wEMusic development plan summary:

Overview

Detail	Information
Academic year that this summary covers	2024-2025
Date this summary was published	Friday 20th September 2024
Date this summary will be reviewed	Friday 18th July 2025
Name of the school music lead	Richard Snape
Name of school leadership team member with responsibility for music (if different)	As above
Name of local music hub	Stoke-on-Trent City Music Service
Name of other music education organisation(s) (if partnership in place)	Sound Foundation (Stoke-on-Trent)

Part A: Curriculum music

At Co-op Academy Clarice Cliff, children access music for one hour a week, which is delivered through the Charanga Music School scheme here and through whole school assemblies. This is informed by the Music Model Curriculum and Ofsted guidance. The scheme moves away from the previous levels and learning objective/outcome concepts to an integrated, practical, exploratory and child-led approach to musical learning. The scheme is also designed to support both specialist and non-specialist teachers, providing detailed lesson plans and progression documents. In addition, the academy uses an assessment system to ensure that all pupils’ are effectively assessed on a weekly basis to enable teachers to tailor lessons appropriately for individual pupils, groups and whole classes. The scheme is organised into half termly units that have been created around engaging musical stimuli  and whiteboard resources. 

The inclusive nature of the scheme has a focus on musical traditions and influences around the world and caters for pupils with varying levels of musical ability and learning specific learning needs. The planning documents include advice for how to support pupils with a wide range of learning needs. These needs plans - such as sensory, physical and cognitive – are outlined in pupils’ individual SEND plans and reasonable adjustments are made in lessons accordingly. 

Every Charanga Music School lesson provides pupils with the opportunity to listen and appraise, sing and experience playing a musical instrument in every year group. The progressive nature of the half-term units enable pupils’ skills to develop week-by-week throughout their musical learning journey.

Part B: Co-curricular music

The following musical opportunities are offered to pupils outside of classroom provision:

-A violin group takes place once each week as an after school club for pupils from Key Stages 1 and 2. This provision - led by the music lead – has been established for several years and each session is designed to extend and complement pupils’ existing musical skills and aptitude. The violins are loaned free of charge and are taken home by the pupils so that they can further practise the skills taught during the sessions. 

-A rock band group takes place once a week as an after school club. This provision – led by the Sound Foundation local music hub – has been established for several years. Key Stage 2 pupils attend the sessions and have the opportunity to perform on a range of instruments such as drums, guitar, keyboard, violin and voice. 

-An academy choir – led by the Sound Foundation – performs at the ‘Sound Foundation’ concerts at the Mitchell Arts Centre venue twice each year. The choir comprises pupils from Key Stage 2. However, opportunities to extend the existing choir have been planned for the academic year 2024-25, led by the music lead and Deputy Headteacher. 

Part C: Musical Experiences

A range of musical events and opportunities have been planned for pupils (as follows):

-Violin Club:

The pupils will perform to the rest of the school each term in assembly. They will perform repertoire that has been taught and practised at the weekly after school sessions. The club will also perform at the annual Christmas Fair. 

-Rock Band:

The pupils will perform across the academic year at several concerts (known as ‘Rock-Offs’ alongside the rock bands of other local schools. These schools also host the concerts and family members of the participants are invited to attend the events. The rock band will also perform twice each year at the ‘Sound Foundation’ events at the local Mitchell Arts Centre venue to their families and other members of the academy community. 

-Choir:

The choir will be performing at two Sound Foundation concerts at the local Mitchell Arts Centre venue. As the choir continues to extend its participants, there will also be performances in whole school assemblies, as well as at the Christmas Fair. 

 

-Recording Studio:

Plans are currently progressing to provide a range of pupils with the opportunity to visit, perform and record music within local recording studios. The recordings can then be purchased by the pupils’ parents with the royalties being presented to the academy. These funds will then support therapeutic sessions for SEND pupils and a wide range of other musical activities. 

-Christmas Celebrations:

This Christmas, there will be a nativity performance in EYFS. In Key Stage 1, a Christmas play will take place. In Key Stage 2, there will be a concert to provide both pupils and their parents with the opportunity to sing a selection of Christmas carols. The school choir will perform and the violin group will also have the opportunity to perform Christmas music too. 

-Year 6 Summer Term Production:

The Year 6 pupils will take part in a production as a part of the leavers’ assembly. The production will feature both acting and a wide range of music. 

-Co-op Young Musician of the Year: 

Children are invited to audition for the competition annually. One child in Key Stage 2 qualified for the grand final in Manchester in 2024.

-Further Musical Enrichment

The Music Lead is to explore potential enrichment opportunities for the pupils. In particular, ‘The School Trip’ (https://theschooltrip.co.uk/) offers a wide range of events and the aim is that pupils from across the school will have the opportunity to experience some of these. 

In the future

This is about what the school is planning for subsequent years.

- As the Charanga Music School scheme has become embedded, the aim is to continue to increase teachers’ confidence and knowledge to deliver the units of work to the highest possible levels. This is to be achieved through ongoing monitoring of provision (lessons, wider musical experiences and pupil/staff voice). As a result, specific CPD will be provided by the music lead.

-The range of resources available in school will continue to develop so that staff members and pupils have access to a wide selection of tuned and untuned instruments to enhance and support their musical experiences as part of the Charanga Music School.

-Measures will be taken to enable pupils to learn a wider range of instruments outside of the classroom. 

-As outlined in Part C, plans to provide pupils with the experience of performing in a music studio are ongoing, as well as pupils attending events outside school. 

Further Information

The following outlines priorities outlined in schools music development plan for 2024-25:

-The music lead is to meet regularly with the curriculum director for the Co-op Academies as well as the curriculum lead within school. A wide range of aspects are to be planned and implemented with the intention to develop musical opportunities for pupils both inside and outside of the classroom. 

-A whole school assessment system has been implemented by the music lead to provide staff members with invaluable assessment information to inform lessons being taught within the Charanga Music School.

-Pupils are to be interviewed regularly in order to obtain perceptions of how they perceive their musical experiences and how they can be further developed. 

-Music resources are to be continually audited to ensure that lessons are well-equipped with a range of instruments. 

-Staff members are to complete questionnaires to provide indications of CPD needs.

-Pupils are to continue to experience listening to a wide range of prominent musical works from across a range of genres (in classrooms and assemblies) outside of the Charanga Music School lessons.

-Musical ensembles are to perform in school and outside of school throughout the academic year.

 

Parents and carers may wish to explore wider musical opportunities in the following websites:

Stoke-on-Trent City Music Service Hub – outlines musical opportunities for young people within Stoke-on-Trent.

Music Hubs | Arts Council England – explains about music hubs within the UK and how they support young people’s music education.