Music
Do not fear mistakes - there are none
Miles Davies
Vision
At Penwortham, we aim to provide the children with a culturally rich music curriculum where children develop a range of skills to build self-expression and confidence. From Nursery to Year 6 we actively promote a lifelong love for music.
Click the image below for a one page overview of music in our school.
What do the children learn and when?
Please click the link below to see our progression map:
How do we teach music?
At Penwortham, music is embedded throughout the curriculum to contribute to the children receiving an enriching and inclusive education. The children will be exposed to a wide range of musical styles through performance, appraisal and composition. Through active listening to music from different cultures, the children will develop their musical understanding and appreciation.
Music lessons are delivered by a music tutor in partnership with Wandsworth Music and include a combination of instrumental and vocal elements. Throughout their time at Penwortham, the children will have experience playing instruments from many different instrumental families including percussion, strings and woodwind. During curriculum music lessons, there is a focus on the teaching and learning of key skills which are embedded and built upon year after year. Children will be supported in developing technical control when producing sounds, whether this is their voices or an instrument.
Through our close partnership with Wandsworth Music we enrich the music offer for our children with:
- Whole Class Ensemble Tuition for Year 4, in which each class learns a woodwind instrument for a whole year guided by experienced tutors. We believe that learning an instrument is one of the most valuable and fulfilling experiences a child can have, one which will hopefully provide them with a skill that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. As well as learning an instrument, the children are able to improve their musicianship skills by playing in an ensemble, learn to read music, and even experience an increased sense of confidence and pride in what they have achieved. Have a look at some of their performances here!
- Singing projects provided by specialist tutors. Through an exciting and challenging repertoire, the children learn proper singing technique, how to sing in parts and, in KS2, introduce harmonies. Click here to see Year 1’s Summer Term performance!
- Many performance opportunities throughout the year, whether as part of the previously mentioned ensembles or with the school choir. Our showpiece event is the Music Extravaganza, in which children from years 4, 5 and 6 get to perform in ensembles or as soloists.
Musical learning isn’t confined to curriculum music lessons. The children will also be given the opportunity to explore music within other subject areas. This might include creating soundscapes to support the development of vocabulary during English lessons or learning topic-related songs to embed wider curricular knowledge.
Our ultimate goal is for children to continue their musical journey outside of regular school hours. This may be by taking up individual lessons in an instrument, forming an ensemble or joining the school choir. Our vision is for music to be a central part of life at Penwortham and for children to take a love of music into secondary school and beyond..
Our learning
Children at Penwortham have the opportunity to take part in many exciting musical opportunities, including hands-on music lessons, one-to-one instrumental tuition and many other opportunities within the school and in the wider world including performances and concerts.
Music Extravaganza each year we celebrate music through an aspirational evening concert which celebrates the musical talent within the school as well as showcasing professional musicians and singers from a diverse background to further develop the aspirations of our pupils. Please click the image below to enjoy some video snippets from last years extravaganza.
Singing Project pupils and staff in Year 1 worked alongside a project coach to deliver a fantastic vocal concert. Please click the images below to enjoy a few moments from the performance.
Young Voices Penwortham Choir (Years 4-6 meet once each week for 45 minutes. Pupils develop strong vocal techniques, learn to harmonise and work on performance skills and etiquette.
Pupils get to sing and perform a variety of songs and are given lots of opportunities to perform including at the Young Voices concert at the O2 arena, London. They have also performed at the Wandsworth Mayor’s Carol Concert and at our Music Extravaganza at the start of the Summer term. Many choir members go onto perform in choirs at their secondary schools.
What children say about Music at Penwortham
Pupil Leaders
Our subject leaders for music are very enthusiastic and always keen to share their love of music with other children in the school.
I think music is really good at Penwortham because we explore loads of different genres of music. You can go anywhere and you’ll always find music. We sometimes listen to music as a way of making us feel better. As a pupil leader, I want to build a community of singers as this can be a place to be proud of yourself - Maya
I love music at Penwortham. We have the choir which is great as we can perform at loads of concerts. It’s a lot of fun! I want children to enjoy music and have fun with it - Ifra
I like that music sings out to you. We explore lots of different styles that mean different things to different people. I would love to start a Penwortham band this year! I can’t wait to help out with all the concerts we do like the Music Extravaganza! - Aara
I love music because there are often hidden messages behind different styles of music. As a pupil leader I want to make music more accessible to children by having instruments in the playground - Amelie