Music at morley victoria
"Without music, life would be a mistake." Friedrich Nietzsche
"Singing helps us to have fun together at school." - MV Pupil
"Music helps me forget all my worries." - MV KS2 pupil
"I love learning how to play the guitar at school." - Year 5 pupil
"The school doesn't shy away from using challenging songs with young children." - Peripatetic pianist
"The choir are an absolute credit to the school." - Local Councillor
"The Community Coffee Morning at Christmas is my favourite event of the year. I get to see all children from Reception to Y6 sing in an hour...what a treat!" - MV Governor
"I absolutely love the concerts and class assemblies and Young Voices is just brilliant, we loved it!" - MV Parent
The Purpose of Music
Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon. (National Curriculum)
Curriculum:
At Morley Victoria we believe that all children, regardless of cultural or economic background, must have access to a high-quality musical education to allow them to develop creativity and find their passions. We use Charanga to follow the National Curriculum for music and spend time listening to and appreciating music both in and out of our music lessons. All children will learn to play ukulele and glockenspiel at our school, and everyone will experience being part of a choir. Music is a huge part of our school culture, and we are very proud of our talents in this area.
Music in EYFS
Music knowledge, understanding and skill development in EYFS is taught under the ‘Expressive Arts and Design’ section of Development Matters. Music taught by exploring and playing in purposeful well thought out areas of provision, through active learning and through creating and thinking critically.
In EYFS the children:
- Show attention to sound and music.
- Respond physically and emotionally to music.
- Anticipate phrase and actions in rhymes and songs.
- Join in with sounds and rhymes including actions.
- Make rhythmical repetitive sounds.
- Explore a range of sound making instruments and play them in different ways linked to emotions.
- Remember and sing entire songs – including matching the pitch of others.
- Create songs and improvise a song around one they know.
The lessons provide children with a solid base to allow them to access the National Curriculum in Year 1.
Singing
At Morley Victoria we make learning to sing an enjoyable experience for all children. Singing lies at the heart of our music curriculum and is something we are really proud of – we take every opportunity available to sing and perform to an audience. We have a fantastic peripatetic pianist, Mr Eastwood, who works in school for one morning a week. He works alongside the class teachers and the music leader to deliver high quality singing sessions and assemblies. The music leader works very hard to ensure that the material the children sing is diverse and covers all areas of the music curriculum.
Through singing songs, the children learn about the structure and organisation of different musical styles and they are introduced to the interrelated dimensions of music as they experience them first hand. The children also learn from listening to each other and critiquing each other’s performances. There are many opportunities throughout the school year where the children in all year groups get to showcase how hard they have been working to improve their singing skills. These include our Christmas concerts and class assemblies.
There are also several opportunities for the children to sing as part of a choir in the local community – The Morley Music Festival, Morley has got Talent, St.George’s Day Service, Young Voices and we also perform at the remembrance service each year. We have a very diverse and inclusive choir and all children at Morley Victoria are encouraged to see themselves as singers and performers.
Learning an Instrument
Providing instrument tuition is a popular way in which we enrich of our curriculum, whether it’s part of our standard curriculum or an extra-curricular activity.
All children learn to play glockenspiel as part of their music lessons in class with other instruments being introduced throughout their Morley Victoria career as tasters. We also have a class set of ukuleles and these are used in Year 3 to allow all children to learn to play an instrument. Whole class instrument lessons are taught by Mr Goodchild from Artforms. This fantastic whole-class learning experience has many benefits: it helps children to develop confidence, concentration and co-ordination skills, self-discipline, communication and language skills alongside the National Curriculum for music, and not forgetting the sheer enjoyment of being involved in a musical activity and being part of a collective performances. We hold concerts at the end of each year for all of the children to perform for their parents and some children also perform in our Christmas concerts too.
For those wanting to learn violin, we offer individual tuition organised and led by John Whiston a very talented musical tutor who has worked at the school for some time. We also have up to 45 places in the Rocksteady Music School, which gives children the opportunity to learn to play guitar, keyboard, drums or even perform lead vocals in a band.
Every year in school the children are given the opportunity to perform to an audience to showcase their talents and progress. Parents and carers really enjoy seeing their child confidently performing. The children are also encouraged to perform an instrument of their choice in assembly times if they have lessons outside of school.
Because Violin tuition and Rocksteady are extra services, there is a charge (unless your child is entitled to free school meals and where school receives pupil premium). Again, contact the office staff for more details on what tuition is currently on offer and the cost of this.
Music Appreciation
Throughout their time at Morley Victoria children are given the opportunity to listen to a wide range of musical styles and spend time enjoying and evaluating pieces in whole class, group and paired discussions. Children also learn about music from other cultures within their topics and about different composers throughout history.
Hearing music played live is something that we have been working on at Morley Victoria. The children regularly experience someone playing the piano, and all the children took part in our Rocksteady launch sessions where they saw a talented guitarist, drummer and keyboard player at work. Our Year 5 and 6 children have the opportunity to listen to professional singers as part of their Shakespeare Workshop. Seeing live performers allows children to develop their dreams and aspirations in this area, and demonstrates first hand what can be achieved through practice and the development of a growth mind set. This is something that we will continue to encourage as part of the music curriculum.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/bring-the-noise/half-term-music-activities/zmmpxyc/
There is so much you can do at home with your child to support their musical development. Here are a few ideas:
- Exposing your child to live music-many children cannot appreciate music until they have heard it live. Too often they just listen to music from the radio, TV or CDs. Giving your child the opportunity to listen to live music being played is invaluable.
- Encourage your child to express themselves to music-through movement, painting, singing.
- Ask your child to tell you how a piece of music makes them feel-and why/how?
- When listening to music, encourage your child to see if they can identify instruments being played (this can be any type of music-even modern up-to date music!)
- Tap into your children's interests, for example, if they like a certain TV program theme tune then you could even teach them how to play a small section of it on a simple keyboard, or take their favourite song and sing it in a round on those long car journeys!
- Let your children experience different musical instruments when possible-so many children can identify what a guitar is by looking at a picture but have they ever held one or plucked the strings?
- on those rainy days ask your children to make up a song about anything they like! You will be surprised at how well they will do!
- Encourage your children to express likes and dislikes about the music they listen to. Can they give reasons?
