At Bill Quay Primary School, our music curriculum offers all pupils the opportunity to develop their understanding and appreciation of music both by listening and responding to a wide range of music, and by developing their own musical skills in singing and performing. Our intention is that all of our pupils should gain a lifelong love of music, and be able to sing tunefully and be able to play both a wind instrument and a stringed instrument by the time they leave our school. All pupils have opportunities to sing, perform, compose, listen and respond to music, from Reception class all the way to Year 6. Our music curriculum is inclusive, both in terms of being accessible to all pupils of all ages and abilities, but also in introducing pupils to a wide range of musical instruments, genres and styles, using as stimuli music from a range of male and female composers from different eras, cultures, traditions and ethnicities.

Pupils have the opportunity to listen to live and recorded music not only in their music lessons, but also in Assemblies, where they listen to a range of recorded music across different styles, periods and genres and also experience live performances by fellow pupils. Key Stage 1 and 2 pupils sing each week in Assembly and have a whole school singing session on a Thursday, led by a qualified musician, as well as focused sessions for performances at Harvest, Christmas and Easter. In Key Stage 2, some cross-curricular singing also takes place in French lessons. Each class in KS1 and KS2 also has the opportunity to perform a musical show at some point in the school year. 

Our school music curriculum has been revised to adopt the key principles and recommendations of the New Model Music Curriculum (2021), and this has been phased in from September 2021. Our pupils all have the opportunity to play a range of percussion and tuned instruments as part of our whole-class provision, including djembe drums, Samba instruments, penny whistles, recorders, ukuleles, chime bars, boomwhackers and glockenspiels, as well as traditional classroom percussion. 

Pupils may also choose to develop their musical skills by signing up for private instrumental lessons: currently we offer private guitar and piano tuition at school. We also offer opportunities to sing in the choir as part of our extra-curricular programme, and are developing ensemble playing as part of the extra-curricular programme. We work closely with the Gateshead Music Hub, and take advantage of any opportunities offered by The Glasshouse and The Royal Northern Sinfonia to offer pupils the opportunity to experience and participate in live music-making of the highest quality.

Our focus for improving our music curriculum further is the development both of composition and improvisation skills across all year groups and also our ability to sing in harmony.

We were delighted to be awarded a Music Mark Award in 2022 in recognition of the quality of music-making at Bill Quay Primary School!