Detail

Information

Academic year that this summary covers

2025-2026

Date this summary was published

January 2026

Date this summary will be reviewed

July 2026

Name of the school music lead

Roxanne Simpson

(maternity cover for Laura Barilli)

Name of school leadership team member with responsibility for music (if different)

Roxanne Simpson 

Name of local music hub 

WEMA

Name of other music education organisation(s) (if partnership in place) 

The Note Warehouse

Churchill Music

Churchill Secondary School

Sing Up Music curriculum

We use Sing Up's primary music curriculum to deliver high-quality classroom music right across the primary school. Our resources support a creative and active musical approach to lessons, connecting singing and playing, composing and improvising, listening and appraising. Each unit is mapped against the Statutory Framework for Early Years, the National Curriculum and Model Music Curriculum, with an at-a-glance overview of how outcomes can be delivered for every year group.

-       45minutes hour weekly sessions in Year 1-6

-       Daily music opportunities within EYFS as part of purposeful learning environment include access to music instruments

-       Access to whole class purposeful and designed music space for classes to access when using whole class sets of instruments

-       ‘Song of the day’ which covers a range of songs, tunes and key culture musical influences from within our British national landscape.

-       Work in partnership with WEMA to access whole class music workshops e.g. African music or steel pan drums workshop; inter school music opportunities such as Raise the Roof for year 3 and 4 or Summer Sing for Year 2; SEND holiday music provision for children on our SEND register in Year 4, 5 and 6.

-       Provide network opportunities for our music lead within our multi-academy trust and within WEMA with the annual music conference and liaising directly with WEMA music hub lead.

Staff are encouraged and supported to access the wealth of resources to enhance other aspects of the curriculum and at different times during the day.

There is a mixture of 3 and 6 week lesson blocks. 6-week units are based around a song and the musical learning flows through the features of the piece of music. These units combine singing, playing, listening and appraising. The 3-week units have a strong focus on composing/improvising or on listening/appraising.

Children have opportunities to use tuned and untuned instruments. 

Link to Music progression and overview: https://lockingprimaryschool.co.uk/Music/

Whole class music tuition

In Year 4, children benefit from 20 weeks from whole class music tuition provided by a music specialist from WEMA. Instruments available for whole class music tuition are djembe drums; recorders; trumpets and clarinets. At the end of the block of 20 sessions, the children perform a range of pieces for parents/carers

Link to music hub WEMA: https://wema.org.uk/

ELAN Music Festival 

The ELAN Summer Music Festival will be held in July 2026. Our young people will perform as a choir across the trust schools to an audience of parents/carers and guests at a local venue. This opportunity will enable our young people to:

•       use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes

•       listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music 

•       play and perform in ensemble contexts, using their voices with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression 

•       appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians  

This will be free for our young people and schools to participate; however, we will charge the audience for tickets at a minimal cost. We will draw on the local community, musicians and organisations to support and enable to young people to perform with live music. 

Visits from professional musicians

At Locking we reach out to local musicians. In the last 12 months we have had the pleasure of Bristol Ensemble orchestra visit which was a real wow moment for our children as they performed a range of familiar music with a range of instruments. We also make use of locally based NOTE Warehouse (music tuition) to support with a therapeutic approach to music as part of SEND provision, particularly those children who access our MLD Resource Hub, Treetops. We also work with Churchill Music who provide a ‘Power of Music’ programme. The project, aimed at Year 5 pupils, demonstrates how we can use music to positively affect the way we feel, express an emotion, change a mood, break down a barrier, help our learning ability – the list goes on. It is a completely fresh stance on how to use music, not as a specialist subject that needs individual tuition, but as a tool that all teachers and pupils can access in their everyday lives. We endeavour to continue to explore musicians from many genres to broaden children’s experiences and joy of music. 

Whole School Assemblies and Mindfulness

At Locking, music is a big part of our culture and brings a real sense of belonging as children sing together. We start every assembly with a song and our school choir have also performed for their peers. 

During special weeks celebrating diversity we explored famous singers such as Bob Marley and Lady Smith Black Mambazo and inspirational young musicians Sheku Kannah-Mason. We also use music to accompany, key national and cultural days in our national calendar.

Our school has a soft start so children can go into class calmly as they arrive and our staff have calming music playing to support this. 

Christmas performances for EYFS, KS1 and KS2

As part of our Christmas celebrations, we use a range of music including hymns and instrumental pieces for our children to perform too. Children, through these different performances will

•       use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes

•       listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music 

Music is intrinsically linked to other curriculum areas

We use music in PSHE to explore feelings as part of our Jigsaw curriculum; in Science to explore sound and how is created and in PE, all year groups use music to support dance units. In English we use music to tell stories. For example in Year 1, the children listened to the sound track to ‘Peter and the Wolf’ – by exploring how instruments supported the mood and atmosphere of the story. During our lunch time provision, we have dance opportunities for our children with music. In addition, to this we have weekly ‘wake and shake’ sessions to help provide a positive start to the morning!

In EYFS, we have worked with North Somerset Early Years team, to identify core poems, rhymes and songs. This forms part of our core offer for 2-5 years old. 

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Work more closely with local secondary schools music departments

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Termly performances from a range of outside professional musicians e.g. brass band or hand bell performers  

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January- March 2026: apply for a grant to purchase additional instruments for EYFS and KS1.

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July 2026: complete Music Award for 2025-2026.

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Widen repertoire of songs for children to sing in assembly.