Music Plan

Music development plan summary :
Westlands Community Primary School.

Overview

Detail	Information
Academic year that this summary covers	2024 - 2025
Date this summary was published	September 2024
Date this summary will be reviewed	July 2025
Name of the school music lead	Steven Galea & Georgina Fowler
Name of school leadership team member with responsibility for music (if different)	Melanie Gaskin
Name of local music hub	Essex Music Service
Name of other music education organisation(s) (if partnership in place)	Royal Opera House

This is a summary of how our school delivers music education to all our pupils across three areas – curriculum music, co-curricular provision and musical experiences – and what changes we are planning in future years. This information is to help pupils and parents or carers understand what our school offers and who we work with to support our pupils’ music education.

Part A: Curriculum music

This is about what we teach in lesson time, how much time is spent teaching music and any music qualifications or awards that pupils can achieve.

At Westlands Community Primary School, we follow the Charanga scheme of learning which provides teachers with the resources and lesson plans they need to deliver their lessons. The teachers then adapt those plans to fit the medium-term plan. The lessons are delivered in class and can both be practical and theory based. Each topic links to the theme that the specific year group are currently studying. For example, in year 6, they learn about World War 2 and their music lessons are based around World War 2 songs learning about the significance and meaning of songs without the lyrics. As a school, music is taught once a week across a half termly six-week block. Singing assemblies are taught weekly and there are built in rehearsals for different performances. The school is fully inclusive and provision for SEND, and disadvantaged pupils is included through our adaptive teaching model.

Children have the opportunity to play instruments such as the recorder, glockenspiel and drums during their music lessons. However, children can have extra music lessons taught by specialist teachers – who are provided by Essex Music Service - which consists of: drums, guitar, piano and violin. Additionally, children are involved with the school choir during the autumn term where they experience singing as an ensemble group.

Part B: Co-curricular music

This is about opportunities for pupils to sing and play music, outside of lesson time, including choirs, ensembles and bands, and how pupils can make progress in music beyond the core curriculum.

At Westlands Community Primary School, pupils are offered lessons to learn the following instruments: piano/keyboard, drums, violin and guitar. This is mainly on a one-to-one basis, but small group tuition can be requested. Pupils in Key Stage 2 can join the school choir as part of our after-school club provision. Pupils who are partaking in a music lesson can loan instruments to support their practise of this. Opportunities are planned for children who play instruments to perform in assembly. Musical activities are also planned in to ‘Spread the Happiness’ sessions where children focus on wellbeing.

For music lessons, parents are charged for the sessions, but the school can support with these payments if pupils are in receipt of pupil premium or are vulnerable. For pupils joining the school choir, there is no charge for pupils attending the choir, however they have the opportunity to attend the Young Voices event at the O2. As part of this, there is a cost for attending the event and tickets for parents. The school provides support with these payments for pupils in receipt of pupil premium.

The school is in a partnership with Essex Music Services which provide specialist tuition and instrument loan. The music lead attends sessions run by SPARK! which provide further training and networking opportunities that have been accessed by the school.

Part C: Musical experiences

This is about all the other musical events and opportunities that we organise, such as singing in assembly, concerts and shows, and trips to professional concerts.

The following musical experiences are planned for the academic year; KS2 choir trip to Young Voices at the O2 (performing),KS2 choir performance at the Christmas fayre, weekly singing assemblies (all year groups performing and linked to school values and themes), Christmas performances, harvest festivals, Christmas and Easter services for all year groups (with link from the church), Year 4 trip to the Lion King in London (pupils in the audience), Year 4 production performance at the Civic Theatre (performing), Year 6 Leavers show (performing), class assemblies, musical culture appreciation is studied in each year group. The school has signed up to be part of the Key Stage One music festival.

The trips to Young Voices and the Lion King have a cost for pupils to attend. The school provides support with these payments for pupils in receipt of pupil premium.

The music lead attends sessions run by SPARK! which provide further training and networking opportunities that have been accessed by the school. The school has also developed links with the local theatre to use as a venue for year 4 to perform their production to parents. Different visitors also attend the school to support musical experiences such as African drumming group, black history month workshops and sessions run in creative arts week.

In the future

This is about what the school is planning for subsequent years.

At Westlands Community Primary school we aim to deliver:

- Achieve the Arts Mark

- Children to be able or have the opportunity to observe external music in action be it a school or professional context.

- Children at Westlands to be involved in school concerts extending more than just Young Voices.

- To further develop opportunities for the school choir.

- To support teachers who may find teaching music difficult. Creative Arts team to identify the more confident and less confident teacher to support their teaching practise.

- Further develop the curriculum ensuring that there is an enriched coverage of music in history and geography and children are exposed to more genres of music.

- To ensure that the opportunity to learn an instrument is promoted further.