Music

Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high-quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon.

The new national curriculum in England for music aims to ensure that all pupils:
• perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians
• learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence
• understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the interrelated dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations

Key stage 1
Pupils are taught to:
• use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
• play tuned and untuned instruments musically
• listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music
• experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the interrelated dimensions of music

Key stage 2
Pupils are taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory.
Pupils are taught to:
• play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression
• improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music
• listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
• use and understand staff and other musical notations
• appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians
• develop an understanding of the history of music

Askam Village School holds the Artsmark Silver and National Sing Up Platinum awards. We were only the second school in Cumbria to achieve Platinum level and are therefore an ambassador school for our area. Mrs. Coates runs a very popular and successful choir after school every week. They perform regularly at school performances and are invited to sing at many public events during the year. They annually attend the amazing Young Voices’s Concert Series at the M.E.N. arena and sing alongside thousands of other school children to a packed venue. The choir compete at the South Cumbria Musical Festival every year and have always been extremely successful. Our results can be seen below:

The orphans from Year 6’s production of Annie in July 2014 performing on the Forum 28 stage at the Dowdale’s Dance Performance.

All Key Stage 2 pupils have the opportunity to learn to play the flute with Mrs. Coates. Lessons take place weekly and are in small groups for 25 minutes. The children perform both in and out of school during the year and also compete very successfully at the South Cumbria Musical Festival. The results can be seen above.

Private lessons in piano, singing and violin are also available with our peripatetic music teacher, Nicola Rich.

Contact Details

01229 462814

office@askam.cumbria.sch.uk

Location

Askam Village School
Lots Road
Askam-in-Furness
Cumbria
LA16 7DA

About Us

At Askam Village School the health, safety and well-being of all our children are of paramount importance to all the adults who work here.

Vision

The best for every pupil; commitment to every pupil; inspiration for all.