Music at The Redway School
Music at the The Redway is taught not only as a separate subject but is also used throughout the curriculum to encourage children to engage with learning, signify beginnings and ends of activities, and help with creating long term memory. Within music sessions children experience a wide range of genres of music played live or recorded. They are encouraged to join in with music and songs through singing/vocalising and playing a variety of different percussion instruments. Creativity through music is actively encouraged such as through developing their own rhythms for others to copy. In addition to our regular music sessions’ we also have specialist music events including the Rocksteady Workshops and the Live Music Now concert. These give pupils a chance to experience live music and try instruments they may not otherwise encounter.
Our curriculum is split into a pre-formal, semi-formal and formal pathways.
Pre-Formal: At this level pupils experience a variety of different music often within multi-sensory activities. They are given opportunities to create their own sounds through vocalisation and both intentional and unintentional movement. They experience music in a wide variety of contexts throughout the school day.
Semi-Formal: Pupils begin to gain an understanding of music, responding to regular patterns in rhythm. They have the opportunity to learn how to use a variety of different percussion instruments and become familiar with the different techniques required to play them. They also begin to become familiar with musical concepts and terminology required to access the formal curriculum.
Formal: The National Curriculum and the Model Music Curriculum at KS1 and KS2 are broken down into small steps within the formal part of the music curriculum to allow pupils to progressively gain the skills they need in music, singing and creating music.