Music
"Music begins where the possibilities of language end." (Jean Sibelius)
At Hillcroft, we understand the importance of having music in our lives and how it is vital to connect us and enrich us in our ever-changing world. Creating, performing and listening to music, makes us feel good and supports our emotional well-being and development. At our school we believe in providing the children with an exciting, progressive, inclusive and engaging music curriculum that promotes a lasting love of music and performance.
Musical skills and learning begin in the Early Years in the Nursery and Reception classes. Singing, listening to music and performance is embedded in many indoor and outdoor learning opportunities providing enjoyable and memorable experiences. In Key Stage One and Two, we use a progressive music scheme called Charanga, which gives the children opportunities to layer their knowledge and skills as they move through the school.
The pupils learn key skills such as listening and music appreciation, rhythms, singing, improvisation, creating music, notation and performance. Our children are encouraged to understand the importance of practise and resilience to improve their musical skills and make sure that they are performance ready.
In every year group the children use a wide range of percussion instruments to create, improvise and perform rhythms and create musical pieces. From Year Two onwards, the children begin to learn tuned instruments such as the recorder and the glockenspiel as a whole class.
In Year Four, tuned instruments are taught to the class by a specialist peripatetic musician for an hour a week. This is a fantastic opportunity for the children to learn to play an instrument alongside their friends. It also allows the children an opportunity of a termly performance to showcase their learning and their musical journey. The children can then continue to learn the instrument independently in extra-curricular lessons in Year Four, Five and Six.
The musical opportunities offered at Hillcroft bring classes, year groups, Key Stages, the school and indeed the whole community together. We enjoy congregating regularly, as a whole school, to sing and perform together as well as encouraging our children to join the school’s choir to participate in annual community events such as Songs around the Cedar Tree, the local church Christingle and Dorking Halls performance.
Pupil Voice:
I like playing instruments. I like flutes and drums. We use drum sticks and they make the drums go bang, bang, bang. I like maracas because they shake, shake, shake. I liked singing Three Little Men in a Flying Saucer because we sang it to our Mummies and Daddies.
Savannah, Reception
I like listening to music and thinking about how I feel when I listen to it and what instruments I can hear. In music we are learning to play the recorder. It is tricky because you have to cover the holes properly otherwise you make the wrong sound or note. We have learnt the notes B, G and A. I feel proud that I am learning to play an instrument.
Jamie, Year 2
I like my ukulele lessons because it is like playing a simple guitar. I like how we put our fingers on the strings to make different notes. I also like how each ukulele string has a different pitch. A has a high pitch and G has a low pitch.
Theo, Year 4
We are learning to play the glockenspiels. We have learnt D,C and F. It’s really fun. Yesterday we got to make our own music. We had to use D, C and F and we could add another note. I chose E. We got to perform our own tunes to the class. At the start we could not play many notes and now we can play lots of them. I feel a lot more confident because I can look at the note and I know where it is on the glockenspiel!
Oliver, Year 5
Year 4 - Ukulele Calypso
Progression of Skills and Knowledge:
At Hillcroft Primary School, we follow the National Curriculum. From this, we ensure that skills and knowledge are taught in the appropriate year groups to ensure progression and sequencing.
Across Early Years, to ensure progression from the newly published Early Years Framework into KS1, we follow the revised and updated July 2021 version of Development Matters. In our Nursery, children are aged three and four, and so the progression maps show the objectives related to Three and Four year-old objectives. However, some children join after just turning three, therefore, with these children and following rigorous assessment of starting points, it may be deemed necessary to look at the Birth to Three objectives too.
For more information on this, please see the Nursery and Reception year group pages. Below are links to our Progression of Skills and Knowledge documents.
