Music is 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 allows our pupils to reflect and links closely with their overall development. Besides being a creative and enjoyable activity, music can also be a highly academic and demanding subject.

Music reflects the culture and society we live in, and so the teaching and learning of music enables children to better understand the world they live in and develops curiosity for different cultures and ideas. 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.

The objectives of teaching music in our schools are to enable children to:

• know and understand how sounds are made and then organised into musical structures;
• know how music is made through a variety of instruments;
• know how music is composed and written down;
• know how music is influenced by the time, place and purpose for which it was written;
• develop the interrelated skills of performing, composing and appreciating music.

Throughout their school journey, children will develop their skills in the interrelated dimensions of music to be able to listen and appraise, compose, perform and evaluate.  The interrelated dimensions of music are: 

• pitch 
• duration 
• dynamics 
• tempo 
• timbre  
• texture 
• structure 
• musical notation 

National Curriculum

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 talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon.

 National Curriculum Music (2014)

Curriculum overview

At Mandeville, music plays an important part in our wider curriculum. It is sometimes integrated into topics and sometimes taught to ensure the coverage of skills and knowledge. 

Through each year of work the children develop their understanding, make musical judgements, apply their new learning, develop their aural memory, express themselves physically, emotionally and through discussion and create their own musical ideas. The wide range of core resources have been developed specifically to motivate and capture each individual’s personal interest. 

The children not only learn about music; they become musicians who are able to share and perform using their new skills. 

The musical progression through EYFS, KS1 and KS2 is demonstrated in the PDF documents below.  The instrumental work is differentiated allowing children to move through the relevant parts as they need to. Remember that an integrated approach to musical learning means that the whole musical experience is important, children are learning music through these activities. 

Our Music Curriculum overview can be found at the bottom of this page. 

Extra-Curricular Music

We have a number of peripatetic music teachers who come into LEAP to teach a variety of different instruments. These include:

• Djembe Drumming and Dance - Reception to Year 6
• Piano (Keys of Inspiration) - Years 4 - 6 + After School piano club for KS1 &2
• Steel Pans - Years 4, 5 and 6 + After School steep pans club for KS1
• Ukulele - Year 4

Mandeville's Keys of Inspiration

Our bespoke lab features 20 high-specification digital pianos, creating the perfect environment for dynamic group tuition delivered weekly by a qualified music educator. This remarkable facility is accessible to all children from Year 4 and upwards.

What makes our provision so distinctly special is the integration of the revolutionary One Music Lab software. Mandeville is the first school in the UK to adopt this interactive application, which delivers pioneering, enhanced support to children as they navigate their early learning journey on the piano.

To nurture burgeoning talent, pupils who demonstrate a particular aptitude or enthusiasm are invited to participate in smaller, specialised group sessions to further refine their skills as developing pianists. Furthermore, we ensure widespread access through our popular after-school piano club, available to all children from Key Stage 1 and upwards, providing a great introduction to the instrument or an essential opportunity for additional practice.

Charanga 

At LEAP we use Charanga as a resource to support our LEAP music curriculum.  It has some great listening resources to support children’s exposure to different music genres, as well as built-in apps that help children compose their own music as well as play and sing along to different pieces of music.   

Music at Home

One of the most exciting and rewarding things you can do at home with your children to support the Music curriculum is to listen to music and talk about the types and styles of music you listen to now and what you used to listen to when you were younger.