'Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything’ - Plato

Music is not only a National Curriculum Primary subject but it is an integral part of life at St Lawrence Catholic Primary School. From class worship to class assemblies, from hymn practice to school concerts – music is everywhere! Music opens pathways for all pupils from Nursery to Year 6: to gain self-confidence, grow their creativity and develop a sense of achievement.

At St Lawrence, we enable pupils to perform, listen to, review and evaluate music - both the works of composers and musicians and the works of themselves and their peers. Pupils are also enabled to learn to sing and to play musical instruments both on their own and with others through improvisation and composing. Our teaching of Music encourages pupils to not only gain a lifelong love of, and interest in Music, but to support cross-curricular learning in other National Curriculum subjects too, in particular Mathematics (e.g. number rhymes) and Literacy (e.g. days of the week song).

From Year 1 to Year 6, we teach weekly Music lessons using the ‘Charanga’ scheme, which is informed by the national and model music curriculum. Charanga is a highly interactive and modern online resource which supports the National Curriculum aims for Music and enables excellent teaching. The scheme allows pupils to engage in games which teach pupils to understand and explore music through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

Each unit of work, for each year group, gives pupils access to a wide range of music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions. The scheme encourages pupils to express themselves through their voices and movements and through playing both tuned (e.g. glockenspiels) and untuned (e.g. maracas, tambourines) instruments.

Children in our Early Years phase follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. In Expressive Arts and Design, the development of children’s artistic and cultural awareness supports their imagination and creativity. In Nursery, 3 and 4-year-olds will be learning to: listen with increased attention to sounds, respond to what they have heard, expressing their thoughts and feelings, create their own songs or improvise and play instruments. Children in reception will be learning to: listen attentively, move to and talk about music, expressing their feelings and responses, watch and talk about dance and performance art, expressing their feelings and responses, sing in a group or on their own and explore and engage in music making and dance.

In KS2, pupils in Years 3 and 5 have the amazing opportunity to learn Ukulele and Recorder through the Hounslow Music Service in which they have weekly lessons.  

Alongside our Music curriculum, pupils have plentiful extra-curricular opportunities for music too. In addition to the weekly Music lessons, KS2 pupils (years 4 - 6) are offered the opportunity to learn guitar in a small group setting. There is also an after-school choir club and a morning musical theatre club for all KS2 pupils. They have various opportunities to perform for their peers and families throughout the year.