Music
Our vision
At St Peter’s we believe that music should be at the heart of our school. A rich and inclusive music experience will underpin our conviction that “Music has the power to change lives”. We are committed to putting in place: the expertise, the resources and support that children need to learn, create and share their music. We understand that is our duty to identify and remove barriers to the music education we provide in order to make it fully inclusive. Our children will be able to access high-quality curricular and co-curricular music that will inspire, motivate and provide opportunities for, intellectual, moral, social cultural and spiritual development.
Our Curriculum Intent
At our school, we intend that our music education should engage and inspire all of our children to develop their talent as musicians and foster a life-long curiosity and love of music. We are keen to promote secure well-being alongside the essential skills, knowledge and understanding within this subject. The teaching and learning of music at St Peter’s follow the guidance in the Model music curriculum – singing, listening, composing, musicianship (KS1) and performing (KS2). Opportunities will also be provided to celebrate all pupils’ achievements.
We encourage the children to take part in performances, including to each other and to wider audiences e.g., the Nativity and school productions which take place in the local church. Our school choir participates in various events throughout the school year, performing and maintaining strong links with our local community.
Implementation
Music is taught weekly by a specialist teacher throughout EYFS, KS1 and KS2. We also try to create every opportunity to integrate music into other areas of the curriculum as well as during our school worships.
Classes follow selected units from the Sing Up and Music Express schemes which provide a progressive set of lessons that meet the requirements of the statutory framework for EYFS, the National curriculum for music and the suggested approaches of the Model music curriculum.
In EYFS the teaching of music helps children’s development in several areas. (See EYFS framework and 2020 Development matters). Children sing songs and rhymes together to develop their communication and language skills in a fun and engaging way. In order to promote physical development our youngest children w learn to move in a range of new ways as they dance in time with the music, or play music instruments to accompany a tune.
Our music curriculum is planned so that children learn to play an instrument from class 1 onwards. Children in Years 1 and 2 learn to play the ocarina and children in Years 3 -6 learn to play the recorder.
Progression in Music
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Wider Opportunities for Music
Alongside our music curriculum, we offer other musical opportunities which encourage children to take part in performances, including our nativity and school productions as well as our annual ‘St Peter’s Got Talent’.
We also have a number of peripatetic teachers who offer individual music lessons, which are fitted within the school day. Our teachers offer 1:1 lessons on a range of instruments, including piano, guitar, drums, singing, flute and violin. We are always keen to celebrate our pupils’ talents through our music concerts to parents and the school. If our pupils choose to take exams on their instruments, we love sharing and celebrating their achievements and certificates within our school celebration assemblies.
School Choir and singing club
We have a very talented school choir made up of children from Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 who participate in various events throughout the school year. These include performing at the Canterbury Christmas Market, performing to residents at our local care homes, and the joint Christmas Concert with the Canterbury City Schools at the Gulbenkian Theatre. We also take part in the Young Voices concert at the O2 in London.
We also have a fun singing club on offer to children who enjoy singing and being part of a group!
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