Music at Longstone
Here at Longstone, music is really important to us. There are many opportunities throughout the year for our children to develop and showcase their musical experience and knowledge. As well as having a topic-focused curriculum, which encompasses music, we are extremely lucky to have a range of daily visiting peripatetic teachers, who help our children to learn an instrument from an early age. We also encourage individuals to perform each week in our celebration assembly.
Through both curricular and extra-curricular music we aim to:
Through both curricular and extra-curricular music we aim to:
- Foster a life-long love of music.
- Equip our children with skills that develop their confidence and self-expression.
- Develop the children's understanding and tolerance of others through a wide range of music experience.
- Equip the children with enough music theory in order to facilitate their practical application.
- Equip children with the musical knowledge to flourish at secondary school.
- Expose children to a variety of musical genres and composers.
- Develop the children's skills of performing, composing and appreciating music.
Curricular Music
The following video goes some way to explain how music may benefit your child:
As part of our curriculum, we cover a different topic each half term, so children are exposed to six topics and areas of learning throughout the year. Each area of learning incorporates the skills of performing, composing, musicianship (including music theory), and listening and appraising. By linking music to our topics, we are able to give a broad musical experience to our children, ensuring they are developing an appreciation for music from different genres and cultures.
Our weekly music lessons taught by class teachers involve tapping out rhythms; listening to and describing music from our termly composer, as well as composers that fit with particular topics; playing and performing pieces learnt on a variety of instruments and transcribing music. Children also hear and use musical vocabulary every week, so it soon becomes part of their everyday language.
Our weekly music lessons taught by class teachers involve tapping out rhythms; listening to and describing music from our termly composer, as well as composers that fit with particular topics; playing and performing pieces learnt on a variety of instruments and transcribing music. Children also hear and use musical vocabulary every week, so it soon becomes part of their everyday language.
Topics 2019-2020
Romans
KS1: Children will learn about Romans through song. They will learn and rehearse a song linked to how the Romans lived and they will even begin to change lyrics to showcase their own learning.
KS2: Children will learn how music has changed from the Roman era and they will explore how instruments have changed or stayed the same since this time. They will also compose a piece of music to fit a gladiator movie clip using different beats.
Victorians
KS1/KS2: Children will focus on learning songs in ensemble groups in preparation for our KS1 and KS2 performances. Children will also spend time learning carols for our Carol Concert in church; this will involve learning parts and singing in rounds.
The Great Exhibition
KS1: Children will develop and create their own untuned musical instrument to showcase a rhythm on at the end of the topic.
KS2: Children will develop and create their own tuned musical instrument focusing on pitch this half term. They will also experiment composing a short piece of music using their own instrument.
Our Amazing Earth
KS1: Children will explore pitch through Camille Saint-Saen’s ‘Carnival of the Animals.’ They will also explore how different instruments create different notes and begin to compose their own music to fit their own chosen animal.
KS2: Children will learn the story behind Grieg’s ‘Hall of the Mountain King.’ They will rehearse and perform this piece using our new keyboards – those who are confident will play both treble and bass clef.
South American History (The Maya Civilization)
KS1: Children will learn a song called ‘The Hummingbird.’ They will then compose a backing rhythm to go with the song using different beats.
KS2: Children will explore the history of music through Jazz and Blues, linked to American culture. They will learn features of Jazz and Blues and then use these features to compose their own music.
Ancient Greeks (including The Olympics)
KS1: Children will learn different drumming rhythms and they will compose a simple piece together by combining rhythms.
KS2: Children will again focus on the history of music and how it has developed from ancient music to modern. They will learn drumming rhythms and compose a piece of music using a variety of rhythms and overlap.
KS1: Children will learn about Romans through song. They will learn and rehearse a song linked to how the Romans lived and they will even begin to change lyrics to showcase their own learning.
KS2: Children will learn how music has changed from the Roman era and they will explore how instruments have changed or stayed the same since this time. They will also compose a piece of music to fit a gladiator movie clip using different beats.
Victorians
KS1/KS2: Children will focus on learning songs in ensemble groups in preparation for our KS1 and KS2 performances. Children will also spend time learning carols for our Carol Concert in church; this will involve learning parts and singing in rounds.
The Great Exhibition
KS1: Children will develop and create their own untuned musical instrument to showcase a rhythm on at the end of the topic.
KS2: Children will develop and create their own tuned musical instrument focusing on pitch this half term. They will also experiment composing a short piece of music using their own instrument.
Our Amazing Earth
KS1: Children will explore pitch through Camille Saint-Saen’s ‘Carnival of the Animals.’ They will also explore how different instruments create different notes and begin to compose their own music to fit their own chosen animal.
KS2: Children will learn the story behind Grieg’s ‘Hall of the Mountain King.’ They will rehearse and perform this piece using our new keyboards – those who are confident will play both treble and bass clef.
South American History (The Maya Civilization)
KS1: Children will learn a song called ‘The Hummingbird.’ They will then compose a backing rhythm to go with the song using different beats.
KS2: Children will explore the history of music through Jazz and Blues, linked to American culture. They will learn features of Jazz and Blues and then use these features to compose their own music.
Ancient Greeks (including The Olympics)
KS1: Children will learn different drumming rhythms and they will compose a simple piece together by combining rhythms.
KS2: Children will again focus on the history of music and how it has developed from ancient music to modern. They will learn drumming rhythms and compose a piece of music using a variety of rhythms and overlap.
Composers 2019-2020
Below are the termly composers we will focus on across school, as well as some composers that fit with our topics:
Autumn: Handel, Williams
Spring: Bach, Saint-Saen, Grieg
Summer: Beethoven
Autumn: Handel, Williams
Spring: Bach, Saint-Saen, Grieg
Summer: Beethoven
Music Gallery
Instrumental lessons
We have a designated practice room that our peripatetic teachers use for lessons on a daily basis. Instrumental lessons currently taught to our children are:
If your child is interested in having instrumental lessons with one of our teachers, please contact the school office.
Note: usually, lessons are considered appropriate for children in Y2 upwards but this depends on the individual.
- Piano
- Voice
- Drums
- Guitar
- Bass Guitar
- Violin
- Cello
- Woodwind - flute and clarinet
- Brass - trumpet, cornet, trombone and french horn
If your child is interested in having instrumental lessons with one of our teachers, please contact the school office.
Note: usually, lessons are considered appropriate for children in Y2 upwards but this depends on the individual.
Our Special Longstone School 75th VE Day Video
Music is so important to us at Longstone School, that we have still been incorporating it, where possible, during the lockdown of 2020. We proved that even when apart you can create a musical masterpiece!