Music

Intent

Music gives all children the ability to express themselves creatively and with imagination.  It is an integral part of all cultures and opens up an avenue for cross curricular learning whilst providing the opportunity to bring a topic to life.

At Great Missenden School the intent is to inspire a love of music, promote understanding and give children the ability and confidence to make music. 

Implementation

• Every child receives at a minimum a 1 hour dedicated music lesson each week delivered by a specialist music teacher
• A progressive approach is taken and children learn to listen, understand, compose and play music from reception upwards, with skills and knowledge increasing sequentially year on year  (progression of skills document is in the documents section at bottom of this page)
• We take a very practical, skills based approach to the learning and children will sing and/or play instruments in every music lesson. 
• Whole class practical musicianship is taught in music lessons throughout KS1 and KS2 (Drumming, samba band, ukulele, band skills, classroom percussion)  
• Throughout their time at the school children are exposed to a huge range of different musical genres and styles from all over the globe - past and present. (Musician of the Month listening calendar is in the documents section at bottom of this page, but is not an exhaustive list)
• We use IT and apps within the music classroom and on stage to aid music making, tuning, composition, production and performance
• All children have the opportunity to take part in extra-curricular musical activities in the form of lunchtime or after school clubs.  
• KS2 children have the opportunity to take instrumental lessons if they wish. These lessons are delivered during school time by teachers from the Bucks Music Trust (BTM)

Impact

At Great Missenden school we are musicians, we are singers, we are composers we are performers and we listen to a wide range of music. Enjoyment of music is a key focus; enhancing well-being, self-confidence and a sense of achievement for the children.

Music assessment is on-going throughout the year and children are encouraged to discover, identify and develop their own areas of strength.    Alongside the ‘taught musical skills’ children learn to formulate an opinion and to participate and collaborate with others; enhancing teamworking skills and building an awareness of self and others.

Musical experiences stretch beyond the National Curriculum with visits from professional musicians, composers and theatre companies.  Every child rehearses and performs at least once in front of an audience each year

Outside the classroom there are also optional additional performance opportunities.  Over a third of the pupils in KS1 and KS2 (145 children) chose to take part in the Christmas Performing Arts Showcase Christmas 2023 - this comprised of performances prepared during teacher led after school performing arts clubs.

Pupil Voice Impact Analysis

Year 1: "It (music) is so much fun, I love singing the ‘Dinosaur Dance”

Year 2: "(I like)  playing the drums and learning new things”

Year 3:   “We are always learning new songs and we have fun too”

Year 4: "I enjoyed all of the commonwealth countries coming together and singing the song by Gary Barlow(Sing). And I enjoyed Samba”

Year 5: "I was really proud of myself when I wrote my own melody line (chrome music lab and beepbox) I was able to come up with various different melodies in a short amount of time”

Year 6: "I was really proud of myself when I practised hard for my solo then (boys name) and I got lots of praise from the music teacher for singing loudly and being in time.  It made me happy for the rest of the day"

We want our children to leave Great Missenden with an enjoyment and a love of music. All children at our school will have experienced taking part in live performances to an audience; giving them increased confidence to speak and perform in public.  We hope that they will take this knowledge and their musical experiences with them into year 7 where they can continue to build upon the skills they have learned as they progress through their secondary education.

Class Music News - Sept 2024 - July 2025

Clubs and Concerts for the Autumn Term 2024

We are looking forward to lots of festive performances this term, here are the dates to keep in the diary for performances, and emails will follow for the families each performance pertains to.

Concerts:

• Friday 6th December 9:30 - 10:30 EYFS Christingle performance At GM 
• Wednesday 11th December 9:30 - 10:30 Key Stage 1 Nativity performance at GM 
• Thursday 12th December 14:00 - 15:00 Key Stage 1 Nativity performance at GM 
• Friday December 13th 14:00 - 15:00 Year 3 Christmas performance 

Music clubs Autumn 2024

• Orchestra - Wednesday 3.15 - 4.15 (Music room with Mr Goldman) 
• GarageBand - Wednesday 3.15 - 4.15 (6P with Miss Wicks) 
• Choir - Thursday 3.15 - 4.15
• Rock Band - Friday 3.15 - 4.15

Christmas Performances

Congratulations Great Missenden pupils !!  You delivered some fantastic performances at Christmas this year.  Over 250 children performed in at least one concert/service during December, with a few getting on stage 2 or 3 times. From The EYFS Christingle to the Performing Arts Show, from nativites to community carol singing - Great Missenden, you rocked Christmas!