At Ryelands Primary and Nursery school Music embodies our vision of life in all its fullness and we recognise the important contribution music in general makes to everyone’s lives. We feel all children are entitled to a high-quality, inclusive music curriculum from the moment they join our nursery/school. This will hopefully instil a life-long love of music which can be a useful vehicle for self- expression. We have selected to use Hullabaloo scheme of work as the skills progression aims to build children’s knowledge and understanding of music theory throughout the school. Alongside this, the carefully mapped out content strives to widen the children’s musical repertoire as they move through our school and seeks to enculture them. As the children enter Year 6, we introduce all the children to a tuned instrument (brass) which they have the opportunity to learn throughout the year. We hope, through this exposure, that children will choose to continue learning an instrument throughout their life, although we recognise many will not choose to do so.We plan to enrich other areas of the curriculum by using cross curricular links with music and topics taught across school.
We encourage children to follow their love for music and learn how to play a wider selection of instruments (guitar and violin) by providing substantive financial support towards the cost of private tuition We also hold our annual “Ryelands Voice of the Year” competition as we feel that it is our responsibility to provide children with occasions when they can perform individually and/or as groups to help build confidence and self-esteem as well receiving feedback from a live performance, which can be a powerful motivator. We ensure we celebrate our success in music by having regular assembles (for both the children in school and their families), visits to local residential homes (to provide mini concerts) and we also participate in Lancaster’s Big Sing. The children’s confidence and pride shine when they are performing.
At Ryelands Primary and Nursery School our aim is to provide a breadth of wider opportunities in music alongside our curriculum so that children have the necessary cultural capital to prepare them for future success and participation in diverse and unique communities. Music can be a way of communicating with people around the world through a shared, universal language.