At Eppleton, our musical offer is designed to allow all children to learn to sing, play an instrument and create music, with opportunities given for children to progress their musical interests and talents. It is our intent to deliver a high-quality, interactive music education that engages pupils and fosters a passion for music in children of all abilities. We work in partnership with musical specialists to offer a curriculum with children’s needs and interests at the very heart of it, which allows them to engage in active music making, starting with sounds before symbols. We enable children to take ownership of their learning and learn through discovery, experiencing concepts first and labelling them later, so that they can know more, remember more and do more. We implement a multi-sensory approach, allowing children to experience music in a variety of ways: through rhythmic movements, song, notations and so on, so that they can feel, see and hear music and better understand the individual elements. We have embedded music across our curriculum and throughout the school day, where children participate in short musicianship activities.
We implement a progressive approach to learning that exposes children to refined curriculum content, where key curricular content is repeated alongside the gradual introduction of new ideas, methods and concepts, enabling children to develop a secure learning and mastery in musical skills. Children develop musically across the three pillars that interrelate in musicianship: technical, constructive and expressive. Plentiful opportunities are given for children to retrieve and consolidate their short-term learning. Furthermore, children are given regular opportunities to develop their talent as musicians and to increase their self-confidence and sense of achievement, as well as to ignite their creativity.
At Eppleton, we place singing at the heart of school life. It is a highly important part of our week: weekly singing assemblies take place to teach our children how to sing and help to build up their repertoire of songs. We also welcome visitors whenever possible so that children can listen to high-quality live music alongside recorded music. Our school choir also has a prominent profile, both inside and outside of school, frequently performing at whole school and community events.
"Music has a power of forming the character and should therefore be introduced into the education of the young".
(Aristotle)
Music lessons see our children develop a critical engagement with music allowing them to compose, 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. Children 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. Children are also given the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and progress to the next level of musical excellence. This is evident within all lessons and class floor books.
All lessons are planned in accordance with the National Curriculum; high-quality resources from a range of sources are used to facilitate planning and to ensure progression of the music curriculum, which in turn, helps to support staff. Teachers refer to the school’s long-term subject overview and progression document for music when planning music lessons. These documents are used together in order to plan and deliver high-quality, interactive music lessons across the school year.
This website allows children to see and hear a range of musical instruments that are played in an orchestra. There is information about how the instruments are made, played, which family they are part of as well as activities such as make your own instrument at home.
DSO KidsTeacher/ Literacy & Reading Lead/ Music Lead
I always wanted to be a teacher and love teaching in Upper Key Stage 2. I love to spend time with family and friends, especially with my two little boys, Charlie and Theo.
Teacher/ French Lead/ Music Lead
