Music

Music Policy

“The arts at Sandcross develop the whole child by providing an enjoyable, engaging creative journey, which all children have the freedom to explore.”

Intent

At Sandcross we believe that music is an essential part of a broad and balanced education for all children.  Music develops the whole child by providing an enjoyable, engaging and creative experience that every child can access.  

We aim to create an environment where children enjoy exploring their own creativity and develop an understanding, knowledge and appreciation of music from different cultures and periods of history.  We aspire to foster a love of singing by making it part of every child’s school life through all the key stages.  We equip children with musical skills in performing, composing, actively listening, reviewing and evaluating music.  These are developed sequentially over modules of work. 

Children develop key social skills working in teams, learning to communicate, listening to each other, cooperating and taking responsibility for their own contributions to work.

We aim to offer high quality live music experiences and performance opportunities through assemblies, school productions and concerts.  We hope to inspire them to develop a life-long appreciation of music.

Implementation

All year groups receive weekly or fortnightly music lessons. All lessons provide opportunities to listen, appraise, perform and compose, with a clear progression of skills across the year groups. Most lessons are discreet, unless there is an obvious link with a topic. Lessons in the lower school are provided by Grooveline. 

Phased singing assemblies regularly provide an opportunity for children to develop their singing skills. Alongside this, listening opportunities are provided, with questions to develop the children’s music vocabulary. In class, children have an opportunity from Year 1-6 to develop instrumental skills as they learn how to play the recorder, glockenspiel and ukulele in different year groups.  In year 4, all children learn the trumpet for a term and a half, led by an experienced peripatetic teacher. There are regular opportunities for our children to perform to audiences: celebration assemblies, class assemblies, Christmas concerts and nativities, Y2 play, Harvest, Easter, the Y6 play, and the Y6 Leavers’ assembly.

We have 3 choirs: infant, junior and senior. Our older choirs have an excellent reputation in the local community. They perform regularly in local concerts and festivals, and have even joined with local adult choirs to offer combined concerts. In 2023 they were awarded the Choral Shield by Reigate and Redhill Music Festival Committee - a recognition of the high quality of performance from both our KS2 choirs. The older children also perform annually at the O2 in London with Young Voices alongside 8000 children.  

Instrumental lessons are offered through Surrey Arts and Grooveline.  Grooveline also provide after school clubs for all ages.

Impact

Our children enjoy performing and are developing their confidence as musicians, exploring the world of sounds, developing their skills and talents and creating musical ideas of their own.  They are learning to be brave and experiment with their ideas. They have a developing knowledge of musical language and are able to use this to help them understand and engage with the rich musical heritage of their own culture and of other cultures around the world.