Music

Theater, Drama, Music and the expressive arts

Our Music leaders

Hello!

My name is Mrs Hardwicke and I am a Teacher of the Deaf at Laycock Primary School and joint Music lead with Mr Sullivan.
Music is very important to me and I am excited about helping to develop this subject at Laycock! I especially look forward to our pupils learning to play different instruments and hope that one day, we will have a school band!

Hello!

My name is Mr Sullivan and I’m joint music lead at Laycock with Mrs Hardwicke and also a teacher in year 4.

I have loved music from a young age and I would like to encourage and share that same enthusiasm with our students at Laycock. I love all types of music, and you are just as likely to find me listening to Miles Davis, Stormzy, or even Abba! I would very much like to develop music throughout the school alongside Mrs Hardwicke and I am very excited about the future of music at Laycock.

Our Music subject intent

Music is a universal language that transcends cultural boundaries and language and creates unity. It embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high-quality music education will engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talents as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they will develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination the best in the musical canon. (National Curriculum Purpose of Study)

In our music lessons, we will enjoy, appreciate, dissect and evaluate different styles of music such as Classical, Jazz, Hip Hop, Rock and Pop and examine the similarities and how these genres inform each other. Links between other aspects of culture, identity and history will be made, probed and established. Students will be encouraged and provided the chance to play various musical instruments and explore a range of virtual instruments and music technology. Singing will be taught and aided across a multitude of genres, with multiple opportunities for performance that will be encouraged and commended.

Students will be given opportunities to compose music in ways that are creative and relevant to them and their vision. Ideas and inspiration will be aided by the teachers, but children should ultimately be given the freedom to explore musical possibilities and expression.

Our Music subject implementation

At Laycock Primary School, we follow a scheme of work called Charanga which offers a topic-based approach to children’s learning in music. A progression plan has been built into Charanga within each year group that ensures consistent musical development. By using Charanga as the basis of a scheme of work, we can ensure that the aims for musical learning stated in the National Curriculum are being fulfilled:

Aims

The national curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:

perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians
learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence
understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the interrelated dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations

Charanga gives the children an appreciation of diverse musical styles and genres from different times and places. These are explored via active listening, performing and composing activities, which support understanding of genre and historical context.

Charanga provides a kinaesthetic, participatory and inclusive approach to music learning. Throughout the scheme, children enjoy using and developing their singing voices, learning to handle and play classroom instruments effectively to create and express their own and others’ compositions and using body percussion and whole-body actions.

In addition to Charanga. Laycock Primary School has access to Music Education Islington where specialist teachers come into school and teach musical instruments. This year we hope to resume guitar and ukulele lessons and to introduce other instruments.

All of our Music teaching is linked to the National Curriculum.

Choir

This term we have re-introduced the Laycock KS2 Choir! Rehearsals will happen on a weekly basis and are open to all children who have auditioned.