Music
Tantum Ergo Sacramentum - Words
'My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music.' Psalms 57:7
Our Intent
To create a musical atmosphere within school that makes music an enjoyable learning experience. Through singing, pupils will develop the ability to listen to each other and learn about the structure and organisation of music. Pupils will develop an appreciation of different music genres and cultures, as well as how music can be used as an expressive tool. As children progress, they will develop descriptive skills in music lessons and become literate with musical terminology. We aim to provide a music curriculum which will encourage children to enjoy singing, composing and performing in front of an audience.
We are proud to be part of the Diocese of Leeds School Singing Programme. Classes 4 and 5 receive weekly singing sessions delivered by an expert Choral Director from the Diocese, focusing on positive engagement with singing and supporting the Catholic life of the school through sacred music. The sessions offer practical and incremental coverage of areas of the music curriculum - including notation - in a two-year curriculum framework developed by the Diocese, the National Schools Singing Programme and the National Youth Choir of Scotland.
As a result of this, our pupils also have the opportunity to join one of the Diocese’s acclaimed after-school choirs, which offer an incredible opportunity to pursue a passion for singing and music. You can find online resources that support this work on the Schools Singing Programme’s YouTube channel (www.schoolssingingprogramme.org.uk). Our local Diocese choir is Leeds Cathedral Choir - please contact office@dioceseofleedsmusic.org.uk for more information about joining.
Intent, Implementation and Impact
'He who sings, prays twice' St Augustine.
At St Joseph’s, music is an exceptionally important part of the Catholic life of our school.
We sing together in collective worships, assemblies and our School Masses.
We are lucky to have a strong link with the Leeds Catholic Diocesan Music Service and our Year 3, 4 and 5's are taught by one of their expert teachers once a week. As of 2020 St Joseph's started a school choir for KS2.
Our strong singing, listening and performance provision has allowed us to cover most of the national curriculum in our day to day school life.
Please see our singing progression map below.
Singing Progression Map
Teaching of Music
To ensure we are developing our composing and instrumental performance offering we have worked alongside Art Forms. We are now using the scheme Charanga and have procured a class set of Glockenspiels.
Please see our new Music Progression Map and end of year expectations below.
Music Subject Progression Map
End of Year expectations
Twilights and CPD
This year we will be having music twilight meetings and some continued professional development meetings to ensure we are delivering quality first teaching to our children. By the end of the school year we want a typical music lesson to look like the below.
A typical music lesson at St Joseph's
Leeds Choral Singing - Jonah Man Jazz
Easter Production - Resurrection Rocks
Congratulations are in order!
Thank you goes to Mr Bruce and the Diocese of Leeds Schools Singing Programme for all your hard work.
Links to videos of our singing sessions can be found on our school Twitter feed:
Performing & Instrumental Performance
At St Joseph's children are given opportunities to perform in both music lessons and in school assemblies. We have a full set of ukeleles, acoustic guitars and precussion instruments to mean children can perform using both tuned and un-tuned instruments.
Listening
Children are encouraged to listen to a wide range of music. Through our music lessons they will be given the chance to listen to; a wide range of genres, traditional to modern songs and music from different to cultures.
Below is a sample of the types of music children will listen to in the academic year.
