Our Intent
At St Teresa’s, Music is central to the creative life of the school. As a school we believe that taking part in musical activity – and singing in particular – brings about positive benefits for all involved in our school community. Singing supports learning, personal and social development, promotes health and well-being and bonds communities of people like no other activity. Our intention is that we provide a high quality music education which enables children to develop a love of music whilst increasing self-confidence, creativity and a sense of achievement. We believe that this will engage, inspire as well as nurture their many talents as musicians.
Our Approach
We develop and improve pupils’ singing, composing and performance with a progressive programme from EYFS to year 6. Through our chosen schemes (Charanga Musical School; Sing Up and BBC Ten pieces), pupils have the opportunity to participate in weekly lessons where they perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions. They learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others and also have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument in LKS2. The children are supported in their learning about musical notation by moving from mark making in early years, to exploring graphic notation, stick notation and moving to understanding stave notation by year 6.
In KS1, the children enjoy singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes sometimes through a cross curricular approach e.g. using counting songs to explore digital safety or reinforce our school core values.. They have the opportunity to play both tuned and percussion instruments which they use to create, select and combine sounds. They also listen and move to a wide range of music.
Children in KS2 build on the skills acquired in KS1 so that, by the end of year 6, they sing and play with increasing control and self-confidence. Like KS1, they also sing songs in other subjects e.g. French, or to celebrate achievement in assemblies and in our school collective worship. In KS2, children deepen their understanding of music in the world and the significance of music through history. Children are encouraged to explore their own musical preferences and discuss these with confidence
We create opportunities for children to listen to live music in each year group and provide a platform for children to perform for each other, to other classes, to parents and to an online audience. We are so proud to see our school values of “love, trust, teamwork and ambition” within all our music endeavours. Click below to see our two School lockdown concerts.
St Teresa’s School Lockdown Concert 1
St Teresa’s School Lockdown Concert 2
We have a strong, long-standing relationship with our music hub, Merton Music Foundation and make use of their expertise both with staff training and also participating in several of their community music making projects locally and at the Royal Albert Hall annually. We provide small group instrumental tuition in year 4 through the In 2 Music project delivered through Merton Music Foundation.
By listening to a wide range of interesting, thought-provoking, good quality music from all around the world we ensure that we are inclusive. We are mindful of adaptations that we need to make for children with special needs, such as pre-teaching instrumental techniques, noise cancelling headphones, etc.
We ensure that EVERY child makes progress. We keep a record of children who are involved in extracurricular musical learning so we can help support them and give them a platform to perform. See our Music Matters website.
Extra curricular activities- Choir
The School Choir of boys and girls aged 8-11 perform to an extremely high standard and draws members from years 4-6. The choir rehearses during term-time with our Associate Headteacher, Mrs Aransiola. Singers enjoy a very broad repertoire of sacred and secular songs and have performed in concerts at school and across London.