Music

Intent

The power of music calms, focuses and inspires. It can improve maths, English, behaviour and attitudes to learning. At Summerlea School, we aspire to harness this to bring happiness and success to young hearts and minds.

Our vision and ambition are that teachers across the school are supported to use music to transform the outlook of children and lay the foundation for a happy, fulfilling and successful life.

Children will learn to play a range of instruments, as well as building their confidence whilst performing in front of peers and wider audiences. They will appreciate a wide variety of music from different eras, cultures and genres. They will listen with skill and emotion, unravelling music both personally and as a musician. They will see the beauty, complexity, skill and power that music delivers and they themselves will be able to develop their own skills and understanding to be able to share their own music with others. 

Implementation

The music curriculum ensures students sing, listen, play, perform and evaluate. This is embedded in classroom activities using the Charanga music scheme. The elements of music are taught through this scheme so that children are able to use some of the language of music to dissect it, and understand how it is made, played, appreciated and analysed. Pupils also learn how to read basic music notation and create their own ways of recording their own and others’ music. Composing or performing using body percussion and vocal sounds is also part of the curriculum, which develops the understanding of musical elements without the added complexity of an instrument.

Pupils also participate in weekly singing assemblies and performances that are annually timetabled to allow all children the opportunity to engage with a variety of audiences. Children are taught to play tuned and untuned percussion instruments throughout their time at Summerlea. Our school also has a number of skilled peripatetic music teachers offering a range of musical tuition in addition to the school curriculum and our liaison with West Sussex Music Hub allows the school to access Whole Class Ensemble Tuition, giving each child in Year 4 a chance to learn a musical instrument for a term. Music Factor is a popular feature of our weekly Celebration Assembly, exposing both staff and puplis to a wide range of music genres. Summerlea Voice gave each class an opportunity to select, rehearse and perform a song to the rest of the school in the summer term and was enjoyed by all who took part, creating a wonderful feeling of support and community for all and freeing many from their inhibitions!

Musical opportunities are also offered as extra-curricular activities and our newly-formed ‘Summerlea Singers’ performed successfully at our Candlelit Carol Concert at Christmas and the locality Celebration of Song event at TLA. Our Summer Showcase celebrated musical talent in our school, with performances from singers, dancers and instrumentalists. We are looking forward to rehearsing for further performances in our community this year and to hearing our newly formed Recorder Club.