At Elm Tree we believe passionately in the creative and performing arts.  Music is one of our curriculum passions. We use CUSP Music scheme to support our teaching of music. This allows all teachers to be specialists which means that children achieve good musical outcomes. CUSP Music has been purposefully built around the principles of evidence-led practice. This is to ensure that there is a focus on high-quality development of children as musicians. The curriculum is carefully designed to build pupils’ musical knowledge and develop their competency and confidence as musicians. Each block includes the study of significant musicians and musical works, with the intention of exposing pupils to a wide range of music that will inspire them and connect them to the world around them. The curriculum is built to support teachers in developing their subject knowledge and delivering excellence in music education.

Core areas of study include singing, listening and appraising, composing and improvising and instrumental performance. These are built cumulatively throughout the curriculum to ensure that all pupils develop their engagement with, and knowledge of, music over time. This includes a focus on learning to play a range of instruments confidently. We aim to build a strong and rich musical culture in our school, in which pupils can thrive.

Our music curriculum has a strong emphasis on the language that pupils need to explore their own musicality. This is carefully and deliberately planned so that pupils revisit and embed this knowledge over time. Music is underpinned with clear structures and learning routines which allows pupils to direct their cognitive attention to the core content in each block. Knowledge Notes are used to support instruction and the revisiting of new concepts. This strong focus on cognitive science provides the framework for pupils to deepen and broaden their knowledge of music and become confident, inspired musicians.

We teach our creative and performing arts in blocks so that children are immersed in their learning.  In addition to these skills/techniques/knowledge blocks we encourage cross-curricular links in enquiry and also in performance.  

As a school we: take part in 'Snape Maltings' School Celebration'; foster a love of music and singing in assembly and offer musical clubs.  We merge our love of music and performance in our Shakespeare festival, high quality Christmas productions and annual performances at our family picnic. These bring our school community together and help our children fully appreciate the power of music and how it can connect us.