Hello! My name is Mrs Seaman and I am music lead. I look at music provision throughout our school. I enjoy listening to a wide range of music, often dependent on how I am feeling. Since becoming musical lead, I myself have enjoyed so many new songs and genres that I’d never listened to or heard much of previously. It’s amazing how diverse music is, how it stirs emotions and allows the listener and performer to convey emotions in a way that nothing else can! It can inspire and help us to convey thoughts and ideas through a unique medium. I believe that it is so important for children to be aware of the diverse nature of music, allowing them to access many aspects of learning and understanding in a unique and accessible way.
Music is also one of the purest forms of self expression. It provides an excellent platform for expressing ourselves through creation. Every note and lyric represents something deeply personal to the artist. In our lessons, our children are given opportunities to listen, discuss and appraise music-there’s usually not a still foot in the classrooms! They are given the chance to create their own music and songs to express their own thoughts, feelings and emotions-we have some truly musical children!
We are a well-resourced and inclusive school and we provide opportunities for all children to participate in musical experiences in school to enable them to have a love of music far beyond the classroom walls!
Our music curriculum follows the Charanga scheme of work, using the interrelated dimensions of music through each year group in a spiral curriculum. This means pitch, rhythm, dynamics, structure, tempo and duration are implemented through all stages of the music curriculum. Each year, the children are given opportunities to embed these key music dimensions, ensuring the key skills are built upon termly and yearly.
We are joined in school with Mr Potts who is our strings expert and teaches guitar and ukulele. We work closely with Sunderland Music Hub and take part in a variety of city-wide musical events.
We have a school choir which is open to all children from year 3-6. Our choir has opened and participated in many events across Sunderland, from the Christmas light switch on at Southwick Green and The Bridges, to opening and closing our Lanterns Festival and the Big Sing at Sunderland Empire. Our choir is an invaluable part of whole school assemblies and celebrations such as Easter and Christmas whole school performances. The choir get together with Mrs Seaman every Tuesday after school. If you would like to join just ask Mrs Seaman in class 10!
In the words of Aristotle, “Music has a power of forming the character and should therefore be introduced into the education of the young.” We agree with this wholeheartedly and this runs through the ethos of our music curriculum in school.
