Music
Our music curriculum is designed to produce well rounded musicians who will be well prepared to meet the requirements of Key Stage 3 music once they move onto high school and beyond.
- Children are taught how to perform confidently, develop their individual creative voice through composition and listen attentively and analytically to music across all Key Stages.
- Each year our curriculum aims to build upon certain key principles. These include: rhythm and tempo; pitch and harmony; dynamics and significant current and historical figures/works.
- New knowledge and skills are presented to the children as a way to access exciting new learning experiences, with lessons centred around creative and exploratory activities. This organic development of skills and knowledge allows for flexibility for children’s different start points. Children are always being challenged.
- Staff receive support and CPD from a designated specialist subject leader to ensure high standards.
We are delighted, since 2020, to have been nominated as a Music Mark School in recognition of our commitment to delivering high quality music education.
At Norbury, Music is very highly valued by all stakeholders, from our pupils to our Governors, including our lunchtime staff, who choose and play music to the children whilst they eat.
Our broad and varied music curriculum reflects the need for singing in every lesson and all teachers have access to an online Song Bank to support all areas of the curriculum.
The curriculum also reflects how we value the Cultural Capital of our school, both in sharing British Culture and connecting with the many different cultures of children at Norbury. Most lessons include composition, improvisation and the appreciation of music from around the world and over time. An example is how we learn songs in many different languages from around the world: EYFS/Year 1 – Spanish; Year 2 – 6 - Hindi, African, various languages and dialects, Romanian, Polish, French, German, Arabic, Ivrit, Jamaican and many others.
We listen to the National Anthems of all of our Stakeholders, and explore composers from many different backgrounds and countries in addition to the more widely known European composers.
In order to understand the music of British Culture, trips are made to the Royal Festival Hall twice each year, in London, where children have the invaluable experience of hearing a live orchestra playing excerpts from music by well known composers and repertoire.
We also encourage our alumni musicians to visit and perform. In addition, we have an ongoing Singing Project with Harrow School, whereby a Choral Scholar teaches children from years 5 & 6 English Choral Repertoire, including recently performing an opera in the Harrow School Speech Room.
Our KS2 Choir is extremely popular and performs regularly in Harrow at various venues e.g. at Barclays Bank, Harrow Winter Party and in our UNICEF performances every December.
All children have full access to group instrumental lessons from year 3 upwards should they wish, and as we are very proud of our Performing Arts Suite, children from Reception through to year 6 have their music lessons in this room.
Music at Norbury not only provides an opportunity for children to understand and engage with the language of music, but there is a Lead Practitioner who specialises in Music Education, demonstrating the commitment of the Leadership to very high quality Music lessons. The Music curriculum is exciting, practical, informative and challenging, preparing children to access Key Stage 3 music, as well as having an understanding and appreciation of many different cultures.
In the past we have had 3 children progress to The Purcell School – a specialist music school in Watford, some of whom visit Norbury and perform, in order to inspire the children at Norbury. There have also been musicians at Norbury who have been awarded the Mayor’s special award for commitment and progress.
The music curriculum is completely inclusive and all children are able to access and progress throughout their time at Norbury. We are also proud to have renewed our Artsmark accreditation this year.
Photos of Music at Norbury
Curriculum Overview
Curriculum Progression
