Music
“Music is the art of thinking with sounds.”
Jules Combarieu
Music continues to be a unique way of communicating that can inspire and motivate children. It is a vehicle for personal expression and it can play an important part in the personal development of people. Music reflects the culture and society we live in, as well as enabling children to better understand the wider world they live in. The community our children live within does not reflect diverse cultures and we aim to provide opportunities for our children to experience other cultures through music. Besides being a creative and enjoyable activity, music can also be a highly academic and demanding subject. It also plays an important part in helping children feel part of a community. We provide opportunities for all children to create, play, perform and enjoy music, to develop the skills to appreciate a wide variety of musical forms, and to begin to make judgements about the quality of music.
At Ryhope Infant School Academy we strive to make music an enjoyable learning experience. We encourage children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which we aim to build up the confidence of all children. Singing lies at the heart of good music teaching. Our teaching focuses on developing the children’s ability to sing individually and with other people gaining a better sense of pitch and awareness of ways to improve. Through singing songs, children learn about the structure and organisation of music and aids cross curricular links. We teach them to listen and to appreciate different forms of music. As children get older, we expect them to maintain their concentration for slightly longer and to listen to more extended pieces of music. Children develop descriptive skills in music lessons when learning about how music can represent feelings and emotions. We teach them the disciplined skills of recognising pulse and pitch. We often teach these together. We also teach children how to work with others to make music and how individuals combine together to make sounds, recording ideas in different formats.
Additional Music Teaching
We have a specialist music teacher who comes into school every week and works with each class from Reception to Year 2, teaching the children how to play the African drums. This is a fantastic opportunity for children to play a percussion instrument, learn about rhythm and beat, and also experience playing music as part of a group and playing as a solo musician. As well as developing musical skills it also immerses the children within the African culture, with cross-curricular links to Geography, History, the Arts and PSED.
