Music

At Manorside Academy our music curriculum aims to develop a child’s musicianship so that they grow into confident, creative performers and discerning critical listeners.

We recognise that music is a creative and expressive art, in which all children should be given every opportunity to develop his or her own potential and enjoyment in this area of the curriculum. Making music is an active experience at Manorside Academy. We believe music can provide pleasure, fulfilment and solace through every stage of a person’s life. Music utilises and develops cognitive abilities, physical co-ordination, aesthetic awareness, emotions, social skills and spiritual values as well as bringing people together in a spirit of co-operation and mutual enjoyment.

Our Aims…

We aim to enable our children to:

• Enjoy music through active involvement in lessons and to improve their musical skills
• Develop confidence in their musical abilities and performing opportunities.
• Stimulate an awareness of, and lively interest in a range of different styles of music.
• Become aware of music in our society today and in cultures from other times and places.
• Create opportunities for pupils to make a contribution to society today through music making and performing.
• Receive and experience a wide set of musical experiences during their time with us at school.
• Develop music skills, including singing, playing of instruments, movement, improvising, composing, using IT and other available resources to compose.
• Foster co-operation through joint music making and empathy and interest in others’ work and performances
• Try their best and develop in musical awareness and experience.
• Prepare all our pupils to be ‘secondary’ ready.

Planning objectives

Pupils from Reception to year 6 will be taught..

Performing

• To perform to a live audience
• Play an instrument
• Play or sing their own musical compositions

Composing

• Children are taught to explore, arrange and order sounds as they learn composing skills such as sequencing, layering sounds and lyric writing whilst utilising IT and real instruments. 
• All pupils will learn how to compose soundtracks against a film clip, choosing a clip, composing a soundtrack as we as creating sound effects.
• Pupils will learn to compose songs, learning and understanding about form, structure, verse, chorus, hooks and bridges.

Listening and Evaluating

• Children will be taught to listen attentively to a wide range of recorded and live music – to recognise and respond to musical elements through movement and discussion.
• They will listen to each other’s work and critique
• Learn how to register what they have enjoyed from a performance, as well as offer some helpful and useful tips on how to improve.

Singing

• Pupils will be given plenty of opportunities to sing. They have weekly singing assemblies as well as singing taking place within music lessons.
• Pupils will also have the opportunity to join a choir, perform inside and outside of the school to a range of audiences.
• Some pupils will sing with the Poole schools Music Association and all will be active members in music making activities.

Assessment

Pupils will be assessed after each scheme of work. Each scheme of work finishes with a performance given by the pupil. This work will be recorded for the teacher to assess progress that has been made, and whether the objectives have been met for the unit. Possible outcomes and musical assessment is recorded on DC pro.

Pupils will have a music book, which will record any information they have learnt around a particular unit of work. The music book will travel with them throughout their time at Manorside Academy.

All pupils, through schemes of work will be learning substantive knowledge (through musical notation reading, compositional writing) as well as disciplinary knowledge when singing, playing instruments, improvising and composing, to develop creative and original pieces and performances.

All planning will have key assessment questions embedded, for teachers to assess what musical knowledge and understanding is taken place.

There are a range of assessment outcomes for each scheme of work for all teachers to assess the musical outcomes to track pupil progress throughout their school year.

Music Improvement Plan 2024-2027

Music For All

We are so excited to launch a  music project entitled 'Music for All.' Building on the existing rich musical offering at Manorside, we hope to further impact the children as learners through an even more extensive music curriculum. Based on the research by Dr. Anita Collins, and 'how music has the potential to positively benefit almost all aspects of a child's development' we are offering the opportunity for all Year 4 children to learn a musical instrument. They will learn either the violin, clarinet, trumpet/cornet or trombone for the entire year, taught by specialist, peripatetic teachers. We are very grateful to Soundstorm for helping to facilitate this vision through the provision of the instruments.  

Early in the programme, for each music lesson, the children will spilt into their three different sections (brass, woodwind and string) and learn the fundamentals of each instrument. As the year progresses and they become increasingly skilful and confident on their own instrument, we will work towards bringing the sections together to create our very own Manorside Orchestra (which is incredibly exciting!) 

Through this project the children will learn: 

*How to look after their instrument. 

*How to create a sound and increasingly sustain and refine this. 

*How to read musical notation, building on their introduction to this in Year 3. 

*To increase their musical awareness, playing different genres, using different musical techniques and experiencing first-hand how the inter-related dimensions of music work together.  

*How to play with others in an ensemble, honing their listening and teamwork skills. 

*Performance skills, building confidence and presence.  

*Resilience! Learning an instrument is not easy, and most children will hit a stage when they want to give up because they are finding it difficult - this is the exact moment when they will learn to press in and keep going. Through not giving up, they can build their self-belief and the sense of achievement when they have persevered and overcome will be so rewarding. Parents, we ask that you support this narrative from home, encouraging them to keep going and to not give up.  

Parents, we would love to invite you in on this journey and so there will be a few times throughout the school year when you can come in and hear from the children and you will hear how they are progressing as the year goes on. So, please come and support the children when the opportunities arise, we'd love to see you!  

As a school, we believe that this opportunity should be available for all children, therefore we are willingly funding this. However, if you would like to, and are able, please feel free to contribute a donation towards this project using the QR Code in the school office.

Dr. Anita Collins in her book, 'The Music Advantage' says this: 

'Music programs implemented with cognitive and musical benefits in mind, and a sustainability mindset that will see the programs continue long past the exit of the current music teacher or school leader, transform schools, lives and brains. I specifically mention both cognitive and musical benefits because, for me, it is not an either/or proposition – we don't have music education in the school curriculum only for musical or cognitive outcomes. If anything, the past two decades of research have shown that ongoing, sequential musical education is necessary for every child to achieve both of these outcomes... I have seen evidence time and time again of the ability of music learning to propel children, parents, schools, and communities upward in the very areas they have been struggling in. Our children don't just deserve music education – they need it.'