Music

Why we teach your child music:

Music - and singing in particular - plays a big part in life in our school. We pride ourselves on the fact that every child has the opportunity to learn how to play an instrument before they leave Fulham Primary and that our pupils are confident and enthusiastic performers with a love of music.

In music lessons, we expose our children to a diverse range of high-quality music from a variety of traditions and from great composers and musicians. Children are then able to draw on this increasing aural memory to be able to excel in their musical performance in both solo and ensemble contexts. As children develop their musicality throughout their time at Fulham Primary, so too will they benefit from a deepening self-confidence, creativity and sense of success. A love of music is something that can stay with a child for a lifetime and continue to enrich their life and sense of well-being even after they have moved on from our school.

What our curriculum looks like:

We use Charanga, an online music education portal that provides a carefully sequenced curriculum that allows students to rapidly develop their aural memory and technical expertise. Each half-termly unit of work explores a musical genre or theme. In every year group, the learning is broken down into five steps that are taught over the course of the half term:

Step 1 – Singing

Step 2 – Playing an instrument

Step 3 – Improvisation

Step 4 – Composition

Step 5 - Performance

In Step 1, the children learn and perform a song that acts as the focus of the unit, going on to appraise and compare other songs that are linked to it in some way at the start of every lesson. in Step 2, the children learn to play a piece of music based on the song on the glockenspiel – we have a class set so that each child has the ample opportunity to develop their skills. In Step 3 they then use this piece of music as a starting point for devising their own improvisations, where we encourage children to use rhythmic and melodic ideas from the piece they have learned. In Step 4, students then compose a short piece of music to play along to the song. At the end of a unit, the students and their teacher will discuss which of these elements they would like to include in their final performance – this is Step 5. Performances are filmed in order to provide opportunities for reflection on their achievements and to see what they could do to improve as musicians.

Rather than focussing solely on the Western tradition of music, we are committed to broadening our children’s musical horizons by exposing then to genres and styles that they might not hear in the course of their everyday life. Some genres and styles covered include:

• Afropop
• Classic Rock
• Bhangra
• Disco
• Old-school hip-hop

How we teach music:

As with every subject, we recognise what makes music unique, and as a result make pedagogical choices to ensure teaching is the best it can possibly be.

We have captured our pedagogical choice for music in our music principles which can be seen below:

How you can help your child at home:

All children have the opportunity to learn either the piano or guitar at Fulham Primary with one of our Peripatetic teachers, but even without instrumental lessons, there are many ways in which you can nurture a love of music and develop musicality with your child at home:

• Take opportunities to listen to music with your child, showing your own enjoyment in this in order to help them recognise the value of music in our lives.
• If you hear a piece of music, discuss it with your child. How does it make them feel? What instruments can they hear?
• The Tri-Borough Music Hub list a range of local events and workshops suitable for a range of ages on their website https://www.triboroughmusichub.org/events-media/

If your child is taking instrumental lessons, then encourage them to practise at home.