At Priory Rise, our music curriculum is designed to develop every child’s musical knowledge and understanding throughout their time in primary school, following the national curriculum. We have a wide range of musical instruments and musical topics that are taught by our specialist music teacher Mrs Horwood. Every child will receive a weekly whole class music lesson, either delivered by Mrs Horwood or by their class teacher.

Currently these are the instruments/topics taught:

Reception - All about me, animal boogie, phonics through rhythm and rhyme and bugs and mini beasts. These topics are taught through song and the use of pitched and un-pitched percussion. Two performances for parents are held, one at Christmas and one at the end of the school year.

Year 1- Autumn 1: Understanding rhythm, Autumn 2: Christmas production. Spring 1: Rhythm and pulse, Spring 2: Sing off. Summer 1: Music of Africa. Summer 2: Showcase assembly.

Year 2 - Exploring un-pitched percussion, exploring pitched percussion, exploring percussion with composition and music of Great Britain.

Year 3 - Recorders

Year 4 - Keyboards

Year 5 - Autumn term: Production work and digital music with Garage band. Spring term: African drumming. Summer term: Samba.

Year 6 - Autumn term: Production work and cyclic patterns. Spring term: Guitar. Summer term: Musical theatre.

Every week, from Year One onwards, children will participate in a singing assembly, following our school singing strategy. We also have a Key Stage One and Key Stage Two choir and a school orchestra.

Throughout the year we have lots of performance opportunities; a Key Stage One and a Key Stage Two production are held annually as well as Christmas performances. A music concert in the summer term showcases the children who have been having peripatetic music lessons from a visiting teacher.

Peripatetic lessons are delivered by Milton Keynes Music Co-operative and are invoiced through the office. Children are able to start these lessons from Year Three. We currently offer:

• Violin
• Trumpet
• Flute
• Clarinet
• Keyboard
• Guitar

This is an enormously popular service taken up by over 100 children currently!

Priory Rise School has been very successful over the years in the Milton Keynes instrumental festivals, run by the local music hub. Our school has won many trophies and certificates at these events and they have been wonderful experiences for the children to share their passion and love of music.