Ribbleton Avenue Methodist Junior School

Intent

True to our Methodist culture, we believe in the power of music and our aim is to provide children the with a music curriculum that is enjoyable and progressive whilst being experiential and life enhancing.

As a school, we recognise the limiting impact deprivation has on the opportunities available to our pupils and we believe it is our core duty as educators to provide these opportunities to ensure 'Brighter futures for all!'

We believe that our music curriculum works hand in hand with our school values and other curriculum areas and allows our pupils to live them through their learning.  Our bespoke music curriculum allows pupils to:

• Have Ambitions: Our pupils have the opportunity to sing, learn new instruments and perform in concerts both in school and in the wider community.   Whether we are singing at Morrisons, with Sing Together or as part of The Young Voices Choir, these experiences teach our pupils about the journey music can take them on.  By building in a sequence of high quality instrumental teaching, we are also giving our children the skills to learn an instrument, that may in time lead to learning other instruments to play for pleasure or at a professional level.  We believe we are giving our amazing learners the skills to play and the chance to dream.

• Be Courageous:  Our pupils are given the opportunity to perform in public and have been professionally recorded as part of local and national singing experiences.  We know that it takes patience and effort to learn an instrument or to sing in tune and we also know that it takes confidence and courage to demonstrate these skills for an audience.  We believe our curriculum gives our children the courageous boost they need to be excellent performers with possible musical careers in their future.
• Show Respect: Our pupils are taught the value of respect in several ways through our bespoke curriculum.  Not only are the modelling respect when listening to each other and positively responding to their peers performances, opinion, and talents they are also developing the skilled respect needed when learning to play and care for an instrument.  The are enveloped in a variety of musical styles, varied composers and differing opinions but are taught the need to model respect at all levels.
• Show Love:  Our pupils are encouraged to love on lots of levels through their musical education.  They may simple love to sing, or love the feeling music gives them.  As they enhance their skills they may love to play an instrument and hopefully love to perform as they progress.  We also believe that our curriculum allows children to develop their own understanding of what they love and the things they don't enjoy about music. We recognise that music is a personal experience for everyone and by ensuring it remains so, we believe the love of music throughout school will grow.
• Have Hope: Our pupils have many aspirations and dreams and we believe that developing this experiential learning opportunity will give them the hope they need to fulfil the goals they set themselves.  We have hope that our curriculum is diverse, enjoyable and educational giving give our pupils the skills to be the musicians of the future.
• Show Faith: We recognise the different parts that music plays in the lives of our pupils and their families as part of the truly diverse school that we are.  It is our hope that our curriculum exposes children to music from varying faiths, alongside the Methodist culture we develop daily.  As a Methodist School we show our faith through singing; be it in worship, class or on the playground but we also recognise that our school is a wonderful mix of various religions and faiths and we believe that it is essential that through the musical experiences children have at RAMJS, they are able to show their faiths and beliefs with pride.