Inquisitive, Resilient, Independent    

At Anglesey, we are a vibrant and nurturing school community, where children are given the skills to become, inquisitive, resilient, independent learners.    

Our curriculum provides a range of creative, challenging and inspiring experiences for all.  This equips our children with the life skills to be happy, flourish and be successful…Today, tomorrow and in the future    

MUSIC INTENT   

At Anglesey, music, as well as the other arts, run through the school like a thread that holds the curriculum together. Anglesey has an investment in encouraging, developing and inspiring creativity and self-expression through listening, singing, performing, evaluating, analysing and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions and musical genres.

All children are taught performance, composing and listening skills on a variety of instruments (djembe, recorder, keyboard, Ukulele and voice) by a specialist teacher, including our children in the Speech and Language facility.

We hope to cultivate a life- long love of music through the exposure to many musical experiences within school and in the wider community with professional musicians such as the Welsh National Opera, Birmingham Symphony orchestra, Young Voices and Birmingham Music Services and therefore exciting a passion for music. We hope that these opportunities make a difference in their lives, and help them to grow in confidence, perseverance and resilience.

We aim for our children to experience real life as a musician or performer and to provide them with the skills to be flexible, creative and adaptable and have high aspirations for the future and to continue to enjoy and embrace music in their lives.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND VALUES     

INQUISITIVE    

An inquisitive learner has a thirst for learning and wants to discover as much as they can about the world by asking questions.    

RESILIENT    

A resilient learner can bounce back from challenges and problems, but also has the capacity to adapt in the face of challenging circumstances, whilst maintaining a stable mental wellbeing.    

INDEPENDENT    

An independent learner takes responsibility for their own learning. They are self-motivated and accept that frustration in the present is worthwhile to achieve future success. They take initiative and are good problem solvers.    

Pupils develop Inquisitiveness in MUSIC by:   

• Exploring sounds from the instruments to represent specific genres or moods. 
• Exploring pace and rhythm to indicate emotions, e.g. excitement/calmness 
•  Question and answering to further knowledge of composers, specific music. 
• Constantly rehearsing a piece to achieve the desired result. 

Pupils develop Resilience in MUSIC by:   

• Each project offers opportunities for the children to develop new skills and learn new techniques 
• Learning in a relaxed atmosphere independently or in groups where mistakes can help the children achieve the desired result 
• Constant rehearsing followed by performance enables the children to see immediate improvement giving them the desire to improve further. 
• Listening to music helps the children achieve self-awareness and mood regulation. 
• Peer/teacher modelling in order for the children to get motivated and enthusiastic about the activity. 

Pupils develop Independence in MUSIC by:   

•  Children are encouraged to work independently to rehearse a piece before they share with the group. 
• Exploring new vocabulary when analysing and talking about their own and each other’s performances, or listening to examples. 
• Independence in music builds the children’s confidence. Children are given the opportunity to rehearse at lunchtimes to improve their musical skill. 
• Children who are already learning an instrument are given a lead role at times to help others achieve their potential, through performance or as a teaching role. 

CREATIVE, CHALLENGING AND INSPIRING EXPERIENCES     

Opportunities for creativity in music are endless. For example, composing, instrument choices, using all the musical components such as pitch, rhythm, duration, dynamics, silence, the list is endless. Listening to examples of music also helps pupils to create and share their own innovative ideas. 

Performing to each other supports children to discover the different ways that a piece can be performed (different speeds, smoothly, detached, etc). Children are encouraged to rehearse and perform and the very youngest children are taught to appreciate performances respectfully and critically as an audience.

Challenge plays an important role in music, with each unit of work is put together with the children’s ability in mind with ideas to challenge and stretch them more when necessary. Children are encouraged to share through ensemble work practically to groups and audiences. New technology requires a greater technical dexterity of instrumental and voice. Group Compositional activities promote team work, confidence and control in order to achieve the desired result and often the children are learning how to cooperate with children in different groupings.

The list of inspirational activities is limitless for Music at Anglesey. The children are exposed to many genres of music to increase their knowledge of the wide range of compositions. Listening to performances from professionals but also their own recorded performances (recorded in class or special assemblies such as the orchestra, choir or instrumental groups) can be motivational and also requires the children to be self critical. Performances are a big part of Music at Anglesey, whether that be in weekly assemblies, for events such as Remembrance Day or for larger community events such as performing at Citizens UK meetings in The Great Hall, Aston University.

Creativity is always at the core of the curriculum for even the youngest children and we are always looking for opportunities to develop this. For example, our Nursery children worked with THSH (Town Hall Symphony Hall) on a pipe organ project called ‘Soundbounce’. Our Year 2 pupils also learnt songs with and sang with Ex Cathedra, a world famous Birmingham-based choir. Our Key Stage 2 choir leads led others in the area to open the celebrations of Birmingham being awarded the Commonwealth Games in 2020, performing to a full house in Birmingham Town Hall. These are just three examples of musical projects that take place in our school. We are also privileged to work extensively alongside the Welsh National Opera, including a performance of Sweeney Todd  where children sang for parents alongside the WNO professionals. The choir also takes part in mass choir concerts for example Young Voices and the Birmingham symphony hall prom. 

MUSIC IMPLEMENTATION  

Every pupil has access to specialist Music teachers who ensures continuity throughout the school and cover a breadth of skills and knowledge. Starting with basic recorder tuition in Key Stage 1. In each year of Key Stage 2, a different instrument is introduced across the cohort. By the end of their time at Anglesey, children have learnt to play a variety of instruments.

The choir and orchestra are integral to many assemblies and performances and rehearsal is also a very important part of the curriculum.

MUSIC IMPACT  

Samples of work are  collected in files and folders to evidence progress across a school year and year groups. OurMusic lead tracks progress through the skills using an assessment tracker. Age related expectation levels are reported to parents at the end of each year. Summative assessments take place throughout the year and informs future lessons, ensuring children are challenged and supported appropriately. Performances from the choir, orchestra and assemblies shows the clear impact that music has on the creativity, confidence and enjoyment of our pupils. We are an accredited school with the Music Mark award.