MUSIC CURRICULUM AIMS at GIA

At Glasshoughton Infant Academy experiences are at the heart of all learning where children have ‘hands on’ learning opportunities through real life objects, visitors or visits. Children are immersed in thematic learning based on an interleaving curriculum where new knowledge is taught, learned, remembered, revisited and applied by children ‘being’ a musician, including a performer or composer.  

At Glasshoughton Infant Academy we believe that language development is vital for all children. We have high aspirations and support them to ‘be’ in their learning. The experiential and interleaving approach ensures that language is used by all stakeholders, including parents. Children develop good comprehension of the words they are using and are able to use them in context and accurately as part of their real learning.

Retrieval practice is planned for the beginning of each lesson, over a unit of musical learning. Whereby, the children ‘speak like an expert’ and are expected to retrieve knowledge that has been previously taught as a strategy to support them to move learning from the short term to the long-term memory.

At Glasshoughton Infant Academy we know that Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. Music can be the cohesive link between many other subjects in the curriculum, where children can further explore what they have learned in a more physical capacity. Music is a practical subject which can be enjoyed by all. This knowledge and experience will cultivate a cultural capital and prepare children for the next step in their education.

At Glasshoughton Infant Academy our aim is for all pupils to be informed, articulate and empowered. We are a ‘talk rich’ school: talk is central to our curriculum and to the way our pupils learn. Children learn through talk. We believe oracy (the ability to communicate effectively) is a central means of extending pupils’ linguistic, social, emotional and cognitive development; it is key to the progress and attainment of all pupils.

To create:

• Successful learners who enjoy learning, make at least expected progress with some children making better than expected progress to achieve excellence.
• Confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives.
• Responsible citizens who can make a positive contribution to society.
• Individuals who have been exposed to a wide range of musical experiences that allow them to express their informed opinions and individuality.
• A developmental curriculum which engages children in authentic learning experiences that reflect the individual needs of all children, including disadvantaged and pupil premium, ensuring no child is left behind.
• Children who are clearly able to explain and articulate their learning, using accurate vocabulary and terminology as well as communicating their learning with the appropriate fluency, tone and projection alongside effective body language; posture, eye contact, gestures and posture.
• Successful learners who build upon previous learning in order to access new knowledge and skills, retrieving learning and applying it in different contexts. 
• Confident communicators who are able to explain and record their learning from across the curriculum and present it to a variety of audiences.
• Opportunities for high quality learning, in line with what is being taught in school have been carefully planned and resourced to ensure that children who are learning outside of the classroom still make excellent progress and do not fall behind due to unforeseen time off school.

It is essential that the Music curriculum is organised in such a way that it provides learners with the opportunity to learn expected behaviours and be successful in their learning so that we can deliver our mission and aims.

Strategic Intent

The breadth and depth of the curriculum is designed to:

• Create an aspirational high achievement culture which allows pupils to develop as confident, responsible citizens;
• Provide a coherent, structured, academic curriculum that leads to key concepts, ideas and knowledge expecting children to apply skills through a variety of experiences and planned learning opportunities;
•  To provide cultural capital, so children have a deep understanding, respect and tolerance of the world around them;
• Take in to account individual needs and styles where ALL children experience success;
• To prepare all pupils for the opportunities and experiences of the music curriculum.

Aspirational high achievement culture

We have developed two curriculum drivers that shape our curriculum, bring about the aims and values of our school, and respond to the particular needs of our community:

• Aspirations – which help pupils to know their future possibilities and build aspirations for their lives.
• Experiences – The school provides memorable experiences which help children to engage actively in their learning by providing real ‘hands on’ experiences, supported by exploration and investigation to make links and sense of their learning, supplemented by shared experiences provided by visitors and visits to the wider community, to link to the wider world.

Coherently planned academic curriculum

Underpinned by our two curriculum drivers our academic curriculum sets out:

• A clear breadth of topics and outcomes that will be covered
• The skills that children will learn alongside the knowledge that they will gain.
• Criteria for understanding the progression and sequences of learning and concepts to support retention of key knowledge
• Criteria for depth of understanding through retrieval practice and new knowledge.

Cultural Capital

Cultural capital is the background knowledge of the world pupils need to infer meaning from what they read. It includes vocabulary which, in turn, helps pupils to express themselves in a sophisticated, mature way.

Individuals

The curriculum is designed for all children to maximise their potential. This is achieved through carefully considered developmental curriculum that progresses in such a way to ensure that individual needs, strengths and next steps are built upon to ensure no child, including those who are pupil premium or disadvantaged, fall behind. At Glasshoughton Infant Academy, we understand that the assessment of learning provides vital intelligence in regards to target teaching and children’s next steps to ensure they succeed in their learning. Pre-teaching and Same Day Intervention are two strategies that are consistently applied across school to support children to experience success.

Sustained Mastery

Nothing is learned unless it rests in pupils’ long-term memory. This does not happen, and cannot be assessed, in the short term. Assessment therefore answers two main questions: How well are pupils coping with the curriculum content? And how well are they retaining previously taught content?  Consequently, at Glasshoughton Infant academy we provide children with lots of opportunities to revisit and practise conceptual knowledge and understanding. This is assessed at the beginning of the lesson whereby the children are given the opportunity to ‘speak like an expert’. Feedback is given in a timely manner and acted upon to ensure that children are addressing misconceptions and monitoring the children’s long-term memory capacity.

The use of cold and hot assessment tasks support assessment of progression and further next step identification.

The impact of the curriculum is assessed at 3 assessment points:

• Assessment point 1 – 28th November 2022
• Assessment point 2 – 13th March 2023
• Assessment point 3 – 10th July 2023

This will support teachers to highlight clear next steps for individuals and support leaders in school in their professional dialogue around progress, CPD, subject knowledge, outcomes and lines of enquiry to follow. Impact of the curriculum is triangulated through skills, knowledge and the ability to communicate the learning.

Curriculum Implementation

• Clear planned pathway to progress from on entry to nursery to the end of key stage 1 and beyond, accelerating progress in all sequences of learning.
  • Learning is most effective with spaced repetition
  • Interleaving helps pupils to discriminate between topics and aids long term retention.
  • Retrieval of previously learned content is frequent and regular, which increases both storage and retrieval strength.

• At Glasshoughton Infant Academy our aim is for all pupils to be informed, articulate and empowered. We are a ‘talk rich’ school: talk is central to our curriculum and to the way our pupils learn. Children learn through talk. We believe oracy (the ability to communicate effectively) is a central means of extending pupils’ linguistic, social, emotional and cognitive development; it is key to the progress and attainment of all pupils. Therefore, the children in our school are taught to talk and are taught to learn through talk. Children are taught the skills needed in order to effectively communicate their thoughts, ideas and feelings orally. They are taught to talk through the teaching of physical aspects when using their voice, such as fluency, tone and projection, alongside effective body language; posture, eye contact, gestures and posture.
• Whole school theme days are planned and delivered every half term. These allow children to be fully immersed in cross curricular, memorable experience-based learning that includes visits/visitors, music, dance, drama, and art.
• Children will be expected to imitate, innovate and invent to ensure that they are fully confident with a skill before having the opportunity to explore and develop the skill. The skills in which the children will learn will be developmental and ensure that progression is made from nursery to year 2.  We aim for children to understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated. This will be achieved through the exploration of the inter-related dimensions of music such as; pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations. Children will have the opportunity to explore why such musical devices have been used by significant composers as well as using them within their own compositions.
• Children will be expected to compose and perform their own pieces of work at a level that is age appropriate to them. This will allow them to showcase their knowledge and understanding of the interrelated dimensions of music in a practical and memorable way.
• Children will be exposed to musical language to ensure they are equipped to critique pieces of music they are exposed to.
• Teachers are expected to expose children to famous composers and musicians to ensure they are exposed to wide range of musical genres, styles and techniques. These musical experiences will enable children to understand and acknowledge a wide range of emotions and feelings. As well as, enabling children to notice the musical dimension that they have been learning about within their music lesson.
• As a core expectation, and our whole school development of oracy, children will listen to music daily that will stimulate discussion and develop children’s ability to appraise music through differentiated questions related to the interrelated dimensions of music.
• At Glasshoughton Infant Academy, we believe that music massively impacts on emotions and can help children to feel safe and secure. Consequently, children experience music as they walk into school and they associate this with a warm and safe environment.  
• Children will be exposed to a wide range of musical instruments including tuned, un-tuned and multicultural instruments.
• At Glasshoughton Infant Academy, children will be learning songs and how to look after their voices as part of weekly singing assemblies. The songs chosen have been carefully selected to ensure cross curricular links are made in relation to celebrations and festivals we are celebrating in school.
• Effective communication is a vital skill which children are taught in order for them to demonstrate their learning from across the curriculum in a variety of different ways, including verbally and through written recordings. 
• ‘Speak like an expert’ is explicitly planned into every lesson to support daily and weekly retrieval practice where learning moves from the short term to longer term memory.
• ‘Sticky knowledge’ is key to ensure lessons are learning focused, with an emphasis on the development of children’s vocabulary. This allows children to confidently communicate their learning as a musician through the correct use of subject specific vocabulary and terminology. This is also shared with all stakeholders to ensure that it is consistently applied and used.
• Application of learning in a variety of forms allows children to demonstrate that their learning has been retained long term.
• Children are provided with many opportunities to practise their learning in different contexts to ensure it is embedded into the long-term memory.
• There should be depth before breadth.  Maximise learning time in all subjects and consider the subject specific skills, knowledge and vocabulary required.
• Additional time is given to English and Mathematics to ensure that students have the essential skills needed for life and to access the full curriculum, especially harnessing Reading as a tool for independent learning across the curriculum. Phonics is taught within a specific programme to create effective readers and writers in all curriculum areas.
• Targeted support and additional challenge to ensure all learners make at least national rates of progress from their starting points and over time, including Pupil Premium, SEND and Disadvantaged children.
• Ensure all students’ progress is in line with national expectations and learners and their teachers are ambitious to achieve more through deeper learning opportunities.
• Some of our content is subject specific, whilst other content is combined in a cross-curricular approach.
• Continuous provision, in the form of daily routines, replaces the teaching of some aspects of the curriculum and, in other cases, provides retrieval practise for previously learned content. For example, listening to and appraising music in regards to the interrelated dimensions of music and musical likes and dislikes form’s part the children’s morning routine. 
• Suspended learning in blocks of time where core principles in a range of curriculum areas including, health, RE, SMSC & PSHE, Heritage and creative weeks allow children to spend a focussed block of time immersed in a depth of knowledge linked to all subject areas.
• To support induction and transition points across the Primary years for all learners and their carers.
• The curriculum is further enriched and boosted through the wide variety of after curricular activities that are available for the infant children including music classes where they learn to play an instrument, sports coaching, MFL, craft and creative clubs, computing and coding club. All children are invited to attend the clubs through an open invitation and specific children, including our most identified vulnerable children are contacted individually to ensure they have had an involvement in at least one of our clubs.  
• Home learning is essential in minimising lost learning due to time away from school. It is planned in line with the curriculum and matches as closely as possible to learning happening in school so that no child falls behind. Alternative resources are suggested as we are mindful of the access children will have at home compared to at school.

The Curriculum

We have a very broad Primary Curriculum covering 12 subjects meeting all the national curriculum requirements.

Children will perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, stiles and traditions. This will be part of the children’s daily diet along with discreet lessons to ensure key skills are taught.

All children will use their voices to create and compose music as well as learning songs to correspond with festivals and celebrations.

At Glasshoughton Infant Academy, we want all children to understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated. Our children will have the opportunity to express their musicality in various contexts, for example in church as part of our harvest festival celebrations.

Children are provided with as many opportunities as possible to write for an audience and a purpose in a range of subject areas. Children are taught that verbal and written communication skills are imperative in order to access learning opportunities from across the curriculum. Music is subjective and at Glasshoughton infant academy we aim for children to be able to communicate their appreciation, opinions and preferences confidently to a wide audience. This will be practised and rehearsed in a safe and constructive environment to ensure all children develop a cultural capital that reflects the diversity of the subject.

Classroom displays support learning consistently throughout school and celebrate children’s achievements as a musician and the contextual understanding they have been immersed in to understand the composer’s intention and stylistic approaches. These displays encourage children to reflect on their knowledge and celebrate their skills as a musician. 

Sequential schemes of learning with clear and progressive learning objectives for all music lessons allows for children to build upon prior knowledge and skills. A progressive curriculum ensures that current learning opportunities are based upon children’s previous learning, knowledge they have retained previous lessons or the previous year group and links to year group expectations.

‘Sticky knowledge’ is carefully planned for each lesson across the curriculum, linked to the learning objective, and is progressive across a sequence of learning. This ensures that children are explicitly clear about what they are learning during each session and how previous learning will help them to develop new knowledge and skills. Children’s learning is communicated to them clearly, at the start of every lesson, to allow them to develop an understanding of why they are being taught what they are being taught at that particular time; how previous learning will help them and what the outcome will be at the end of the sequence. ‘Sticky knowledge’ also provides children with the correct vocabulary and terminology needed in order to effectively communicate their learning.

Emphasis on vocabulary that is music specific is shared with all stake holders including parents. This is shared with parents termly. Children are taught that verbal and written communication skills are imperative in order to access learning opportunities from across the curriculum.

A variety of strategies are taught at GIA in order to allow ALL pupils to become successful musicians as we have an understanding that not all children learn in the same way. This ensures that no children, including pupil premium, children with SEN and disadvantaged are left behind and achieve their full learning potential. 

Additional support is provided for children who are not meeting their targets through bespoke small group intervention led by highly skilled professionals. This is monitored through pupil progress meetings and SMART targets to ensure the impact of the intervention is as anticipated in a timely manner. 

Suspended learning – When the normal lesson timetable is suspended, take place during the year.  These days allow children to learn in different ways such as off site, with external providers or using different curriculum approaches.   These days’ cover subjects such as Staying Safe, British Values, hook days/trips/visitors etc

The curriculum is further enriched and boosted through the wide variety of after curricular activities that are available for the infant children including music classes where they learn to play an instrument, sports coaching, MFL, craft and creative clubs, computing and coding club. All children are invited to attend the clubs through an open invitation and specific children, including our most identified vulnerable children are contacted individually to ensure they have had an involvement in at least one of our clubs.  Children are also given enrichment opportunities to provide a broad and balanced curriculum. This may be in the form of theme days, trips, visitors etc.

Home learning opportunities have been carefully planned and resourced, to ensure children who are learning remotely from home, receive the same carefully planned and progressive curriculum that is on offer at school. All children have a right to an education and we do not want to allow any child fall behind so there is an expectation that home learning is shared with class teachers to ensure progress is being made and that no child falls behind.

Curriculum Impact

Children are tracked throughout the year ensuring they are on track to reach the national expectations within the subject, focusing on a triangulated approach of knowledge, skills and communicating their learning both verbally and in written form. The impact of the curriculum is that by the end of the year, the vast majority of children have sustained mastery of the content, that is, they remember it all and are fluent in it. Some children will have reached a greater depth of understanding where they can apply their learning.

The curriculum design will facilitate all children within our school to ensure they are clear about their learning and are able to confidently communicate their learning using accurate vocabulary and terminology from across the curriculum. Children will be able to communicate in a variety of different contexts and about work displayed in classrooms, in books and on home learning apps during regular pupil discussion. Ultimately, children will be confident to communicate their learning as a musician, both verbally and in the written form, using accurate vocabulary. Finally, a developmentally progressive curriculum, whereby children build upon their prior learning and knowledge, ensures that no child, including pupil premium, children with SEN and disadvantaged children, are left behind. All children have the tools to reach their full learning potential.

Subject specific time is allotted within staff meetings to ensure all staff can monitor the teaching and learning within music to ensure all children are on track to reach national expectations. It is during this time teachers and subject leaders reflect curriculum design and discuss progress. As a result of these discussions subject leaders are able to identify where targeted support is needed and how it will be achieved. From this the relevant CPD for all staff is subsequently planned and delivered through a coaching cycle to ensure all stakeholders are secure in the subject knowledge and pedagogical approaches that will enable all learners at Glasshoughton Academy to succeed.