Music: The Language of the Soul!
Music is indeed a universal langauge and, at its best it allows children to develop their artistic and creative skills, while learning to become confident performers. At Mill Lane we continue a strong tradition of musicianship, founded in the roots of the school back in 1974. It is our intent that we make music an enjoyable, memorable learning experience and our aim is to develop a curiosity for the subject. We encourage children to participate in a variety of musical experiences through which we aim to develop confidence in our young people to become performers. Our teaching focuses on developing the children’s ability to understand rhythm and follow a beat. Through singing songs, children learn about the structure and organisation of music. We teach them to listen and to appreciate different forms of music. Children develop descriptive language skills in music lessons when learning about how music can represent different feelings, emotions and narratives. We also teach technical vocabulary such as volume, pitch, beat and rhythm and encourage children to discuss music using these terms.
Music at Mill Lane
Music forms an integral part of every day at Mill Lane. Visitors to the school would be hard-pushed not to experience some form of musical activity whilst walking around the school! Whether it be collective singing together in daily assemblies, singing songs within lessons to help reinforce learning (times table and grammar songs are hits with us!), singing nursery rhymes in the early years, instrumental lessons, festivals, choir practice, or class music sessions, music is all around!
Class music sessions often begin with singing, because singing provides a window of opportunity for everyone to take part and experience the interrelated dimensions of music - pitch, rhythm and dynamics, to name but a few. From this starting point, instruments are weaved into the learning often culminating in a performance of a combined class choir and orchestra. Following recent government music guidance, all pupils will now be able to learn an instrument within their class music sessions - recorder, xylophone & glockenspiel, djembe drums, hand bells and keyboard will all be available to Mill Lane pupils during their years at school here.
Music lessons are taught weekly, following the National Curriculum and focus on progressively developing the following elements:
- Singing - pupils learn to use their voices expressively and creatively, through unison and part singing, including harmonic singing for KS2 pupils;
- Instrumental skills - children learn to play different instruments, exploring the interrelated dimensions of music;
- Composition and Improvisation - children have the opportunity to experiment with sounds and learn how to improvise and compose, both with their voices and instruments. They learn to record their compositions using pictorial and stave notation, and through the use of music technology;
- Listening and Appreciation - children are immersed in a wide variety of music from different genres, both live and recorded, and learn to appraise and understand music using musical vocabulary.
Additional opportunities are offered to children through music tuition lessons provided by the ‘Joyful Music’ company, at an extra cost, in a range of instruments such as piano, guitar, drums, ukulele, violin and recorder. These lessons incorporate teaching musical notation, as well as learning to play an instrument.
Opportunities are taken to perform in class, in assemblies, to parents and to the wider community. Those with a love of singing are able to be part of the school choir, who perform regularly in school, at the O2 arena, Dorchester Abbey and at events in the local community.
The Impact of a Quality Music Education
Whilst in school, children have access to a varied programme, which allows them to discover areas of strength, as well as areas they might like to improve upon. The integral nature of music and the learner creates an enormously rich palette from which a child may access fundamental abilities such as: achievement, self-confidence, interaction with and awareness of others, and self-reflection. Music will also develop an understanding of culture and history, both in relation to children individually, as well as ethnicities from across the world. Children are able to enjoy music in as many ways as they choose – either as listener, creator or performer. They can dissect music and comprehend its parts. They can sing and feel a pulse. They have an understanding of how to further develop skills less known to them, should they ever develop an interest in their lives.
