Intent

At Collis Primary School, we strive to cultivate a real enjoyment of music and to deliver high quality music teaching, supporting and encouraging all children to achieve their full potential. We aim to develop children’s personal expression, reflection and emotional development through music making, both individually and together, and promote the understanding and appreciation of the richness and diversity of world cultures, styles, times and periods.  

Through our carefully planned curriculum, we aim to foster a love and understanding of music through active involvement in listening, appraising, composing and performing. The aspects of music such as pitch, duration, tempo, timbre and structure are woven across all these areas so that children experience these in singing, playing and composing and are confident musical performers.

The national curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:

• perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians
• learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence
• understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations

Implementation

Collis has a detailed progression for Music to ensure the children build on their skills and knowledge year on year in the key areas of listening, appraising, improvising, composing and performing through singing and playing instruments. The Sing Up music scheme is used for each year group from EYFS to Year 6 to ensure this progression.  Sing Up covers a broad and diverse range of repertoire, approaches, and musical traditions, and supports a fully-integrated approach to musical development.

Throughout their time at Collis, children listen to, review and evaluate music from a range of historical periods and styles, covering a wide range of culturally diverse musicians. Children are prepared for their musical learning journey in Nursery and Reception through regularly taking part in singing and rhythmic games and exploring a large range of musical instruments and music from different cultures.

Collis offers a wide range of additional musical opportunities for all children:

• All children take part in whole school singing assemblies
• All children will learn to play a musical instrument (class percussion lessons in Year 1 and the recorder in Year 2)
• A range of peripatetic music tuition is on offer provided by the Richmond Music Trust, including the Wider Opportunities programme for all children in Year 3  
• All children will have the opportunity to attend a musical performance or workshop at school such as African drumming or concerts by local musicians
• Concerts, productions and assemblies within school provide opportunities for all the children to perform, sing, play, share and enjoy music in groups or individually to a high standard
• Visits and trips such as the Rose Theatre Singing Festival and Young Voices at the O2 provide opportunities for children to sing and perform alongside the wider community
• Mrs Bartholomew runs after school choirs for children to participate in singing festivals such as the O2 and the Rose Theatre
• Opportunities for cross-curricular links are also taken, wherever possible, to link music with other subject areas and learning themes

If you were to walk into Music lessons at Collis, you would see:

• Lots of warm up exercises to develop better singing voices, and appreciation of pulse, rhythm, pitch
• Listening and appraising a wide range of musical styles
• Children actively moving to the beat and using their bodies to show pulse and rhythm
• Collaboration and discussion
• Confident use of instruments
• Courage – having a go and performing
• Engagement and enjoyment
• Creativity
• Children learning a new skill

Impact

Our music curriculum is high quality, thoroughly planned and delivered to establish progression. We review the impact and progression of our curriculum through the following methods:

• A celebration of achievements through assemblies, performances, plays
• Lessons that build on previous knowledge and culminate in Year 6 with a musical production
• A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes (key end points)
• Reviewing curriculum coverage and adjusting accordingly

• Pupil discussions and evaluations about their progression and learning
• Evidence of work through photos, videos, performances

Pupil Voice

EYFS - ‘I like music because I can do dances’   ‘I like the song ‘When Goldilocks went To The House Of The Bears’’

Year 1 - ‘I enjoy finding the beat with my favourite songs’

Year 2 - ‘The teacher puts a video on when we are playing the glockenspiel to tell us which note to beat’

Year 3 - ‘We always practise our songs to help us get better.’

Year 4 - ‘We have learnt to play the glockenspiel and different percussive instruments. We recorded our own songs by writing down dots for short beats and lines for long beats.’

Year 5 - ‘I liked the solos in singing and we went up in groups to the front and everyone did different parts.’

Year 6 - ‘For people who can play an instrument, it’s cool because sometimes in assemblies we get to play in front of the school.’

Successes

• Year 5 and 6 choir participated in Young Voices (41 children)
• Year 3 and 4 choir participated in Rose Theatre singing festival (30 children)
• Wide range of musical workshops and performances
• Year 6 end of year production

Priorities for 2024-2025

• Transition to new Sing Up scheme of work
• To encourage a greater number of pupils to continue with string lessons after their initial Wider Opps sessions to further develop their playing ability and enjoyment in performing
• To organise a woodwind workshop to showcase the instruments and to encourage children to learn to play them

Music Mark School - November 2023

Collis is proud to announce its recent recognition as a Music Mark School, recommended by Richmond Music Trust. This prestigious award reflects the school's unwavering commitment to providing a high-quality music education for its students.

In a commendation letter from Richmond Music Trust, the school's dedication to delivering a broad and balanced curriculum that includes music education was highlighted and celebrated. The Trust recognized the value Collis places on music and its efforts to ensure that every pupil has access to an enriching musical experience. 

The New Collis Music Room - Opened September 2023

Year 2 Recorders at Birthday Assembly - February 2023

Anthony Peebles Piano Concert

On Friday 30th September 2022 World Famous Concert Pianist Anthony Peebles played a range of classical pieces (Chopin/Rachmaninoff) for the children of Collis. In between the musical pieces Anthony talked about the structure, content and history of the pieces.  Mr Peebles won the 1971 BBC Piano Competition and has performed in 131 different countries around the world.