Our Intent For Music at Cherry Tree Hill Primary School

At Cherry Tree Hill Primary School, we believe music is a powerful medium for children to express their emotions creatively and joyfully. It plays a vital role in personal development, and we are dedicated to providing opportunities for all students to create, play, perform, listen, analyze, and enjoy music from various periods, genres, and styles. Our commitment is to help children understand the value and importance of music in the wider community, offering them opportunities to apply their musical skills, knowledge, and experiences in diverse contexts.

At Cherry Tree, we use the scheme KAPOW music to teach the following strands: 

• Listening and evaluating: Exposing children to a diverse range of music from different cultures and historical periods to allow them to recognise how music is constructed and how it impacts the listener. 
• Creating sounds: Teaching children the knowledge of specific instruments, how to hold and play them. Giving children ample opportunities to sing, controlling their breathing and voice modulation in the process. 
• Notation: Teaching pupils to understand notation as a means of communicating musical ideas. They will learn the position of notes and the different symbols in order to read a simple piece of music. 
• Improvising & composing: Building children's confidence by allowing them opportunities to create music spontaneously as well as asking them to plan and structure their musical ideas through composition. 
• Performing- singing & playing: Performing provides pupils with a practical reason to apply their musical skills. It boosts their self esteem and promotes collaboration within groups.

We provide instrument-specific, whole-class lessons in ukulele and trumpet in Years 4&5, respectively, through specialist teachers from a Derby-based provider that we have a close collaboration with, Hot House Music. They also provide individual instrument lessons to pupils and we are actively seeking to work together to create a Ukulele Band, Brass Band, Infant Band and Junior Band in the academic year starting 2023-2024 to build on and apply the skills they have learned in their instrument lessons. Practises will be during school hours and practice rooms for individual practice will be provided during lunchtimes.