Intent

It is our vision that children at Knowle Park are given as many opportunities as possible to develop their musicianship and all children are encouraged to be active participants in the musical life of the school.

Our music curriculum and wider provision aim to ensure that children enjoy access to a diverse range of music and music-making opportunities and, importantly, that they are encouraged to view themselves as musicians. Our scheme of work largely follows the Bristol Music Curriculum, with priority placed on providing those of all abilities with music lessons that are enjoyable, practical and interactive.

There are various extra-curricular musical opportunities at Knowle Park - from joining the school choir to learning one of a variety of instruments taught by specialist tutors from Bristol Beacon. We are members of the ‘Bristol Music School’ scheme and enrich our provision by embracing wider musical opportunities for our children through outreach work with local organisations such as Knowle West Media Centre.

Implementation

Music is taught as a discrete subject in every year group but is celebrated as a whole school, with teachers also trying to incorporate music into other subject areas to enhance learning.  In music lessons, children explore the inter-related dimensions of pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

From Reception to Year 6 there is a broad balance of performance, listening and composition opportunities, where children build on previous learning to embed their understanding and develop their musicianship, which includes learning from their mistakes. The inter-related dimensions of music are explored in fun and exciting ways, with all children having the chance to regularly use a variety of musical instruments and experience music from different genres, traditions and from a range of diverse musicians.  High quality whole school singing enables children to come together and celebrate the joy of music, with regular services and performances during the school year also allowing them to share this with family members and the wider community.

Learning an instrument:

We provide accessible and affordable opportunities to learn to play an instrument facilitated by expert tutors from Bristol Beacon. Our specialist tutors complement our music curriculum and enable students to develop the skills they need to make progress throughout the key-stages.

Singing:

Our after-school choir at Knowle Park is run by our expert music teacher. This an un-auditioned group of 40 singers drawn from Years 3 to 6 who sing a wide variety of songs from different musical styles and genres. They are encouraged to sing solos in our performances and are developing the skills of learning to sing in rounds and part harmonies. They perform at our community events, including The Christmas and Summer Fayres and our church services at Christmas and Easter.

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​We also have singing assemblies every Thursday and we sing in unison, in parts and in rounds and sometimes we sing in harmony.

Impact

The children at KPPS will:

• Be introduced to a diverse range of music from around the world.
• Be able to experiment with music and learn from mistakes.
• Have an awareness of pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure
• Understand how musical history and musicians of interest have played a part in history and in the world of music today.
• Celebrate their musical efforts and be able to express themselves with their voices and knowledge of music.