Music

Intent

At St Gabriel’s, we aim to foster a love and appreciation of music. We want all children to develop their musical skills, knowledge and understanding in order to nurture and sustain this enjoyment. The school seeks to provide opportunities for children to express themselves musically, explore a wide range of genres and articulate their opinions about different styles of music. At St Gabriel’s, we are committed to enabling children to create their own music through learning to play instruments, singing and using technology to combine sounds.

Implementation

Our curriculum is based on the National Curriculum and delivered using plans and resources produced by SingUp. Music is taught weekly as a discrete subject, predominantly by class teachers across the school. In the Early Years, music is further enhanced through continuous provision.

Our music curriculum is cyclical, enabling children to revisit and refine their musical skills across the four strands of music: listening and appraising, singing, composing and performing. Children build on their prior learning each year, progressively deepening their understanding. During lessons, pupils listen to and appraise music from a range of genres and historical eras. They also explore the interrelated dimensions of music—including pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture and structure—and apply this knowledge when composing their own pieces inspired by the unit of study.

Each year, all pupils showcase their musical skills in performances for parents/carers and the wider school community. Children perform collectively, with opportunities for solo performance. These events include the EYFS Nativity, KS1 Christmas Performance, Year 3 and 4 Easter Concert, Year 5 Summer Production and Year 6 Leavers’ Performance.

Impact

Assessment for learning strategies are employed to enable teachers to identify the depth of children’s understanding. Teachers use this information to adapt their planning and ensure that learning meets pupils’ needs. They may also adjust the focus of a lesson to provide appropriate support and challenge.

At the end of each unit, teachers collect evidence of pupils’ progress. Video and audio recordings are made and shared with children, allowing them to reflect on their performances and recognise their progression across the year. Additionally, teachers use these recordings to support assessment at the end of each term.

School leaders monitor this evidence and hold individual termly meetings with teachers to ensure they are supported in delivering a high‑quality music curriculum. Children’s views and understanding are also gathered through pupil interviews and surveys.