Music

Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. Our teaching of music at Aldrington engages and inspires pupils to develop their enjoyment and talent as musicians.

Music is seen as an integral part of the curriculum at Aldrington. We believe music plays an important role in children’s personal development, helping children to work together and feel part of a community, as well as providing a vehicle for personal expression. We provide opportunities for all children to create, play, perform and enjoy music, and develop the skills to appreciate a wide variety of musical forms. All children have access to specialist music activities at Aldrington as part of the curriculum as well as through extra-curricular activities.

Implementation

In Key Stage 1, pupils are taught to:

use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes.
play tuned and untuned instruments musically.
listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music.
experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the interrelated dimensions of music.

In Key Stage 2, pupils are taught to:

sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control.
develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory.
play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression
improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music
listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
use and understand staff and other musical notations
appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians
develop an understanding of the history of music

Music Lessons and Performances

In Reception and Key Stage 1, class teachers take music lessons and children have a singing assembly together once a week. This is augmented by regular singing in other assemblies and at monthly church services.

In Key Stage 2, many of the lessons are taught by our specialist music teacher, Mrs Glineur . Lessons will typically involve a mixture of listening and responding to music; composing and performing; recording work and evaluating what we have done.

In Year 4, all children are involved in the Wider Opportunities’ Soundmakers’ programme to learn a musical instrument. At Aldrington, all year 4 pupils learn the ukulele.

In Years 4 and 6, all children work to perform musical productions, combining acting, singing and all backstage roles. These are powerful experiences, allowing children to improve and enjoy their musical performances. In recent years, we have enjoyed performances set in Saxon Britain, Shakespeare’s London and even a Monopoly board!

Learning an Instrument

For those children wanting to learn a specific instrument these are available at Aldrington.

Brass instrument lessons are provided by Create Music and Mrs Glineur.
Cello lessons are provided by Create Music.
Violin lessons are provided by Create Music.
Woodwind lessons are provided by Create Music.
Drum kit lessons are provided by Create Music.

Details of how to apply can be found at the school office.

Find our more and apply online to Create Music tuition at this link.

Create Music

Extra-Curricular Music

Depending on instrument availability, children in Year 3 onwards have the chance to join Aldrington Brass. There are lessons given and the children work towards joining the brass band which meets weekly. This is an outstanding chance to enjoy playing as part of an ensemble and Aldrington Brass quickly develops excellent musicians who perform throughout the year. Aldrington Brass can be heard at our monthly Bishop Hannington services.

Children in Year 3 and above have the chance to pursue music in our many extra-curricular clubs. The Choir runs in the autumn and spring terms, meeting after school.

Our African Drumming Club for Years 5 and 6 meets throughout the year, practising and perfecting group performances of complex rhythms. Samba Band for Years 3 and 4 runs in the summer term. Both these groups often perform at our monthly Bishop Hannington services.