Music at All Saints
"Where words fail, music speaks."
— Hans Christian Andersen
Intent
As a Christian school, music plays a vital role in worship at All Saints Primary School, enriching both whole-school collective worship and classroom reflection. As a universal language that expresses faith, community, and creativity, music forms an integral part of our daily school life.
Our curriculum is designed to help pupils recognise themselves as musicians and nurture a lifelong love of music. We equip children with the skills, knowledge, and understanding needed to become confident performers, composers, and listeners. By introducing music from across the world, we cultivate respect and appreciation for diverse traditions and communities.
Beyond artistic expression, music is a powerful tool for personal, social, and emotional growth. It builds self-reliance, confidence, self-esteem, and a sense of personal achievement. Through collaborative music-making, pupils learn to relate to others, express emotion, and reflect on their place in the wider world. Furthermore, music develops key transferable skills—such as teamwork, leadership, creative problem-solving, and performance abilities—that enhance learning and serve pupils well throughout their lives.
We aim to:
- Provide a variety of enjoyable experiences to build self-esteem, confidence and self-discipline as well as to nurture creativity.
- Improve pupil’s learning, confidence, health and social development through including singing in their everyday lives.
- Develop the interrelated skills of performing, composing and appreciating music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians.
- Teach how music is composed, produced and recorded through the interrelated dimensions, pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture and structure and different musical notations.
- Provide opportunities for pupils to create, improvise and compose music on their own and with others and play tuned and unturned percussion instruments musically.
- Use technology appropriately to support, capture and enhance pupil’s creativity and performance
- Provide pupils with the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument from specialist instrumental music teachers or as part of a whole class ensemble in/out of school.
- Provide performance and sharing opportunities outside the classroom to enrich musical experience.
Implementation
Teachers use the Kapow Primary Music Scheme of Work.
The Kapow Primary scheme structures music teaching through five core strands:
- Performing (Singing and playing tuned/untuned instruments)
- Improvising and Composing
- Listening and Evaluating
- Notation
- History of Music & Inter-related Dimensions
In EYFS music is integrated through Expressive Arts and Design and continuous provision, focusing on pulse, rhythm, listening, and vocal exploration.
KS1 & KS2: Music is taught as a discrete weekly subject in structured blocks, using Kapow’s dynamic media resources and video modelling to support subject delivery.
Music is an inclusive subject open to all children regardless of background, ability, or special educational needs (SEND). Kapow’s lessons provide differentiated approaches, sensory options and adaptive activities so that every pupil can access the curriculum and express themselves.
Singing is an integral part of school life and children sing daily in worship; children also take part in a once weekly singing practice. At the end of each term, classes perform to parents, productions to celebrate different occasions such as Christmas, Easter and leaver’s assemblies. Our KS2 pupils to take part in the annual singing concert with the other schools in our academy. In addition to this we are proud to take part in Young Voices, the largest children’s choir concerts in the world, bringing together primary schools from across the UK in a truly electrifying experience. Through these unforgettable events, children discover their voices, grow in confidence, and feel part of something extraordinary – all while inspiring a lifelong love of music.
Pupil are offered the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument. These lessons are provided by visiting specialist instrumental teachers.
The Music Progression of skills and knowledge document provides an overview of the skills and knowledge covered in each phase and strand. It also outlines how these skills are developed to enable pupils to reach the end-of-key-stage outcomes outlined in the National curriculum. New learning is weighted toward the beginning of each key stage, allowing for regular opportunities to revisit, consolidate and apply it in subsequent years. As a result, knowledge and skill development may appear more concentrated in some year groups than others.
Lessons in Music provide rich opportunities for developing oracy, particularly through singing, group performance and musical discussion. Pupils learn to control their voice, adjusting pitch, dynamics and tone to sing expressively and clearly; an essential foundation for confident spoken communication. Pupils are encouraged to think aloud, question and reflect on what they hear and create. Through activities such as evaluating performances, discussing musical choices and exploring the meaning behind lyrics or compositions, they develop their ability to articulate opinions, justify decisions and engage in collaborative dialogue.
Assessment and recording
Formative assessment is embedded throughout Kapow Primary Music lessons to ensure that teachers can gauge pupils’ understanding in real time and adapt their teaching accordingly.
- Questioning – Lesson plans include targeted and open-ended questions to check understanding, promote critical thinking and address misconceptions.
- Observation – Teachers are supported to observe pupils during tasks, noting how they approach activities, collaborate and apply geographical skills.
- Discussion and peer interaction – Pair and group discussions are built into lessons, providing opportunities for pupils to articulate their thinking and for teachers to assess understanding through dialogue.
- Lesson pauses – Plans include strategic pause points for checking comprehension, summarising learning and addressing any common errors before progressing.
- Retrieval practice – Recap activities, such as short recall tasks and oral explanations, are embedded to reinforce prior knowledge and assess retention.
- Use of success criteria – Success criteria are shared within lessons, allowing pupils to self-assess or peer-assess their work and reflect on their progress.
- Short reflections in the Wrapping up – Lessons end with brief written or verbal reflections, enabling pupils to consolidate learning and teachers to gauge understanding.
Floor books are used to capture collaborative learning in a creative and expressive way to demonstrate children’s learning journey in music.