Music

Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. At JLA, our intent is to offer an inspiring music education that engages and inspires pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. Children will  be able to compose, perform and listen to a wide variety of music reflecting the variety of cultural influences within our school community. We will draw on experts to add richness to the curriculum and inspire children to see themselves as musicians. 

Children will learn to read and notate music and will have opportunities to play a range of musical instruments.

Singing is an important part of the JLA curriculum and all years groups have a weekly singing together session. Songs are chosen  increasing in complexity, from simple action songs and nursery rhymes to songs with 3 parts and harmony lines. The music is chosen to extend the range of music that our pupils listen to and to extend their performance skills. We sing at festivals, including Harvest, Diwali and Christmas. We have also launched a Trust singing festival, Elliot Sings, held at Brunel University,  at which the London TEFAT schools join to share an afternoon of singing together. Last year we also took part in a Royal Opera House project. Our children sang arias from The Magic Flute with professional opera singers at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

The curriculum is based on the model music curriculum and includes whole muscial instrument teaching. Children will learn the recorder and tuned classroom percussion such as the glockenspiel. This is primarily a tool for learning traditional Western musical notation and performing as part of an ensemble. The curriculum has clear progression and teaches musical concepts  - pitch, rhythm, beat, tempo, texture, dynamics, structure, duration, timbre - in the context of singing, listening, composing and musicianship. The sprial nature of the curriculum ensures that these concepts are buily on progressively each year. 

The music we listen to reflects the diverse range of cultures within our community and draws on resources such as SingUp, Classroom 200, BBC 10 Pieces and Minute of Listening. We are in the process of using lesosn planning from the Kapow music scheme of work.

To help children get used to performing in front of an audience, musical performances are regular features of the school calendar. Reception begin with a nativity; songs feature in school assemblies; year 2 and year 6 put on larger scale productions and year 4 have joined the Young Voices concerts at Wembley Arena for the past two years.

Lessons are available on violin, keyboard and guitar and we hope to extend the range of instruments availabe. These lessons are private lessons given by teachers from the Hillingdon Music Service. We have had regular visits from the RAF Band.

We hope that the range of musical experiences will demonstrate that music is an exciting subject to learn at secondary school and also has a whole range of career options in the future. The integral nature of music and the learner creates an enormously rich palette from which a student may access fundamental abilities such as: achievement, self-confidence, interaction with and awareness of others, and self-reflection. The Music curriculum at JLA also enables children to develop an understanding of culture and history, both in relation to students individually, as well as ethnicities from across the world. Children are able to enjoy music, in as many ways as they choose- either as listener, creator or performer.