Culmstock Primary School

Intent

At Culmstock we recognise the importance of music in developing the creativity, resilience and emotional well-being of our children. The intent of our music curriculum is to ensure that all children receive a broad and balanced music curriculum by facilitating the exploration of a range of musical instruments, genres, and traditions within lessons and extra-curricular lesson opportunities and activities.  Pupils are given the opportunity to listen, analyse, create, record and evaluate their musical learning.

Our Drivers

1. For pupils to understand how culture, significant events and technology impact the development of musica styles and genres.

2. For our pupils to have a good knowledge and understanding of music chronolgy. 

3. For our pupils to experience and appreciate a range of genres, styles and signifcant musicians. 

4. For our pupils to understand and use musical notation and vocabulary to listen to, analyse, create, record and evaluate music.

5. For our pupils to experience different musical instruments and different musical formats. 

Our Focuses

1. To have a progressive curriculum based on knowledge and skills. 

2. To strengthen the teaching skills of all staff. 

3. To develop the federation subject leadership team. 

Implementation

Children throughout their time at Culmstock will listen, sing, compose, notate and perform in their music lessons. This is embedded in our music lessons, extra-curricular activities and weekly singing assemblies.

We implement our music curriculum through the use of Charanga in our classrooms which enables us to provide a development of skills across our year groups. The lessons are sequenced so that the children are able to review, remember, deepen and apply their learning, which is consistent across the year groups. We use our class displays to show our music journey and to reinforce the teaching of musical vocabulary.

Following Charanga children have opportunities to play a range of musical instruments to support the development of their musical skills. They learn how to compose using different rhythms and styles and how to make notations in music. The music curriculum enables our children to create a performance as a product of their learning.

Children at Culmstock have opportunities to take up musical instrument lessons, join musical ensembles and perform to a range of audiences throughout their school life; the highlight of the year being our Summer School Concert for all parents and the wider community.

Impact

For our children to have an appreciation and love of music; creating their own sounds through the exploration of musical skills which we facilitate.

Children at Culmstock Primary School have lots of opportunities to express their creativity through music. The Charanga music scheme is used to teach music across the school. The children enjoy the exciting lessons where they learn about a range of musical styles throughout different decades and across the world. They have the opportunity to use their voices and range of instruments in their lessons to create music.

Choir is open to all children across the school and is run by Mrs Kingdom at lunchtime on Wednesday. For the past three years, Culmstock Choir have taken part in Come and Sing. This is an event that takes place at Wellington School where primary schools from across the South West join together to perform a concert for their parents.

Culmstock Primary School perform a variety of productions across the school year. The Summer Concert is always lots of fun and a great opportunity for children to share their variety of talents with their parents and teachers. It has been wonderful to see the children’s confidence grow when taking centre stage, whether it be through singing or playing instruments such as the violin, guitar, clarinet or piano.

Here is a photograph from Come and Sing 2019 where Culmstock Primary School choir, along with more than 20 other schools, performed a number of well-known favourites.