Music

The benefits of music on heart, soul and mind are well known, it is an aid to mental wellbeing and proven to help with memory, focus and cognitive functions.

Armed with this knowledge and a love for music at the heart of our school, the SRH Music Ark provides a beautiful and dedicated physical space for all our children across the entire school.

Children from Nursery up to Year 6 will access the music curriculum, individual instrumental music tuition, extra-curricular music activities and lunchtime wellbeing music clubs. With a special emphasis on inclusivity everyone will feel welcome to enjoy, participate and create music at any level.

Apart from our wonderful Class Teachers delivering curricular music, we are fortunate to have an incredible team of visiting musicians to inspire and provide tuition to our pupils.

Throughout the year each class receives weekly music lessons with specialist music teacher Catherine Johnson, enthusing children with her expertise and love of music. Catherine also leads weekly Key Stage Singing Assemblies and these are funded by Sing Praise.

We also have several professional peripatetic instrument teachers providing group and individual tuition. Violinists are taught by Cal Fell, Andy Bold provides Drumming tuition, Sally Blouet provides Wind & Brass through Music For School's Foundation, all Year 5 pupils receive cello tuition from Chris Slatter via County Music Service, who also provide Guitar tuition under Kevin Butcher.

In addition, the school has participated in The Big Sing and A Celebration of Schools’ Music at Snape, Young Voices at The O2 Arena in London, Carol Singing on Framlingham’s Market Hill, singing workshops with Group A, Bassistry Arts Drum & Bass workshops kindly funded by the Friends Association.

Music Curriculum Statement

Intent - What do we want children to learn?

We aspire to ignite a passion, enthusiasm and love for music which will be life-long. We believe music should be an enjoyable and practical experience for pupils and teachers. Children participate in a range of musical experiences, building up their confidence, being inspirational and achieving challenges they may have thought beyond them, at the same time. They develop their understanding of rhythm and pitch and learn how music is structured, as well as learning technical vocabulary for these elements. As children’s confidence builds, they enjoy the performance aspect of music. Children experience listening to music from different cultures and eras giving them an awareness of the wider world.

Implementation - How are we going to achieve our intent?

Music is taught as a discrete subject but also in a cross curricular manner. Areas of learning, such as times tables in maths, vocabulary in languages and movement in dance can all incorporate different elements of music. A weekly singing assembly allows the children opportunities to develop their singing skills and gain an understanding of how ensembles work. Year 3 pupils have access to whole class instrumental teaching and our Year 5 pupils all learn the recorder. Performances, such as Church Services, nativities, celebration assemblies, share sessions and end of year shows, demonstrate that music is important to the life of the school. We endeavour to provide a large range of extracurricular activities, such as The Firebirds, Community Carol Singing, Trips to Snape Maltings Concert Hall for The Big Sing & Celebration of Schools’ Music, The 02 and peripatetic music lessons (violin, woodwind and brass, guitar and drumming), also provide children with experience of making music.

Impact - What will it look like when we have achieved our intent?

The impact of teaching music and the beneficial effects the subject has on children and adults will be seen across the school with music having an ever - increasing profile. Whole-school and parental engagement will be improved through performances, extracurricular activities and opportunities suggested in lessons/overviews for wider learning and sharing. Participation in music develops wellbeing, promotes listening and develops concentration. We want to ensure that music is loved by teachers and pupils across school, encouraging them to want to continue building on this wealth of musical ability, now and in the future – creating musicians who are confident, feel a sense of achievement, experimental, knowledgeable and skilled. Pupils will have an awareness, love and respect for other cultures, be global citizens through an appreciation of the wider world which can be opened up to them through music. Through the teaching of music, pupils will have the tools at hand to form, develop, share and articulate ideas, views and opinions.

SRH Music Pod - take a look at our launch day leaflet