St Francis Xavier Music

Our intention is that children gain a firm understanding of what music is through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, analysing and composing. We believe that all children are capable of becoming confident, expressive performers. We intend to allow the music curriculum to flow through the entirety of the school. We want to ensure that music is closely intertwined with each class topic to build an immersive learning environment. 

Year 2 have been learning how to create rhythms to represent a safari, linked to their Geography topic of 'Life In Kenya'. They also learnt a traditional African call and response song called 'Che Che Kule'. They had great fun performing it!

Year 2 used xylophones to practice playing the famous motif from Beethoven's 'Symphony No. 5'. They then created their own simple motif.

Year 2 have been learning about dynamics, timbre, tempo and motifs. This is all taught through the theme of space. Year 2 worked together to generate ideas of what sounds you might hear in space, and then used their voices and bodies to create a soundscape of space.

Year 2 have been exploring two different pieces of music by composer Gustav Holst. They listened to the two pieces of music and then drew symbols, pictures and shapes to represent what they heard, thinking about the colours, shapes and atmosphere.

Children in Nursery have been exploring sound using instruments. The children listened to instructions from Miss May and played loudly, quietly, slowly and quickly. The children loved all the different sounds that the instruments were making. 

On 2nd February 2023, our talented school choir were lucky enough to perform at Sheffield Utilita Arena as part of Young Voices 2023. They worked so hard, sang so beautifully and represented our school fantastically. We are so proud of them!

In our new unit ('On This Island': British Songs and Sounds) we learnt about the inter-related dimensions of music and how they underpin everything we do in Music:

• Duration
• Dynamics
• Pitch
• Structure
• Tempo
• Texture
• Timbre

We began the topic by learning some traditional British folk songs such as 'My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean', 'Lavender's Blue' and 'London Bridge Is Falling Down'. Then, we explored the sounds we might hear at the British seaside, using our voices and bodies to create a seaside soundscape.

As part of our music lessons Year 5 are focusing on Blues. We have started to learn how to play various chords on the glockenspiel.

Year 2 learnt to create rhythms and then put these rhythms into an order (or structure) to tell the story of St George and the Dragon.

Nursery enjoyed working together to sing 'Row, Row, Row your Boat' when thinking about word and rhyme. 
 

As part of their 'Myths and Legends' unit in Music, Year 2 have been learning about the layers and texture of music by listening to some pieces of music inspired by the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. They discussed how the different pieces of music made them feel and what instruments they could hear.