St Martin de Porres 
Music
Intent
At St Martin de Porres Catholic Primary School, our music curriculum aims to instil a curiosity about and love of music. The 
children will be inspired and motivated by the study of music and this will play an important role in their personal development. Every child at St Martin’s has the opportunity to learn a musical instrument within a curriculum that aims to develop both appreciation and expression. Singing makes a significant contribution across the curriculum and also to our Collective Worship. Every week, children come together to praise God in song.
Children will develop a greater appreciation of the world we live in, by understanding different cultures and societies through music. We deliver a broad and balanced music curriculum, in line with national requirements, which enables pupils to:
- 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 use their voices.
- Create and compose music on their own and alongside their peers.
- Use technology properly and 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
Music is taught discretely through a scheme by Charanga Musical School. It is taught fortnightly for half an hour. These units of work enable children to understand musical concepts through a repetition-based approach to learning. Learning about the same musical concept through different musical activities enables a more secure, deeper learning and mastery of musical skills. Musical teaching and learning is not neat or linear. The strands of musical learning form part of the learning spiral. Over time, children can both develop new musical skills and concepts, and re-visit established musical skills and concepts. Mastery means both a deeper understanding of musical skills and concepts and learning something new. Each unit of work contains opportunities to listen and appraise, explore music through a range of activities including games, singing, playing, improvising and composing and an element of performance. All music
learning is built around the Interrelated Dimensions of Music: pulse, rhythm, pitch, tempo, dynamics, timbre, texture, structure and notation. These dimensions are at the centre of all the learning.
In Year 3, every child is taught the recorder by the class teacher. In Year 4, every child learns to play the fife and then graduates onto the flute during the year. They are taught by a flute specialist from Birmingham Music Service. In Year 5 and 6, children may choose to play a flute in small groups. Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 also have the opportunity to learn to play the violin. Our music provision is enriched by our choir and guitar clubs.
Impact
Our music curriculum is planned so that pupils have a good understanding of musical concepts, knowledge, skills and vocabulary that ensures they achieve age related attainment at the end of each Key Stage. By the time a child leaves the school, they will be able to confidently express an opinion about a piece of music, be able to name at least 5 composers and know musical terminology including dynamics, pitch, stave and clef. They will have had the opportunity to participate in school productions, concerts and the Year 6 leavers production.