Intent

At Norman Pannell, our intention is that children gain a firm understanding of what music is through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, analysing and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, cultures and genres. We believe that Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talents as musicians, thereby increasing their self-confidence and creativity. Exposing children to music during early development helps them to learn the sounds and meanings of words. Dancing to music helps them to develop motor skills whilst also allowing them to practice self-expression. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, perform and evaluate their pieces and also others.

Implementation

The Charanga scheme of work is used from EYFS to Year 6 to ensure a wide exposure to different genres of music, with lots of practical opportunities to explore and develop as musicians and singers.

Charanga is a scheme of work which offers a topic-based approach to support children’s learning in music. A steady progression plan has been built into Charanga, both within each year and from one year to the next, ensuring consistent musical development. By using Charanga as the basis of a scheme of work, we can ensure that they are fulfilling the aims for musical learning stated in the National Curriculum.

Charanga provides a classroom-based, participatory and inclusive approach to music learning. Throughout the scheme, children are actively involved in using and developing their singing voices, using body percussion and whole body actions, and learning to handle and play classroom instruments effectively to create and express their own and others’ music. Through a range of whole class, group and individual activities, children have opportunities to explore sounds, listen actively, compose and perform.

The school also has whole class ensemble teaching, beginning in Year 4, where children are taught a to play the guitar by our specialist external music provider. These lessons incorporate teaching musical notation and singing, as well as learning to play the guitar.  Follow on group music lessons are also available to pupils to continue to develop their skills and ability on a musical instrument the following years into Year 5 and Year 6. These shorter sessions are also complimented with continued Charanga singing lessons. Opportunities are taken to perform in class, in whole assemblies and also to parents and the wider community.

Additional opportunities are offered in music, such as the Key Stage 2 choir which performs regularly at music workshops and events around the city, trips to the Philharmonic to see a live orchestra and annual participation in the Peace Proms concert.

Impact

At Norman Pannell, we want our provision to impact our children to encourage them to be musical, creative pupils. In order to achieve that, our children will show a rapidly widening repertoire which they use to create original, imaginative composition and performance work. They will also display musical understanding underpinned by high levels of aural perception and knowledge of music. Also, a greater awareness and appreciation of different musical traditions and genres that allow the children to express themselves freely and creatively.

Music assessment is ongoing to inform teachers with their planning, lesson activities and differentiation. Summative assessment is completed at the end of each unit to inform leaders of the improvements or skills that still need to be embedded. Music is monitored throughout all year groups using a variety of strategies such as lesson observations, pupil interviews and teacher feedback.

Music Lessons

At Norman Pannell we teach music lessons weekly to each class using our fantastic  music programme called 'Charanga'. Each year group follows a different unit of work each half-term.

Each lesson is broken up into 3 parts:

• Listening and Appraising - The children listen to different styles of music and offer their comments about whether they enjoyed the music, what style it was, talk about the pulse and rhythm and what instruments they could here.

• Musical activities - The children learn about different aspects of music (pulse/rhythm/tempo/dynamics) through different games as well as learning how to warm up their bodies, faces and voices in order to give the best performance.

• Performance -Throughout each half-term, every class will learn a different song. They work together to learn and practise the words first and then add instruments to compliment the music. 

Keep an eye out on this page for pictures/videos of class performances!

Peace Proms 2022

Peace Proms will be taking place again at the M&S Bank Arena on Saturday 12th March 2022. There will also be a rehearsal at the Arena in January.

Below are the songs the children will be performing alongside the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland. 

Tickets are available online at Peace Proms 2022 Tickets.