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Music
Music is expressing ourselves using instruments, singing, rhythms and melodies.
Vision for Music
At Oatlands Junior School, the high-quality Music Curriculum aims to engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they will develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon.
Long Term Plan
Key Vocabulary
Music Subject Leader - Kate Ritchie
National Curriculum Aims
The national curriculum for Music aims to ensure that all pupils:
- perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians.
- learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence.
- understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the interrelated dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.
How Music is taught and what it looks like at OJS
Music is taught by a specialist music teacher from JuniorJam. Each pupil will have 1 hour of music each week every 2 out of 3 weeks as well as a 20-minute singing assembly. The JuniorJam music course teaches three core subjects: Music Theory with Keyboards, Songwriting with Glockenspiels and Singing. These core subjects are delivered across three half terms throughout the year. The remaining three half terms year will be instrument focused in order to ensure pupils have the opportunity to perform on a variety of tuned and untuned instrumentation from a wide range of different cultures.
The course follows the same sequence each year, allowing pupils to build on their previous year’s learning. Over their time at OJS, pupils will come across the same instruments each year, developing a high-level of competency in each instrument, allowing for more meaningful and memorable performances by the time they reach their final year in Year 6, finishing their time at OJS with a real sense of achievement and pride.
The design and pedagogical approach to the music curriculum is further captured in the Curriculum Handbook for staff.
What your child will leave OJS knowing, understanding and appreciating in Music
By the end of your child's time here with us at Oatlands Junior School, they will have a real sense of enthusiasm and passion for music and its place in their lives and others, across different settings, times and cultures. They will be able to talk about musicians and pieces of music they have enjoyed listening to and explain why using musical terminology; they will be able to talk confidently about and appreciate the range and families of instruments that exist; they will develop their musical performance skills and have time to rehearse, evaluate and refine solo, group and whole class performances of things that they have composed and most importantly, they will be able to reflect fondly on those memorable moments where they have watched or performed in school-wide celebrations such as Christmas performances, the Harvest festival and our Remembrance services or perhaps even inter-school competitions and concerts!
Pupil Voice Group
Arts Committee
This year, our fantastic Arts Committee will work alongside Mrs Alderson (our school Art Teacher) and Mrs Ritchie (the Music Subject Lead) to promote ‘The Arts’ across our school, whether that be in drama, performance, art or music. They might be creating artwork to improve our school environment, acting as technicians during Mrs Alderson’s art club and supporting in school singing assemblies, as well as scouting for musical and artistic talent across school and promoting the wider opportunities that are available in school or across our local area.
What pupils at OJS think about Music
'I enjoy learning to play the violin and using the bow.' ~ Year 3 Pupil
'I like singing and learning to play different instruments!' ~ Year 4 Pupil
'You get to discover a new passion for an instrument!' ~ Year 5 Pupil
'I like making songs with my friends.' ~ Year 6 Pupil
