At Walkington Primary School, we want our children to foster a life-long love of music by igniting a passion for music. By listening and responding to different musical styles, finding their voices as singers and performers and composers, we hope to enable them to become confident, reflective and inventive musicians who enjoy the pleasure of listening to, singing and playing music.
We study a varied curriculum which is carefully planned to build on knowledge year by year and covers the four musical disciplines of listening, singing, performing and composing.
As poet and Harvard Professor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow famously said, “Music is the universal language of mankind” so at its core, we see our music curriculum as a catalyst that breaks down cultural (as suggested in a study conducted by Samuel Mehr 2018) and social boundaries as we expose the pupils to as many diverse musical experiences as possible. It will promote team working and the development of social skills by fostering the importance of working cooperatively with others as the children are given opportunities to jointly collaborate with a partner, in small groups, as a whole class, an entire Year Group and as a whole school.
Plato remarked that “Music is the medicine of the soul “and at Walkington School, we recognise that music is essential for positive mental health. We explore how music can affect our emotions whilst encouraging the children to express their individuality and creativity through allowing them to exercise their imagination and be inventive and resourceful through composing and performance.
The school recognises that each pupil will be at a different point in terms of their understanding of music by the time they transition to KS3; however, we are committed to providing a learning pathway which is inclusive of everyone irrespective of abilities.
This intention also aligns closely with our aim of promoting the “Global Competencies” outlined by the OECD.
