What our pupils say about music at St Faith's

"Choir is so much fun and we sing at different places. I always enjoy singing at St Anne's Church in front of the whole school, our families and friends. I have learnt how to increase my range of pitch and how to create different harmonies. My favourite moment in Choir was at Christmas when we sang the Calyspo Carol."

"It's fun that we learn about different facts about the composers and where they come from. I enjoy that we have fun singing lots of different songs from various countries!"

"We get to play the instruments and it's active and everyone gets a turn. It's not just solos."

The St Faith's curriculum for Music aims to:

• Enable children to respond creatively to music through an active involvement in listening, composing, performing and appraising;
• Ensure children to acquire and develop musical concepts and skills (as outlined in the national curriculum) which will contribute to learning across the curriculum;
• Support children to develop an awareness and appreciation of traditions and music styles from a variety of cultures, times and places.

Curriculum Implementation:

At St Faith's, we use the Sing Up scheme of work to deliver our core music lessons. The music curriculum teaches:

Performing Skills

Children will be taught to listen and learn a wide range of songs, using their voices expressively.

They will have the opportunity to play a variety of tuned and un-tuned instruments with increasing control, and rehearse and perform with others, with an awareness of audience.

Composing Skills

Children will create music patterns and will be shown how to explore, select and organise musical ideas. They will record their own music in a variety of ways (e.g. Using ICT or written notation)

Appraising Skills

Children will be given the opportunity to explore and explain their own ideas and feelings through music, through dance, expressive language and musical vocabulary. They will analyse and compare sounds and will become confident at suggesting improvements for their own work and others.

Listening and Applying Knowledge and Understanding

Children should be able to listen with concentration and to internalise and record sounds with increasing aural memory. They will develop a growing awareness of the seven musical elements: pitch, duration, tempo, dynamics, tempo, texture, timbre and structure.

We seek to challenge our pupils both to be inspired and to inspire others with their music – to try out new ideas with interesting harmonies or rhythms. 

Music contributes to many subjects within the primary curriculum and we establish cross curricular links wherever possible e.g. Maths, English, Art, D.T. Science, RE, PE and PSHE. Throughout the school all pupils have weekly music lessons. Within these lessons there is balance between whole class teaching and group work.

Music is an integral part of daily life at St Faith's. Children are exposed to listening to a variety of music (from classical composers, Christian hymns to modern music) in daily collective worship, and all children at St Faith's participate in singing daily in collective worship. Choral singing is a highlight at St Faith's which staff and children look forward to. Indeed, pupils are proud to demonstrate their singing skills to their families in weekly 'Friday Family Worship'.

Singing is also a regular feature of lessons in other curricular areas, and is showcased in school celebrations such as Nativity performances, the Year 6 production, annual awards ceremony,  graduation ceremony and termly Class Worship. 

At St Faith's we are fortunate to work with Wandsworth Music Service. Teachers from the music service lead weekly lessons for Key Stage 2 pupils, teaching recorder and trumpet. Pupils have the opportunity to borrow trumpets to practise skills at home and at the end of each term, parents and carers are invited in to the school to enjoy the children's music performance.

We have a choir for those who want to take their singing to the next level – specifically looking at more challenging pieces, both classical and contemporary from countries and cultures around the world. Choir regularly perform both in school during our Worship time and also at others celebrations at St Anne's church, at school fairs and the local care home. 

Click here for a glimpse of our choir performing at St Anne's Church.

To enhance our music offer further, group music sessions are offered through 'Let's Rock', a community focussed project which brings rock band lessons to local schools in Wandsworth. This gives children the opportunity to be part of a band and to try a range of instruments and vocalisations. In addition, individual instrumental lessons are available for parents who wish their child to have 1:1 tuition. Currently, there are a number of pupils who have 1:1 piano lessons during the school week.

If you would like to know anything further about Music teaching and learning at St Faith’s please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

At St Faith's, we are passionate about providing our pupils with a range of experiences to enhance their enjoyment of music, as well as develop their knowledge and skills in this curricular area. To ensure that we are continually reflecting on our provision, we have developed a music development plan in line with the national plan for music education. This includes our self-evaluation, as well as next steps for music provision at St Faith's, and will be reviewed annually.