Battle and Langton Music Curriculum

Music plays a huge role here at Battle and Langton as we believe that amongst other things it can bring joy to all of us.  We employ a specialist music teacher to teach across our school and she brings her infectious passion for the subject to every child.

We focus the curriculum around five key areas:

Listening:  Right from the beginning of school, children are taught to listen carefully to music; appreciating timbre of a particular instrument, the emotional quality of a piece of music or how music can tell a story through dynamics and tempo changes.  This appreciation for careful listening is extended as the children get older to listening to different genres of music, as well as being able to listen to each other (and themselves) in choral singing and group playing of an instrument.

Singing:  Singing is the heart of our curriculum.  All children sing every year whether in thier music lessons, or in the weekly music assembly.  They begin by learning to sing without shouting, to control their dynamics and to sing in different groupings such as in canon.  Later, as children mature, they begin to sing sections of songs in unison rounds and eventually in harmony.  Children are encouraged to build towards being able to perform solo and in groups to wide groups of adults and peers.  The weekly choir is very popular and has performed as part of an ensemble at the Glyndebourne opera house.

Performing: Performing is a very important part of the music curriculum, as it is at the centre of music.  Woven throughout each unit of work, children build thier confidence in performing to each other and finally to a group and on a stage.  There are four key performances to parents throughout the year:  A Nativity play in Year 2, and a Christmas song concert by Year 1 at Christmas, a Reception play at Easter and a Year 6 play in the summer.  This is on top of the regular performances to other classes and groups of classes that our music teacher organises.

Playing:  All children at Battle and Langton have the opportunity to learn to play an instrument.  In addition to the many 1-1 lessons that children opt to do thoughout the week, our music curriculum teaches the children to play both tuned and untuned instruments.  Reception and Year 1, Year 3 and Year 6 explore untuned insturments including body percussion and beat boxing.  Year 2 learn to play a glockenspiel, Year 4 the recorders and Year 5 the ukelele. 

Composing:  From Year 2 up the children all explore musical compistion in a variety of forms.  From exploring digital music, through writing rhythmical patterns for playing on untuned instruments, to writin gthier own sea shanties, composition is an important part of the curriculum.

For further information about the curriculum please speak to your child's teacher or make an appointment to see Mr Alexander