Do not fear mistakes - there are none
At Penwortham, we aim to provide the children with a culturally rich education that embeds a diverse music curriculum across the different key stages. Throughout their musical journey, children will develop a range of skills to build their self-expression and confidence. From Early Years through to Year 6 the children, we actively promote a lifelong love for music.
Click the image below for a one page overview of music in our school.
What do the children learn and when?
Please click the link below to see our progression map:
How do we teach music?
At Penwortham, music is embedded throughout the curriculum to contribute to the children receiving an enriching and inclusive education. The children will be exposed to a wide range of musical styles through performance, appraisal and composition. Through active listening to music from different cultures, the children will develop their musical understanding and appreciation.
Music lessons include a combination of instrumental and vocal elements. Throughout their time at Penwortham, the children will have experience playing instruments from many different instrumental families including percussion, strings and woodwind. During curriculum music lessons, there is a focus on the teaching and learning of key skills which are embedded and built upon year after year. Children will be supported in developing technical control when producing sounds, whether this is their voices or an instrument.
Musical learning isn’t confined to curriculum music lessons. The children will also be given the opportunity to explore music within other subject areas. This might include creating soundscapes to support the development of vocabulary during English lessons or learning topic-related songs to embed wider curricular knowledge.
The children also have many opportunities to further their musical education outside of the classroom. This includes weekly singing assemblies, choir for years 4,5 and 6, and private tuition provided by Wandsworth music. We also aim to provide many opportunities for the children to see music in the wider community. This might include trips to concert venues in the City or specialists coming into the school to perform.
Children at Penwortham have the opportunity to take part in many exciting musical opportunities, including hands-on music lessons, one-to-one instrumental tuition and many other opportunities within the school and in the wider world.
The year 5 cohort of 2020-21 took part in the Wandsworth Singing Project, which brought together schools from across the borough in a celebration of different music styles and genres.
You can see the virtual concert here! https://wandsworthmusic.co.uk/summershowcase/
Year 6 put on an all-singing, all-dancing version of Bugsy Malone!
Penwortham Choir - Years 4-6
The choir meet once each week for 45 minutes. Pupils develop strong vocal techniques, learn to harmonise and work on performance skills and etiquette.
Pupils get to sing and perform a variety of songs and are given lots of opportunities to perform including at the Young Voices concert at the O2 arena, London. They have also performed at the Wandsworth Mayor’s Carol Concert and at our Music Extravaganza at the start of the Summer term. Many choir members go onto perform in choirs at their secondary schools.
Children have the opportunity to play and explore instruments during in-class music lessons.
What children say about Music at Penwortham