How we teach Music at Wordsworth Primary School

In the EYFS, music is threaded through the areas of learning and development. The children in KS1 follow a Music Project devised by the Music Specialist Teacher and taught by HLTAs. They also have weekly singing assemblies to develop their voices and enjoy the experience of singing together. Everyone in KS2 has a weekly music lesson with the Music Specialist Teacher, developing their skills of singing, playing, improvising, composing and listening.

What you will see in classrooms:

At Wordsworth Primary School, every child is a musician. They learn to develop their singing skills from simple chants and melodies to more complex songs, including those in different parts. They learn to play a wide range of tuned and untuned classroom percussion instruments as well as recorders, ukuleles and keyboards, working towards final performances and recordings. They create their own music, from different stimuli including art, stories and musical starting points and learn to be reflective composers, who can edit and improve their work. They listen to a wide range of music from different times, places and cultures, learning to respond physically and through a developing musical vocabulary. The development of skills and musical knowledge is cumulative, therefore many activities are revisited during EYFS, KS1 and KS2 to practise previously learned skills and knowledge and then to build upon them.

Extra-curricular Music

We encourage our children to take up a musical instrument. Violin is offered from Year Two, viola and cello from Year Three, Woodwind and Brass from Year Four and Guitar from Year Five. Children who receive the Pupil Premium are almost fully funded for their instrumental lessons. Parental payment is required for other children, although having larger group sizes ensures that we make it affordable for many families. Our lessons are provided by Southampton Music Hub.

We ensure that our children have opportunities to sing and perform to parents during the year. These include Harvest Festival, Christmas performances in EYFS and KS1, Christingle Celebrations in KS2 and Performance Showcases for different year groups throughout the year.

We run choirs for Year 2/3 and Years 4, 5 and 6 and have many opportunities during the year when the choirs can perform, both in school, in the local community and at city and national events. The choirs are open to all, without audition. Our School Orchestra is open to children in Years 5 and 6 (and invited children in Year 4). It runs during school time and the orchestra play at school, Trust and city events.