Intent

At Ripple, we want every child to engage, enjoy and achieve in Music.  Through the curriculum, our current scheme of work and our enrichment activities, we want children to see the value of music as intrinsic to their lives, and for many to be inspired and empowered to take up an aspect of music as a life skill, be it singing, playing or composing.

Music is part of culture.  In our school, pupils speak 96 different languages and come from all over the globe.  The music repertoire reflects this, so that the music we work in belongs to the pupils and expands the horizons of all.

We follow the National Curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Perform, listen to, review and evaluate music
• Be taught to sing, create and compose music
• Understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated

We want music at Ripple to spread out into the curriculum to show its value in different contexts.  In History, we explore Tudor music, sing Viking songs, study sea shanties.  Music is evident in our work in the disciplines of Geography, PE (dance), Computing and Religion and Worldviews.  Our school runs enrichment weeks such as the two weeks of Cultural Diversity where classes explore different countries and regions of the world.  We run a Performance Week, where each class develops an act that may be lyric-based, dance or music-enhanced.  

Children leaving our school should have a sense of the history and geography of music styles and cultures, a knowledge of what makes music what it is – the interrelated dimensions of music, and a knowledge of how music is notated through making their own compositions, and a confidence in playing percussion, tuned and unturned.

Our music/singing assemblies are led by teachers who can play musical instruments and who enjoy singing.  We feel it is important to collectively enjoy and appreciate music; collective singing that can lift our spirits and enhance our sense of belonging at school.

We encourage music-talented staff to run enrichment opportunities and we connect to the borough’s music hub to take advantage of events and training.  There is a school choir, a ukulele lunchtime club and Rocksteady who run rock bands. 

Music holds a unique place in the curriculum, in that it is aspirational, collective and challenging.  Children can work on their own to master an instrument or technique, or work collaboratively to produce material that they can perform and be proud of.  For SEND children, Music can be especially empowering.  Music is inclusive. 

Looking to the future, we aim to work more closely with the borough’s Arts and Culture department and to connect to the Barking Film Studios, where further opportunities in Music and other disciplines may be explored.