“Music gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life and to everything”

Plato

At St John’s we believe that music is a crucial element of child development in the primary years, enhancing development in the areas of listening, empathy, emotional regulation as well as cognitive development. Music has often been described as a universal language so our curriculum reflects this by providing experiences of high-quality music from a wide range of musical cultures and is accessible to all children, using each child’s starting point to develop their musical skills and knowledge.

Our music curriculum puts practical, creative music making at the heart of music learning across the school. Where appropriate, music can be linked to termly themes to deepen and enrich learning across the whole curriculum. At other times music units can be planned separately from other subjects, providing focussed musical learning. In Key Stage 1 and 2, children will have the opportunity to learn an instrument for a half term every year.

Music lessons across the year focus on developing the children’s understanding and mastery of the interrelated dimensions of music (pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations). Alongside this, music lessons and experiences aim to develop the children’s skills as composers, performers and singers as well as their ability to analyse and appreciate music using subject specific knowledge and vocabulary.

In addition to music in the classroom, music is embedded in the daily life of the school through singing and musical experiences in daily worship as a well as a range of extra-curricular music clubs (including a school orchestra and choir). The school gives pupils the opportunity to perform musically in school through performances in assemblies and year group productions. In addition to this the school also participates in performances at the Anvil concert hall, both visiting to watch live performances as well as performing in the Basingstoke schools BPSM concert.

“There is music in every child. The teacher’s job is to find it and nurture it.”

Frances Clark