“How is it that music can, without words, evoke our laughter, our fears, our highest aspirations?” ― Jane Swan.

Intent

Music can motivate and comfort us, inspire us in our thinking and reflect images and moods. At Runnymede St. Edward’s, music is a joyful experience. We believe all pupils can be musicians and we encourage our Edwardians to strive for excellence. Our aim is to provide pupils opportunities to experience the power of music to enhanced our lives. We intent to engage and inspire pupils to develop their talent as musicians as well as increasing their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. Pupils gain a sense of place in music history, knowing that music contributes to important occasions in their own lives and in other cultures around the world.

Implement

The music curriculum at Runnymede St. Edward’s is fulfilling, creative and cohesive through the school. Pupils have opportunities to develop their own composition, performance, listening and appraisal skills. Throughout the school, pupils learn to sing and play an instrument. In addition to this, they develop a secure understanding about the history of music and different music genres. Pupils have opportunities to develop their own composition, performance, listening and appraisal skills.

Early Years Foundation Stage

Music interweaves through all areas of learning and development in reception. Our young Edwardians sing a range of well-known nursery rhymes and songs as well as choreograph their own dances to familiar music. Pupils are encouraged to listen attentively to music and talk about music, expressing their feelings and responses.

Key Stage One

Through the scheme Charanga, pupils develop an understanding of musical concepts through a repetition-based approach to learning. This ensures a deeper learning and mastery learning of musical skills while following the national curriculum seamlessly. Pupils continue developing their listening, appraising, singing and performing skills. Furthermore, they gain a secure understanding of pulse, voice, pitch and rhythm.

Key Stage Two

We are fortunate to have tutors from Resonate, Liverpool’s Music Education Hub, in school weekly to teach Ukulele. During these hands-on practical music lessons, pupils are learning to play different chords and practising strumming rhythms to accompany music. Furthermore, pupils are developing their appraisal and composition skills when using a range of percussion instruments to accompany music. Our Key Stage 2 Edwardians are thoroughly enjoying learning about different music genres and their features.  

Music Mark School

Runnymede St. Edwards is proud to be a Music Mark School. This is a real honour which demonstrates our commitment to providing a high-quality music curriculum within our school community.

Music Tuition

For children with a particular interest and enthusiasm, we have peripatetic music teachers who provide music tuition to develop their skills further and provide the opportunity to progress through nationally graded assessments.

Singing Lessons

KS1 and KS2 children receive high-quality singing lessons every week. During these lessons, children develop a range of music skills including articulation, breathing, tone and dynamics. These singing lessons enhance children’s musical enjoyment and appreciation of singing in an ensemble.

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral

Runnymede St. Edwards is the choir school to the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King. Choristers are chosen by audition and they receive outstanding vocal tuition. The boys are committed to the Cathedral Choir and preparing the music for the weekly services. They take part in early morning and after-school rehearsals as well as individual vocal tuition.

Impact

Music has a high profile in our school community. Participation in music develops wellbeing, promotes listening and develops concentration. Music is present across the curriculum supporting learning in areas such as English,
Maths and Science. Songs are used to reinforce new learning of vocabulary in a range of subjects and are also an important part of our collect worship. We want to ensure that music is love by adults and pupils across the school community, encouraging them to want to continue building on this wealth of musical ability, now and in the future.

Runnymede St. Edward’s use a number of ways to measure our pupil’s progression in music and assess the impact of our intent and implementation. This helps us refine and adapt our planning further which improves the quality of teaching and learning. Music teachers will use on-going formative assessment to assess musical understanding. We know pupils have made progress when they can make connections between the music they have heard and their own life experiences as well as learning on other subjects. Pupils will be able to dissect music with varying levels of ability and comprehend its parts, using music vocabulary to describe and analyse. Furthermore, they can confidently perform in front of other in time and feel a pulse, moving to music rhythmically. 

We are proud to share our musical talent.

Archdiocese of Liverpool Schools Singing Programme

Runnymede St. Edward’s Catholic Primary School are delighted to be apart of the Liverpool Cathedral Schools Singing Programme. Each week, our Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 pupils receive outstanding singing lessons delivered by the expert music team at Archdiocese of Liverpool. During these workshops, the pupils learn a range of songs and vocal techniques. They thoroughly enjoy their weekly singing lessons and have mastered important musical skills. 

We are extremely proud of our Edwardians and the exceptional progress that they have made. Our Choral Director has described them as “true ambassadors for the school” who “demonstrated model behaviour and have a positive and genuine want to learn and improve their singing”.