The Rosary Catholic Primary School

Supporting Music Learning at Home

At The Rosary Catholic Primary School, we encourage children to enjoy music, develop their creativity and express themselves through singing, playing, listening and composing. Families can support music learning by singing familiar songs, clapping rhythms, moving to music and listening to different musical styles together. You do not need to play an instrument or have specialist equipment: voices, body percussion and everyday objects provide plenty of opportunities to make music. The websites below offer resources from EYFS to Year 6, including songs, musical games, performances and creative activities. We hope they inspire children to explore new sounds, build confidence and experience the enjoyment of making music together.

Early Years, Singing and Moving to Music

Website	Suggested age range	What families will find
BBC – Bring the Noise	EYFS–Year 2	Songs, videos and playful activities introducing rhythm, instruments and making music.
BBC – Music Activities at Home	EYFS–Year 6, with adult support	Simple ideas for exploring music at home through movement, sounds and creative activities.
Sing Up at Home	EYFS–Year 6	Songs and activities for families to enjoy singing together at home.
Sing Up – Free Resources	EYFS–Year 6, depending on the resource	A selection of songs and musical activities. Further resources are available through paid membership.
London Symphony Orchestra – Digital Activities	EYFS–Year 6	Free resources, activities and online concerts organised for under-fives, ages five and above, and ages seven and above.
Carnegie Hall – Musical Explorers	Reception–Year 3, with adult support	Songs and activities introducing musical traditions through listening, singing and movement.
English Folk Dance and Song Society – Resources	EYFS–Year 6, with adult selection	Downloadable resources exploring traditional songs, music and dance, including early years and primary materials.

Listening and Understanding Music

Website	Suggested age range	What families will find
BBC Bitesize – KS1 Music	Years 1–2	Videos and activities introducing musical sounds, singing, instruments and creating music.
BBC Bitesize – KS2 Music	Years 3–6	Resources exploring listening, performing and composing, alongside musical vocabulary.
BBC – Ten Pieces	Years 3–6	Films, performances and creative activities introducing classical music and inspiring children’s own musical responses.
Classics for Kids	Years 1–6, with adult support for younger children	Music, podcasts and information introducing composers, instruments and classical music.
Carnegie Hall Kids	Years 1–6	A children’s website with musical games, quizzes, interactive maps and performance videos.
Carnegie Hall – Families	EYFS–Year 6, depending on the resource	Links to family music programmes and online activities that encourage musical curiosity and creativity.

Discovering Instruments and the Orchestra

Website	Suggested age range	What families will find
Philharmonia Orchestra – Instruments	Mainly Years 3–6, with adult support	Professional musicians introducing their instruments, organised into orchestral families.
Classics for Kids – Musical Instruments	Years 1–6	Information about different instruments and the families they belong to.
Children’s Classic Concerts – My Instrument and Me	Years 1–6, with adult support	Videos and downloadable resources introducing instruments of the orchestra.
Philharmonia Orchestra – Sound Samples	Mainly Years 4–6, with adult support	Recordings of instruments that children can listen to, compare and use in creative music projects.

Rhythm, Composing and Musical Games

Website	Suggested age range	What families will find
Chrome Music Lab	EYFS–Year 6, with adult support for younger children	Interactive experiments that allow children to explore sound, rhythm and melody visually.
Chrome Music Lab – Song Maker	Years 1–6	A simple tool for creating melodies and rhythms, listening back and changing musical ideas.
Chrome Music Lab – Rhythm	EYFS–Year 6, with adult support for younger children	A visual activity for creating repeating percussion patterns and exploring rhythm.
BBC – Play It!	Reception–Year 3	A musical game that allows children to explore songs and change how the music sounds.
Classics for Kids – Music Games	Years 1–6, depending on the game	Games covering rhythm, composing, note names, instruments and musical terms.
Groove Pizza – NYU Music Experience Design Lab	Years 3–6	A visual rhythm tool that lets children build, listen to and change drum patterns.
Incredibox	Years 3–6, with adult support	A tool for combining vocal sounds, beats and melodies. A web demo is available; the full app is paid.
Ableton – Learning Music	Mainly Years 5–6, with adult support	Interactive activities exploring beats, melody and how music is organised. No instrument or specialist software is needed.

Further Support for Families

Website	Suggested age range	What families will find
Family Fund – Marvellous Music	Years 1–6, with adult support	A video and activity cards showing children how to create music using Chrome Music Lab.
Music Mark – Home Learning Resources	EYFS–Year 6, with adult selection	A collection of links to music activities and resources from different providers.

Making the most of music at home: Clap the beat of a favourite song, take turns copying short rhythms or create music to accompany a story. Listen to different styles and discuss what you notice. Useful questions include “Which instruments can you hear?”, “Is the music fast or slow?”, “How does it change?” and “What does it make you imagine?” Encourage children to explain their preferences and enjoy performing their ideas for others.

Information for families: Age ranges are suggested starting points. Some resources were designed for schools and may need an adult to select or adapt them for home use. Many activities are free, while some websites offer optional paid resources, apps or memberships.

Intent, Implementation and Impact

Intent

At The Rosary Catholic Primary School, we believe that music is a unique way of communicating that can inspire and motivate children. It is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity.

In delivering the National curriculum, we provide opportunities for all children to create, play, perform and enjoy music, and to develop the skills to critically appreciate a wide variety of musical forms. This, in turn, will increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement.

To have a sense of curiosity and enjoyment

To encourage our children’s understanding and enjoyment of music through an active involvement in listening, composing and performing

To have experience of Cultural Capital in a variety of different forms

To be inspired by the experiences and achievements of past musicians, composers, singers and songwriters
To show children how music is influenced by the time, place and purpose for which it was written

To be resilient, independent and self-motivated pupils

To ensure high-quality music education engages and inspires pupils to develop a love of music and begin/develop their talent as musicians

To ask questions and to problem solve

To be curious and ask questions about the style of music, where in the world it is from and when it was written
To evaluate their singing and playing of musical instruments to develop their confidence and techniques

To be global citizens of the twenty first century

To ensure children understand the value and importance of music in the wider community and are able to use their musical skills, knowledge, and experiences to involve themselves in music, in a variety of different contexts

To make comparisons between different eras and civilisations and how the social and cultural impacts changed the style and development of music
To develop the vocabulary of music: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations

Our intention is that our pupils will leave The Rosary Catholic Primary School with a love of music and desire to continue developing their talents as musicians.

Implementation

A Bespoke Curriculum: At The Rosary, we use the ‘Charanga Music School’ Scheme of work which supports all of the requirements of the National Curriculum and gives children access to a wide range of musical concepts and experiences. The ‘Charanga Musical School’ Scheme provides teachers with week-by-week lesson support for each year group in the school. It is ideal for specialist and non- specialist teachers and provides lesson plans, assessment, clear progression, and engaging and exciting whiteboard resources to support every lesson.

The Scheme supports all the requirements of the new National Curriculum and is absolutely in line with published OFSTED guidance. The learning within this scheme is based on: Listening and Appraising; Musical Activities - creating and exploring; and Singing and Performing.

Cross Curricular Links: The teaching of Music enhances other curriculum areas. Great care has been taken to create unique Music lessons outside of the ‘Charanga Music School’ Scheme of work, to link with certain topics taught in other subjects (History, Geography and Science). For example, in Year 4 History the children learn about the Ancient Egyptians. To enhance this learning within music lessons, teachers can choose for them to study Ancient Egyptian instruments. The children can also learn about the importance of music and dance in Ancient Egypt, and how these were highly valued for funerary banquets and religious processions. This, in turn, can lead onto their studying of the gods, and how the Egyptians celebrated their gods through dance.

Linked Learning in all Year groups:

Progression throughout ‘Charanga Music School’ reinforces the interrelated dimensions of music.

With each new song, the children start again with the foundation of pulse, then rhythm, then pitch, adding new dimensions as they progress.

This represents an ever increasing spiral of musical learning.

Enriching the Music Curriculum: We believe that music enriches the lives of people, and so we wish to involve as many children as possible in musical activities. We have a school choir - which we encourage children from year 5 and 6 onwards to join. The choir meets on a weekly basis and, although its primary aim is to enable children to enjoy singing together, it also performs in public on a number of occasions throughout the year, such as Young Voices, and School/Parish Fairs. The school choir also sings at School Masses.

We also provide other special opportunities for children in all year groups to perform, such as in class assemblies, Christmas Productions (Juniors and Infants) and Summer Productions (Year 6).

Children in all Year groups are given the opportunity to learn how to play the guitar delivered by a peripatetic teacher and paid for by parents.

In addition, children in Year 3 receive ukulele lessons for 1 term with a specialist teacher. This is to promote a love of learning how to play a musical instrument, which they will hopefully continue.

Pedagogy: Our main teaching focuses on developing the children’s ability to sing in tune and with other people. Children are taught to make music together, to understand musical notation, and to compose pieces. They are also taught to sing and play in time controlling the sound and pace. They are taught different ways to represent sounds graphically and symbolically.

Inclusion: We teach music to all children, whatever their ability and individual needs. Through our music teaching we provide learning opportunities that enable all pupils to make progress. We do this by setting suitable learning challenges and responding to each child’s different need.

We strive hard to meet the needs of those pupils with special educational needs, those with disabilities, those with special gifts and talents, and those learning English as an additional language, and we take all reasonable steps to achieve this.

Reading and composing music: Pupils are given plentiful opportunities to read and compose their own music. Within the ‘Charanga Music School’ children can:

create their own simple melodies using a variety of different notes.
Plan and create a section of music that can be performed in front of their peers. 
Talk about how it was created.
Listen to and reflect upon the developing composition and make musical decisions about pulse, rhythm, pitch, dynamics and tempo.
Record the composition in any way appropriate that recognises the connection between sound and symbol (e.g. graphic/pictorial notation).

Impact

We measure the impact of the Music Curriculum in the following ways:

In-Class Feedback: Teachers provide immediate verbal feedback to pupils in class and identify misconceptions as they occur. Children are also given opportunities to watch performances by their peers and give feedback.

Assessment: We follow Charanga’s Musical School Assessment Framework, which enables teachers in England to respond to Ofsted’s key lines of enquiry concerning the Intent, Implementation and Impact of music education in their school.

We assess children's knowledge and understanding by questioning, listening and observation of performance in class as an on-going process. Recorded performances (audio or video) are excellent means of keeping evidence within this subject.

At the end of a unit of work, the teacher makes a summary judgement about the work of each pupil in relation to the National Curriculum level of attainment.

School reports: School reports are issued at the end of the school year.

At The Rosary Catholic Primary School we believe that music education is integral for children to develop their individual skills, sharing experience and cooperating with others. Engaging in music has supported children in developing their speech and encourages strengthening of bonds with their classmates.

In short, it supports our desire to:

Aspire, Believe, Achieve: Together in Christ.

21^st Century World; 21^st Century Learners

Useful Websites