‘Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand.’

Stevie Wonder

In preparing children for life beyond High Halden and ensuring they access a broad and rich curriculum, we aim to provide our students with a firm understanding of the value of music and its importance in the wider community. In addition, through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, analysing and composing their own pieces, the music curriculum develops children’s musical skills and allows them to apply these in a range of different contexts. Where possible, links are made between music and other subjects to establish a deeper meaning to learning and demonstrate how music is applicable in a variety of contexts and cultures. 

At High Halden, we strive to ensure music lessons are lively and interactive and aim to foster a passion for music in children of all abilities. To provide opportunities for our children to flourish as musicians, we use the Charanga music programme of study. Within the scheme, each unit of learning builds upon the last and comprises of the strands of musical learning which correspond with the national curriculum for music: 

• Listening and Appraising
• Musical Activities such as; Warm-up Games, Optional Flexible Games, Singing, Playing instruments, Improvisation and Composition
• Performing

Charanga Musical School Units of Work enable children to understand musical concepts through a repetition-based approach to learning. Learning about the same musical concept through different musical activities enables a more secure, deeper learning and mastery of musical skills.

The children participate in singing, tuned and untuned percussion work, composition, and listening to live and recorded music. All children are taught the skills to be able to compose using musical instruments. When the children are in Years 1 and 2, musical notation is introduced through the learning and playing of recorders and children across school are taught correct musical terminology e.g. rhythm, melody, pitch, dynamics. Children build upon this knowledge throughout their time in the school, exploring and appreciating different genres of music, whilst also learning instruments such as the glokenspeil and ukulele. 

Singing is a highly important part of our music curriculum. Weekly singing assemblies take place to teach children how to sing with a sense of pitch and melody. They are taught how to warm up their voices, sing in rounds and harmony, and build up a repertoire of songs. Children also have opportunities to perform at events across the year such as community events, class performances and whole school church services.