Music and Art & Design

Music

As you being to realise that different types of music, everybody’s individual music, has it’s own rhythm, life, language and heritage, you realise how life changes, and you learn how to be more open and adaptive to what is around us.

Yo-Yo Ma

Intent

Through experiencing music at Baydon pupils can discover that music is practical and creative. We believe that music is a unique way of communicating that can inspire and motivate individuals,  it gives an opportunity for personal expression and plays an important part in the personal development. Music reflects our culture and society, historically and in the present and through the teaching of music we aim for our pupils to to have a greater understanding of the world they live in. 

We strive to promote enthusiasm for and enjoyment of, music in all its forms and also to develop musical skills and knowledge through lessons and performance experiences and opportunities. 

Through experiencing our music curriculum we want pupils to develop life skills such as listening skills, the ability to concentrate, creativity, self-confidence and a sensitivity towards others.

Music is taught throughout all year groups. The aims and objectives from the National Curriculum have been taken and covered through our four year rolling long term plan which aims, whenever possible, to derive and relate to other curriculum areas to provide pupils with a more in depth and cohesive view of their areas of learning. 

For our curriculum we have adapted the Kapow Primary units of work, and have organised them into a long term plan. The scheme of work is organised around the strands below during study. The scheme also encompasses Reception learning into its programme.

The Strands 

The scheme identifies the inter-related dimensions of music as:

• Pitch
• Duration
• Dynamics
• Tempo
• Timbre
• Texture
• Structure
• Appropriate musical notation

Inter-related dimensions of music is the overarching strand throughout the scheme.

Instrumental Tuition 

We offer the option for pupils to receive instrumental tuition at school. Music tuition is reviewed annually according to need. Currently lessons for keyboard, drums and brass take place in school. These lessons are a paid service.

Art and Design

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

Pablo Picasso

Intent
Through experiencing art and design at Baydon pupils will be encouraged to develop an appreciation of the place of art in the world today, and in the past, and be able express thoughts, feelings and their identity through exploring a range of activities during their primary years. Areas of exploration will provide opportunities to learn, hone and refine skills, to develop resilience when products don’t at first match their visions, to inspire. End products the pupils can value and have pride in their creations. Pupils will gain understanding that art can be developed from a range of starting points, from being inspired by others, poetry, music, and the world around them.

Art and Design is taught throughout all year groups. At our school we have chosen to use the scheme of work developed by Access Art for our pupils. The aims and objectives from the National Curriculum through Access Art are covered through our four year rolling long term plan. We have chosen AccessArt to teach art to our pupils as it designed to inspire and enable high quality visual arts teaching and learning. We agree with AccessArt that art is far more than a series of technical skills, and their holistic curriculum nurtures creative thinking skills and helps ensure pupils learn through art, as well as about art.

The AccessArt Primary Art Curriculum is knowledge-rich, and pupils will learn a wide range of skills, developing understanding and showing clear progression. But crucially, the knowledge and understanding pupils will build will go far beyond the technical, factual knowledge many current curriculums focus upon. Our curriculum balances declarative knowledge with experiential knowledge, building self-knowledge and nurturing traits in learners which will hold them in good stead whichever direction their learning takes them.

Each term pupils explore art and artists through a pathway focus. These pathways are met each year to embed and further learning, skills and knowledge. The pathways follow a repeated rhythm, providing lots of time to balance repeated practice with new experiences, quiet approaches with active and dynamic activities, time to work alone with collaborative and community based activities… all geared to create energy and momentum throughout the year.

Pathways revisited each year include: Drawing and Sketchbooks; Print, Colour, College; Working in Three Dimensions (visited twice  in a year); Paint, Surface, Texture; and Collaboration & Community. Each time a pathway is visited/revisited it will consist of warm-up (Artists: Activity: Crit/Reflection), artists (Materials: Activity: Crit/Reflection), challenge or Brief (Artist: Activity: Crit/Reflection).

Links with Artists

One area in particular that was attractive to our school to adopt the AccessArt materials for use within our school was the inclusion of a diverse wide range of artists, designers and craftspeople from across the world ensuring that pupils at Baydon have the ability to experience the world beyond our village doorstep.

Below is an example of progression in school, with the final products in a recent sculpture topic.

Expanding Horizons (Cultural Capital)

Through art lessons we aim to:

• Embrace the British creative industry and rich heritage
• Creative thinking skills
• Creating children’s cultural referencing through art (society, changing of times)
• Multi-cultural, artists from around the world, global art
• Styles, (abstract)