Music

Hi, I am Miss Thompson and I am the Music co-ordinator at Moston Lane Primary School. I have a huge passion for music. My grandad taught me how to play the piano and the guitar from a very young age. Since then, I have taken up singing and learnt how to play the cornet too! I aim to instil a love of Music in our Moston Lane Superstars and inspire them to become talented musicians!

Intent

At Moston Lane, we encourage our children to ‘Be the Best they can Be’. Music is a vital part of our curriculum as it allows our children to do just that! We intend to engage and inspire pupils to develop a life-long love of music whilst celebrating musical talents. We aim to increase our pupils’ self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement by equipping them with the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to become confident performers, composers and listeners.

 Implementation

Music is valuable for children’s emotional health and wellbeing. Therefore, at Moston Lane, we have a progressive and effective curriculum to enhance our pupils’ musical capabilities. We follow the Kapow online scheme of work. This scheme takes a holistic approach to music, in which the strands below are woven together to create engaging and enriching learning experiences:

• Performing
• Listening
• Composing
• The history of music
• The inter-related dimensions of music

This scheme follows the spiral curriculum model where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon. Our children have access to a wide range of music across historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, enriching their cultural capital. Children are taught to sing expressively and play a variety of tuned and untuned percussion instruments accurately and with control. We then use the Instrumental scheme in KS2 to provide all children with some first-hand experience of learning an instrument with the hope that children will aspire to become musicians and continue to learn to play new instruments through their schooling.

Moston Lane Primary is a partner of MyHub - the music education hub for the City of Manchester. Our school offers violin/viola and steel drum first access opportunities to pupils in Years 4-6.

We engage with MyHub through network meetings, musical events and working with partner Arts organisations.

Other musical opportunities to generate a sense of community and belonging:

• Weekly Key Stage topic and ‘Good Works’ assemblies where we celebrate together and sing collaboratively.
• Yearly EYFS/KS1 Christmas productions allows children to sing and perform to other year groups and parents.
• ‘Musical Mondays’ provides all children with opportunities to watch live music from a variety of performers!
• Christmas Choir and ‘Carols by Candlelight’ provides performance opportunities.
• ‘Singing Square’. Each term, every class chooses a song to learn and practise (based on a theme). At the end of each term, the children listen, perform and provide feedback!

Impact

All children will have a deep understanding of the interrelated dimensions of music – pulse, rhythm, pitch, dynamics, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and notation. They will have developed these skills and become confident musicians who understand and enjoy using music to express themselves. All children will be aware of different styles of music and how these styles vary from each other. They will have a good understanding of musical history and some important composers.

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Please follow the link below to view the policy:

Music Policy

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Below is the ‘Curriculum Map’ and 'Progression of Skills & Knowledge', which outlines the activities and skills that will be taught throughout the year:

Music Curriculum Overview

Progression of Skills & Knowledge

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 Here you can find the 'Age Related Expectations' for each year group, which outlines what skills a child should be able to do at the end of each year. Children will be assessed against these expectations to see what they have achieved, and what they need to work on next.

Please follow the links to find out more about the expectations for your child:

Nursery

Reception

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

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Music around our school

Musical Mondays!

Moston Lane love being involved in 'Musical Mondays! On the first Monday of every month, we have the opportunity to listen to and watch a live performance.

This month (November), we watched 'Filkin's Duo'. We joined them on a pirate adventure across the seven seas! Chris Roberts (Guitar) & Seth Bye (Fiddle & Accordion) weaved together intricate melodies from the folklore of their homes, Wales and Gloucestershire. Their music combined the traditional and the contemporary, blending fiddle, guitar, harmonium and mandolin with their close vocal harmonies. The children at Moston Lane had lots of fun! 

Year 5 Performance

Our Year 5 children have been lucky enough to work with Manchester Piccadilly Orchestra to create their own music. They even performed their end piece in front of Year 3 and Year 4

Express Yourself

As part of 'Dress to Express Yourself' Day for Children's Mental Health Week 2022, some children enjoyed listening to the song 'Express Yourself' and dancing to it!

Africa - Year 2

The children in Year 2 have been learning all about Africa in Music. They looked at African music and African drums before creating their own music.

Express Yourself Day 2021

For mental health week we celebrated Express Yourself day. We used the song ‘Express Yourself’ by Charles Wright and The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band to express ourselves with our bodies! Watch the amazing videos below from Reception, Year 1 and Year 5. 

Christmas Sign Language

We have been busy learning different Christmas songs in sign language!

Please find your team below and click 'download' to view the video.

Sign Language

We have had lots of fun learning how to sign familiar songs in British Sign Language. Watch the videos of Year 1 and Year 4 below!

Moston Lane Carols by Candlelight 2019

Learning Links

• For more information on where to find your local music centres and if you are interested in your child learning to play a musical instrument, either independently or with a group, click here.
• There are also lots of music events and activities going on in the local area. To find out about general music activities in the city, click on the MyHub link below.