St. Thomas Aquinas

MUSIC

‘By following in the footsteps of Jesus,

we are making the heart, mind and spirit soar’

Our actions and words of today are the footprints of our future.

Intent

Music can inspire, influence and motivate children.

At St Thomas Aquinas we strive to provide a high quality music education which is exciting, rewarding and challenging for our pupils and enhances the development of the whole child. Areas such as creativity, social interaction, co-operation, discipline, focus, and memory, as well as speech, language, personal expression, and numeracy, all benefit from such an education.

Some children come to school having been exposed to a range of songs and rhymes, and are encouraged to develop this early musicianship in a range of activities and experiences at our school. However, for others, our school is the first opportunity for children to experience music.

Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. Through our Music curriculum we strive to engage and inspire our pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement.

At St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Primary School, we believe that:

Music should be accessible to all;
Music encourages social growth, particularly in relation to self-esteem, self-awareness, and cooperation;
Music provides and deepens understanding of different cultures and traditions, and instils in children a respect for other ways of life.

Implementation

Please click here to see St Thomas Aquinas Foundation stage Music Overview

Please click here to see St Thomas Aquinas Music Long Term Plan - KS1 and KS2

Please click here to see St Thomas Aquinas Music skills progression document

Please click here to see our Music Development Plan 2024-2025

Aims:

Foundation Stage:

By following the EYFS Framework 'Expressive Arts and Design' St Thomas Aquinas aims to ensure that all pupils are taught to:

3 & 4 Year Olds:
-Listen with increased attention to sounds.
-Respond to what they have heard, expressing their thoughts and feelings.
-Remember and sing entire songs.
-Sing the pitch of a tone sung by another person (‘pitch match’).
-Sing the melodic shape (moving melody, such as up and down, down and up) of familiar songs.
-Create their own songs, or improvise a song around one they know.
-Play instruments with increasing control to express their feelings and ideas.

Reception:
-Listen attentively, move to and talk about music, expressing their feelings and responses.
-Watch and talk about dance and performance art, expressing their feelings and responses.
-Sing in a group or on their own, increasingly matching the pitch and following the melody.
-Explore and engage in music making and dance, performing solo or in groups.

Key stage 1
By following the national curriculum St Thomas Aquinas aims to ensure that all pupils are taught to:

use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and
rhymes
play tuned and untuned instruments musically
listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded
music
experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions
of music.

Key stage 2

By following the national curriculum St Thomas Aquinas aims to ensure that all pupils are taught to:

play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical
instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression
improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related
dimensions of music
listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
use and understand staff and other musical notations
appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn
from different traditions and from great composers and musicians
develop an understanding of the history of music.