Intent 

At Ilchester, we recognise that music is all around us in every walk of life and hope to use it as a powerful and unique form of communication that can change the way pupils feel, think and act. We would like to give them opportunities for personal expression, as well as working with and being inspired by others. We aim to enable pupils to connect to different cultures, abilities and generations; celebrating, collaborating, challenging and creating! Our goal is for all pupils to develop the self-confidence, skills, knowledge and understanding to develop a lifelong love of music and to create core memories to last a lifetime.

Implementation

At Ilchester, we follow the National Curriculum and Early Years Foundation Stage as well as taking inspiration from the Model Music Curriculum. We use the ‘Sing Up’ scheme of work as it supports our intent of introducing the children to a wide variety of music from different cultures and periods of time. This also ensures that there is a progression of skills and knowledge as the children move up through the school as well as giving us opportunities for singing, playing, listening, appraising, improvising and composing. With the support of specialist teachers from Somerset Music, we also aim to provide children with opportunities to learn an instrument, either as a soloist or as part of an ensemble.

In addition to music as a formally taught subject, we also aim to include music and singing across our entire curriculum and enrichment. This includes children singing in weekly whole-school assemblies, class performances, seasonal celebrations and music-related clubs during their time at school in addition to weekly music lessons.  

Impact

We believe that the impact of pupils’ learning in music is showcased in our enrichment offer through performances and community events. Our offer is fully inclusive as all pupils perform in productions such as the nativity, lower key stage two performances, upper key stage two leavers’ service and community events such as the local Lantern Parade and town hall coffee mornings. These performances lead to children having greater enthusiasm and confidence for their musical ability.

Within the curriculum, children are exposed to musical theory such as notation and a variety of genres. They also attend regular singing practices and have opportunities to play both tuned and untuned instruments (both individually or in a group). Some pupils also take up the offer to learn an instrument individually with external music teachers.

Music at Ilchester, especially singing, develops a sense of belonging and togetherness for our children. This is particularly evident in our weekly whole-school singing assemblies where both sites connect through music and songs.

Measurement of the impact of our curriculum is done through the following methods:

• Evidence in video and recordings
• Verbal feedback to pupils at the point of learning
• Learning walks and observations
• Pupil Voice
• Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum
• Continuous professional development sessions with Somerset Music

As a result of the identified importance and continuous improvement of musical provision that we are aiming for at Ilchester, we are proud to share that we have also received the Music Mark of Recognition for Dedication & Improvement, presented by Somerset Music. Music Mark is the UK Association for Music Education and is supported through a partnership with ABRSM.