Music
We pride ourselves on the opportunities for art and music across the school having been awarded the school Gold award for excellence in music provision. We were delighted to become a ‘Music Mark School Member’ in recognition of the opportunities offered, teaching provided and achievements of our children.
“We would like to thank you for all the hard work you and your colleagues do to ensure that pupils at your school are able to access and engage with a high-quality music education. Your dedication to offering and delivering a broad and balanced curriculum is both welcomed and celebrated.
Music Mark works to enable our members, and the wider music education sector, to deliver high quality musical and social outcomes for all children and young people. My thanks for all that you are doing and will continue to do to support our collective vision.”
(Bridget Whyte, Chief Executive, Music Mark)
We have also been proud to hear one of our former pupils was accepted in to the Birmingham Symphony Youth Orchestra; we were delighted when she shared her experience and inspired our pupils via a ‘Violin Masterclass’ during the Summer term.
Our School Vision
Our core Christian values are:
Hope, Love and Respect.
‘With God all things are possible.’ Matthew 19:26
The school serves the whole community by providing education of the highest quality.
We seek to develop the whole child, educationally, spiritually and morally, in a happy, caring, orderly, questioning and stimulating environment, in which attitudes of mutual respect and responsibility are paramount.
Intent
At St John the Baptist C of E Primary School, our intent is to deliver a high-quality music education. The statement below outlines the goals and intentions of the music curriculum. These are the key components:
- High-Quality Music Curriculum: The school aims to provide a well-rounded and robust music education, ensuring that students receive comprehensive instruction in music.
- Inspire Enjoyment: A primary goal is to foster a love and appreciation of music among students, encouraging them to enjoy and engage with music in various forms.
- Promote Critical Listening Skills: The curriculum emphasizes the development of students’ ability to listen attentively and critically, enabling them to understand and appreciate different aspects of music.
- Self-Confidence in Performance and Composition: The school seeks to build students’ confidence in their musical abilities, particularly in performing and composing their own music.
- Collaboration: The curriculum encourages students to work together, recognizing the importance of collaboration in musical endeavors.
- Cultural Enrichment: The school aims to broaden students’ cultural horizons by exposing them to diverse musical experiences and opportunities, thereby enriching their overall educational experience.
- Exciting and Wide-Ranging Opportunities: The school intends to provide a variety of musical experiences, ensuring that students have access to different genres, instruments, and performance opportunities.
Overall, the statement reflects a comprehensive and well-rounded approach to music education, aiming to cultivate both technical skills and a deep appreciation for music in students.
We also embrace the rationale of the power of music as stated in The New Model Music Curriculum;
Music is all around us. It is the soundtrack to our lives. Music connects us through people and places in our ever-changing world. It is creative, collaborative, celebratory and challenging. In our schools, music can bring communities together through the shared endeavour of whole-school singing, ensemble playing, experimenting with the creative process and, through the love of listening to friends and fellow pupils, performing. The sheer joy of music making can feed the soul of a school community, enriching each student while strengthening the shared bonds of support and trust which make a great school.*
Implementation
At St John the Baptist C of E Primary School, we use a thematic approach as a foundation for delivering our creative music curriculum.
Curriculum
Music lessons are linked to theme for the term. This theme is taken from a historical, geographical or scientific perspective. Woven within each lesson are the key musical skills & learning objectives taken from the MMC (Model Music Curriculum) appropriate for each mixed aged class. This also connects the interrelated strands of singing, playing, improvisation, composing, listening & appraising. Following this approach allows a fully integrated approach to musical development as well as supporting cross-curricular themes.
A Shropshire Music Services Music (SMS) specialist delivers weekly music lessons to each class.
EFYS
Children within the Reception class follow the EFYS curriculum for Music.
This is incorporated into the weekly music lesson. Throughout the year the children will learn to:
*Create their own songs or improvise a song around one they know.
*Play instruments with increasing control to express their feelings and ideas. *Listen carefully to rhymes and songs, paying attention to how they sound. *Learn rhymes, poems and songs.
(Taken from ‘Early Years Matter – Musical Development Matters, 2021)
Worship
Pupils participate in whole school Worship sessions each Tuesday morning, led by the SMS specialist. These sessions have a monthly theme which is taken from the schools’s core Christian values of Love, Hope & Respect.
The values have been developed to include:
Love – Trust and Friendship
Hope – Perseverance and Wisdom
Respect – Forgiveness and Tolerance
Songs are chosen with the monthly theme in mind and also songs for the celebrations of the time of year, i.e. Harvest, Christmas, Easter etc.
Singing
Singing is part of every lesson and underpins all music tuition.
Within the curriculum we also provide the children with a KS2 singing assembly, once a week. During this time, they sing a wide of songs (in addition to our Worship songs) in preparation for a variety of musical performances.
Listening
Within the Worship assembly the children also listen to music from the “Musician of the Week”. This is linked to a particular composer, artist or musician. This listening activity covers recommended listening pieces in the MMC. (See the tables on P. 34-35 on the Model Music Curriculum)
Listening & Appraising also from an important part of the weekly curriculum lesson
Whole Class Instrumental Lessons
*Children in Year 3 learn the descant recorder
*Children in Year 4 learn the violin
*Children in Year 5 learn to violin, building on the skills learnt in Year 4
These lessons teach the children to read musical notation, how to look after an instrument and develop an understanding of how to play the instrument.
It also teaches the children collaborative performance skills
*Children can also participate in small group percussion lessons through the year (at a cost)
Performances
All children perform in front of an audience on a regular basis.
This may happen in Church Services – Harvest, Christingle, Easter, St John the Baptist Day or in other musical events throughout the year, e.g. Nativity, School Production, Musical Sharing Assembly, Christmas & Summer Fayre, Mince Pie Concert
SEND
At St John the Baptist C of E Primary School all children are entitled to participate in Music making. Children with SEND are supported by Teaching Assistants within Music Lessons
Enrichment Opportunities
St John the Baptist C of E Primary School offers an afterschool Instrumental Ensemble club (free of charge) where children of KS2 age, learn to a wide variety of instruments and learn how to play together collaboratively.
There is an afterschool guitar club that children may join.
Children in Years 4-6 may join a Recorder Ensemble (within school time).
The children may play the descant recorder (following from Year 3) or may progress to the Treble or Tenor recorder.
The children play music in two-, three- & four-part harmony and in a range of different styles.
All children in KS2 are offered the chance to attend the ‘Young Voices’ & to ‘Shropshire Sings’ event.
Instrumental Lesson
One to one instrumental lessons are offered through SMS on percussion, violin, keyboard & guitar. Other instruments maybe offered if sufficient demand is there.
Instrumental Ensembles
SMS offers a number of Instrumental & Vocal Ensembles around the County, that are free of charge.
Please see link: https://www.shropshiremusicservice.org.uk/services/ensembles/
Impact
At St John the Baptist C of E Primary School we ensure that there is progression in learning and that the children experience, appreciate and participate in a wide range of musical activities.
We assess the impact of our curriculum through various methods:
Each teaching unit incorporates musical learning statements designed to guide instruction. While these are not formal assessment tools, they our Music Specialist to identify students’ progress over time—highlighting those who meet expectations, those working towards them, and those who excel and demonstrate deeper understanding. This approach offers a holistic view rather than relying on tick charts or formal tests, as we prioritize meaningful teaching, learning, and participation.
Most importantly, our students’ genuine passion for singing, creating, and performing music is clearly evident in a variety of ways & experiences.
References/Links:
Dfe publication The New Model Music Curriculum (March 2021) P.4
Shropshire Music Service – https://www.shropshiremusicservice.org.uk/
The Power of Music to Change Lives (NMPE) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-power-of-music-to-change-lives-a-national-plan-for-music-education
EYFS – Music in the Early Years
https://early-education.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Musical-Development-Matters-ONLINE.pdf
Further information on the progression of music curriculum skills from EYFS to Key Stage Two can be found here:
Shropshire Music Service Progression Document
Our Music Development Plan can be accessed below;
St John the Baptist Primary School – Music Development Plan 2024
The Arts
The creative arts involve imagination and creativity, and include dance, movement and drama, as well as art and music.
Our curriculum for art includes a wide range of experiences, which are provided using a whole range of materials including observational drawing, colour mixing, painting, collage, model making, sewing and printing. Skills are taught and developed and the children are encouraged to discuss and listen to others, sharing ideas and modifying them in the light of experience, as well as enjoying and appreciating their own and other’s efforts.
The Pearl of Africa Children’s Choir has been a great highlight over recent years; the Choir spend the day in school, delivering art, craft, music and dance workshops – their energy and talent is always an inspiration which we invite the families and friends of our school to enjoy in the evening.
Art at St John the Baptist
At St John the Baptist CE Primary School, we believe that teaching art is integral to developing a child’s creativity as part of a broad and balanced curriculum. It stimulates their imagination and offers opportunities to explore and respond to the world around them. Our curriculum aims to equip our pupils with the knowledge and skills needed to explore the work of existing artists before creating their own pieces. We encourage our pupils to view art as a process that can evolve and change, reflecting an artist’s viewpoint as well as historical and cultural influences.
Our curriculum for art includes a wide range of experiences, which are provided using a whole range of materials including observational drawing, colour mixing, painting, collage, model making, sewing and printing. Key skills are taught and developed through engaging termly units. During these, the children are encouraged to discuss and share ideas for enjoyment, modifying them in the light of their experiences, as well as evaluate and appreciate their own and other’s work. We have ensured that pupils learn about a wide range of British and international artists through our planning.
Art Planning Overview
Art is taught termly and covers the following areas: drawing, painting, sculpture, collage, textiles and printing (see below). Within the teaching sequence, work from significant artists/craftspeople is also explored to enhance and inspire the children. Further detail can be found within the rolling programme. Art books are used to allow the children time to engage with a piece of artwork or media type, as well as to record and reflect on their own ideas.
The above overview ensures that each child will have coverage of all 6 skill areas across the 2 year cycle no matter which class they are in. Each class teacher makes use of the Art Progression Document (see below) to ensure that all skills are covered across the cycle of skills. Each skill can be moved within the year if needed to fit in with topics in order to make the art cross curricular, but not moved to the next cycle. However, the context for each unit is decided by each class teacher to provide meaningful cross curricular links wherever possible. Following the above overview ensures a range of Art, Craft and Design across the 2-year cycle for each child.
We hold a dedicated Arts Week each year to take the opportunity to share a love of art beyond the curriculum with pupils; many examples of the artwork created can be seen around our school building. Other events which develop and showcase the children’s artistic skills include the Annual Homegrown Show and also Ruyton’s Got Talent – a KS2 favourite! 
