Music

Music curriculum overview 23-24

Music Policy 23-24

Music Progression 23-24

Welcome to music at Grimsargh St. Michael’s!

Our aim is to provide our children with fun and engaging music lessons; confidence in their musical knowledge and skills, an understanding of diversity in music, opportunities for them to express themselves, and most importantly, to have fun!

We will expose our children to a diverse range of music genres from different countries, giving them opportunities to develop their confidence in music, through our three BIG ideas:

  • Explore: I am a musician because I can listen to and appreciate a range of different musical styles, genres, instruments and songs.

  • Compose: I am a musician because I can begin to create my own pieces of music influenced by music I have heard and explored. 

  • Perform: I am a musician because I like to perform pieces of music that I have created and develop my confidence. 


Miss Lemmings is our Music lead. Please contact her via the school office (01772 653600) with any queries or questions.

If you wish to sign up for music instrumental lessons, please contact the office for information about tuition through Lancashire Music Service. Alternatively, lots of children enjoy music lessons through “RockSteady” (learning to be in a rockband!). Here is a poster of information of how to sign up: Rocksteady Sign up letter 2024

Click here to read the National Curriculum: Music Programmes of Study.


We followCharanga – New Model Music Curriculum” music scheme (Charanga Scheme Overview), which offers fantastic music lessons for our pupils in all year groups, in-line with the National Curriculum and including the updated EYFS Statutory Framework. Charanga teaches children to use the four key skills in music:

  • Performing – controlling sounds through singing and playing instruments

  • Composing – creating and developing musical ideas based on musical knowledge

  • Appraising – responding to how music makes them feel, reviewing their own and others’ compositions

  • Listening – identifying sounds and techniques used in music

Music taught at St. Michael’s incorporates the National Curriculum goals and helps our children develop a love for music and performance!

The National Curriculum states that, “music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon.

As a school we are proud to teach music that encompasses these curriculum aims. Below are some photos of some of the things we have been up to recently! 

11.01.24: Year 4 have enjoyed composing short motifs of music with Mrs Maddocks using their clarinets this term. Here they are working hard with different rhythm patterns! They enjoyed performing their compositions for their friends, that included new elements of their learning on the clarinet. 

13.12.23: Our “Rock Steady” rock bands showcased the skills they have been learning this term. We loved listening to them and seeing some new faces in our bands this term! 

11.07.23: Our “Rock Steady” rock bands performed their newest songs and showed us all of their hard work from this year! We really enjoyed listening to their songs and we can see how much progress they have made in their skills and confidence! 🙂 Well done Rock Stars! We hope for lots more children to sign up next year and take part in this exciting opportunity. 

28.03.23: Our “Rock Steady” rock bands performed their songs for the school and their parents today! They were really confident and played really well – we loved it and enjoyed singing along with them! Lots more of us want to be in a rock band now (including parents and teachers!!). If you click on the photos you will be able to see them bigger – here are some photos of our rock bands performing and group shot of our rock stars at the end!

22.03.23: Our choir took part in the “Last Choir Singing” competition at King George’s Hall, Blackburn, after school. We competed against lots of other schools and really enjoyed taking part! The children sung their hearts out and we can’t wait to get even better and have another go next year! Here are some pictures that we had taken on the night – if you click on the photos you will be able to see them better. 🙂

27.09.22
Rock Steady came to deliver a rock music workshop for us which was absolutely fantastic! Here are some photos from this fantastic afternoon. Well done to the children who were really brave and came up to perform on the drums, keyboard, electric guitar, and microphone! 

Whole Class Instrumental Lessons

Children in Year 4 have the fantastic opportunity of learning the clarinet together as a class, with a specialist teacher from the Lancashire Music Hub! The pupils really enjoy working together as a class with Mrs Maddocks and learning pieces of music with their classmates, and then showcasing it to the school and parents!

Individual Instrumental Lessons

Some children at our school choose to take part in extra music tuition in learning a musical instrument in private lessons from The Lancashire Music Hub! We have specialist teachers who come from Lancashire Music Hub to deliver this tuition.

As well as this, following our Rock performance workshop in September 2022 from ‘Rock Steady’, we are now also offering and delivering rock band group instrumental lessons on the electric guitar, drums, keyboard and bass! Please ask at the office or ask Miss Lemmings if your child is interesting in ‘Letting Their Light Shine’ through music while learning something new! We have lots of different instruments on offer. 

07.12.22 Here are some pictures of some of our ‘Rockstars’ in action! They are really enjoying their rock band lessons with Rock Steady. 

School Choir!

Miss Lemmings runs our School Choir every Monday lunchtime 12-12:30! We are busy practicing songs for performances, as well as for standing at the front of hymn practices on Tuesday’s and leading people into celebrations assembly on Friday’s. We are currently entered into a competition called ‘The Last Choir Standing’ and we will compete in the heats in March 2024! So we are busying practicing for this. 

Here is a photo of our GSM Choir Spring 2024 (coming soon)

 

02.12.22 Here we are singing for everyone at the Christmas light switch on at Grimsargh park! 

 

Assemblies & Collective Worship

At St. Michael’s, we enjoy doing weekly key stage hymn practice, as well as including special music in our collective worship time- music that may relate to one of our Christian values, or an event we are thinking about or celebrating. As well as this, we enjoy listening to pieces of music as we come in and out of assemblies. We find that music helps to set the tone, mood, and encourages focus. It also lifts spirits! Our school choir enjoy being at the front of the hall during hymn practices to be the shining singing examples for the rest of the school!