annouce that we have secured Y4 Samba and Y5 Ukulele from Doncaster Music Service. Our children in KS2 access a 30 minute lesson each week, in school time for the whole year. It is a fantastic opportunity and the children have already made so much progress. We are excited to see the children do their first performance for their parents in their Easter Presentation.
Let's Make Music
Every child from Nursery onwards at RHPA has the opportunity to take part in music lessons from the Doncaster Music Service. Let's Make Music lessons have seen children learn a number of skills in clarinet or guitar. The lessons are weekly and invovle small, tailored sessions with a professional, allowing children to receive an excellent level of teaching. The children who have taken part so far have enjoyed it thoroughly and it has shown as we had several children across the school who were confident enough to want to perform during our Easter performances.
Trust Ensemble
This year children across our 9 Trust Schools have practiced together once a month. We have a variety of instruments- drums, clarinet, piano, trumpet, saxophone, glockenspiel, steel drums, guitar, violin and ukulele. The children have been learning two pieces of music- Twinkle, Twinkle and Mamma Mia. They have worked excetionally hard and we look forward to this project developing further throughout the years.
Mrs K W Elmore
Class Teacher and Music Subject Leader
Richmond Hill Primary Academy