Music

Music at Race Leys

Reception

In Reception, Music is covered through the Early Learning Goals called ‘Expressive Arts and Design’ and ‘Being Imaginative’. This forms the foundation for later work in Music, for example, the children will be introduced to a wide variety of music and they will explore a variety of musical sound-makers. Children will also gain confidence in their own way of representing ideas, thoughts and feelings through music and dance. There is lots of singing in the reception areas and children learn rhymes and songs for fun and to support their learning. They also learn the names of different instruments and how to play them. At Christmas time, children in Reception perform a nativity concert which involves singing.

Key Stage 1

In Key Stage 1, Music is covered through the Music National Curriculum. We use ‘Charanga’, a skill-based online resource which teaches through themed topics. We are also regularly singing as part of our learning - we love linking songs to our topics and the children learn songs as part of Maths, History, Science and Geography, often with sign language.

Children will learn what early musical notation looks like and use instruments to play along with music. They learn about pulse, rhythm, tempo and pitch as well as length of notes, volume and using sounds for effects. At different points in the year, we may also learn songs on the glockenspiel using colour coded scores.

Across the year, children at Race Leys Infant School are introduced to a variety of music to listen to. This covers different genres, history and styles of music and they learn about different composers through this.

OPAL Playtime

As part of OPAL playtimes, children have the opportunity to play the piano on the playground. This has some of the colour coded songs and stickers on keys so children are able to learn simple songs on the piano. Our ‘outdoor stage’ area is a place where children can sing and perform songs and play a variety of percussion instruments.