Music

At St John’s CE Primary School, our curriculum is designed to inspire lifelong learning and is anchored by our core motto: "The JOY of the Lord is Your Strength" (Jesus, Others, Yourself). We deliver an ambitious, sequentially structured, and inclusive education that celebrates the unique identity of every child. By blending a rigorous academic foundation with deep spiritual, moral, and social development, we nurture the curiosity, resilience, and confidence pupils need to flourish. Rooted in our strong Christian family ethos, our curriculum ensures that learning is accessible to all, fostering an environment where differences are celebrated and every individual is fully equipped to realise their God-given potential.

Intent
At St John’s CE Primary School our intent is to make music an enjoyable learning experience; to engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and to embrace their developing talents as musicians. We aim for the children to gain a firm understanding of what music is through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, analysing and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions and musical genres. We aim to provide children with the opportunity to progress to the next level of their creative excellence.  We are committed to developing a curiosity for the subject, as well as an understanding and acceptance of the validity and importance of all types of music, and an unbiased respect for the role that music may wish to be expressed in any person’s life. We are committed to ensuring children understand the value and importance of music in the wider community and are able to use their musical skills, knowledge, and experiences to involve themselves in music, in a variety of different contexts.

 Implementation

The music curriculum ensures children sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate.  This is embedded in the classroom activities as well as the weekly singing assemblies, JOY time and various performances.  All year groups use the musical program Charanga, with lessons are planned in sequences to provide children with the opportunities to review, remember, deepen and apply their understanding. In EYFS as part of the curriculum children take part in Charanga and explore music further across the subjects. They sing songs, make music and dance, and experiment with ways of changing sounds. They explore instruments and create simple musical compositions of their own. Pupils develop their performance skills and begin to express their own thoughts and feelings through music ready for Key Stage 1 and beyond.

Children have the opportunity to play a variety of different instruments. Playing various instruments enables children to use a range of methods to create notes, as well as how to read basic music notation. They also learn how to compose, focusing on different dimensions of music, which in turn feeds their understanding when listening, playing, or analysing music. Composing or performing using body percussion and vocal sounds is also part of the curriculum, which develops the understanding of musical elements without the added complexity of an instrument.   Alongside the Charanga scheme children expand their musical knowledge through additional opportunities such as our choir, extra-curricular clubs and participation in Sefton’s Wider Opportunity scheme.  Further details about the musical opportunities son offer at St. John’s can be found in our Music Development Summary Plan.

Music at St. John’s sparks a child's creativity and fuels a lifelong interest in self-expression, while unlocking future opportunities for creativity and building the teamwork and confidence needed for any career or life path.

Believe you can and you will…