At Little Waltham C.E.V.A. Primary School, we want our children to love music and our vision is to give children the access to an engaging and fun music curriculum reflecting the world they live in now, but at the same time giving them access to musical styles throughout history. Children are able to listen and appraise a variety of music styles alongside performing pieces and creating their own compositions. We hope children continue to grow in confidence as they progress through the musical curriculum and become passionate in their responses to music. As a school, these are our aims:

• To encourage awareness, enjoyment and appreciation of music in all its forms.
• To develop imagination and creativity.
• To help children of all abilities develop positive attitudes and to experience success and satisfaction in music.
• To offer opportunities to sing, play instruments, compose, listen and appraise.

Children will be taught to sing a wide-ranging variety of songs and to use their voices expressively. The should have the opportunity to play both tunes and un-tuned instruments with increasing control. They should be able to rehearse and perform with others, with an awareness of audience.

Children will create musical patterns and will be shown how to explore, select and organise musical ideas.

Children should be able to listen with concentration and they will develop a growing awareness of the dimensions of music. Children will be given the opportunity to explore and explain their own ideas and feelings about music, using musical vocabulary. They will analyse and compare sounds and become confident to suggest improvements for their own work and that of others.

• Children at Little Waltham will participate in a weekly music lesson
• At Little Waltham Charanga is used consistently across the school and enables children to understand musical concepts through a repetition-based approach to learning
• Every year group will build upon the learning from prior year groups, therefore developing depth of understanding and progression of skills.
• When using Charanga teachers should make professional judgements about when to adapt or add additional materials to benefit learning.
• Lessons provide opportunities for children to develop skills: listening and appraising, singing, playing and performing.
• Singing and music is used every day in Worship and encourages music appreciation
• Resources: We have a range of musical resources that can be easily moved around the school – class set of glockenspiels, class set of ukuleles and a range of percussion instruments.

The impact of this music curriculum will lead to progress over time across key stages relative to a child’s individual starting point and their progression of skills.  Music in our school enables personal expression, reflection and emotional development and pupils are able to develop self-confidence, awareness of others and self-reflection. Music will also develop an understanding of culture and history, both in relation to students individually, as well as across the world.

By encouraging the enjoyment and engagement in music, children will develop the skills, knowledge and understanding that will allow them to fulfil their potential.