At Willowcroft Community School, our aim is for children to become confident and competent musicians. Through the enjoyment of creating, performing and experimenting with different genres of music.

Music is taught throughout each term using Charanga and is embedded into each Year group’s topic through the LEAP curriculum, and in stand-alone events. Children have the opportunity to listen and appraise different genres of music and types of instruments. Explore and create music through playing musical instruments, improvisation and composition. Learn to sing confidently and tunefully, whilst performing different types of musical pieces. This allows our children to have an enriching musical experience throughout their time at Willowcroft, building their confidence and skills in every Year group.

In Class Music Activities

Throughout the school, music is taught weekly in all Key Stages and reflect the Year group's topic each term. Each class use Charanga to assist with this and allows the childrens knowledge and skills to continuously develop throughout the school.

In Foundation Stage, music lessons will include singing, rhythm games and use of instruments, both in structured activities and free play. Music is used to support other areas of the curriculum e.g. singing nursery rhymes to develop Literacy skills and clapping rhythms through counting in Maths.

In KS1 the children continue to develop their singing, rhythm skills and use of classroom percussion instruments through musical games and creative music investigating. All KS1 children have a weekly music lessons which are embedded into the topics. This introduces them to developing initial skills in singing, playing instruments and listening to different kinds of music.

In Lower KS2, the children continue to have a weekly topic lessons with music embedded. The children enjoy learning about different instruments, technical language and a variety of historical musical pieces. They will learn to listen and appraise different pieces of music, as well as, creating their own music pieces using different instruments.

In Upper KS2, the children will continue to develop their skills of singing and creating, and furthermore, will begin to think critically about different styles of music throughout history. The childre will be introduced to different composers and will be able to performing confidently to audiences.

Whole School Music Activities

As well as learning music through topic in class, the children will take part in stand alone events, these include:

• Singing Assembly - Every week, the whole school take part in Friday's Singing Assembly. This involves the children learning different songs as an ensemble. They will be introduced to different vocal warm ups and different songs from a variety of genres, such as, pop, rock, blues, etc.
• School Choir - The School Choir is taught through an afterschool club. This will allow the children to focus on learning harmonies, different vocal techniques and performing musical songs. They will perform what they learn at different local events e.g. Summer Fayre.
• IRock - This is a fantastic opportunity for children to build their confidence and their love of playing musical instruments. Children are able to learn a classic rock song every week and perform it in their own bands to the rest of the school at the end of each term.
• Nativity - Foundation Stage and KS1 join to rehearse and perform the Christmas Nativity. They not only tell the story of the birth of Jesus but they also sing a variety of songs through story telling. This is performed to the whole school and parents.
• Christmas Carol Concert - Years 3, 4 and 5 all join together and take part in rehearsing and performing a variety of different Christmas songs for the Carol Concert. These include different songs from the genres: pop, classical, musical and rock, which is performed to the whole school and parents.
• Leaver's Musical - In Year 6 the children will perform in the Leaver's Musical Performance at Cornerstone. In the past, these have included Joseph, Lion King and Mamma Mia, which the children enjoyed learning immensely.

Performing in our Local Community

The choir club have been on tour! We have performed Christmas songs to the elderly at The Meadows care home and Golden Age.

Choir also performed at our Christmas Fair in the main reception, welcoming the visitors.

IRock 

IRock (an independent music service) provides rock and pop music lesson in school time to those who have signed up. It provides the children with the opportunity to join their very own rock band! IRock makes learning music fun for every child while also aiding other important skills such as confidence and team work.

Children can choose to play either:

• Drums 
• Electric guitar
• Keyboard 
• Vocals

Willowcroft are very lucky to be able to watch a rock concert performed by the children's bands. The whole  school and parents are invited to attend. The children showcased what they had been learning during their weekly IRock sessions and provided us all with a morning of entertainment. We were all very impressed with what they had learned and the confidence shown in stage by all children. Teachers and children certainly left with a beat in their step!

To register your child a place with IRock please visit www.irockschool.com/parents or email IRock on info@irockschool.com