At St. Martin's, music, particularly singing, is central to our school community. We aim 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. We listen to music, sing, and play music together as part of our whole school and class worship, but also for pleasure. The children have regular opportunities to perform to each other, to visitors, and to their parents, for example in Masses and assemblies, at Christmas, Easter and end of year performances, and when we visit local nursing homes. We also participate in the local Children Helping Children Concert at the Hexagon, Reading. 

At St. Martin's, we follow the Early Years Framework and the National Curriculum for Music in our music lessons. Our curriculum is cyclical, and in each unit of work, the children have the opportunity to work on three areas: listening and appraising, composing and performing. Each unit of work has a main song, which the children learn over the half term and use as a context to develop their music knowledge. 

In Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, we follow a rolling programme.  This gives the children the opportunity to revisit and practise the skills they have learnt in new and exciting contexts. By the end of Year 2, children should have had the opportunity to:

• 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 inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

In Years 3, 4, 5 and 6, the children continue to develop their knowledge and understanding.  By the time they leave primary school, they should be able to:

• sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They should develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory
• play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression
• improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
• use and understand staff and other musical notations
• appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians
• develop an understanding of the history of music.

Useful Documents

You may find the following documents helpful.