Music and choirs

Our Music Intent

‘Without music, life would be a mistake.’ Friedrich Nietzsche

The music curriculum intent at Holly Park School is two-fold.

Firstly, we intend the children to develop a range of technical and practical musical skills to enable them to enjoy and participate in music throughout their lives. This will include the development of skills in areas such as pitch, rhythm, musical form, notation, listening and composing.

Secondly, we intend the children to develop a broad range of transferable skills including social engagement with others (including teamwork, collaboration, sensitivity to others and compromise), curiosity, engagement, motivation, expression of ideas and feelings, open-mindedness, resilience, commitment, reflection and creativity.

At Holly Park we are well known for our high standard of music – both within the curriculum and with our choirs and instrumental tuition.

It is well recognised that music can help to develop the skills, attitudes and attributes that can support learning in other national curriculum subjects. This includes; listening skills, the ability to concentrate, creativity, intuitions, perseverance, the ability to work in a group, confidence and sensitivity towards others.

Schools are required to publish a summary of their music development plan on the website

Please find attached the Holly Park Music Development Summary 2024/25: Holly Park School music development plan summary

The Music National Curriculum

Key stage 1

Pupils should be taught to:

use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
play tuned and untuned instruments musically
listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music
experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.

Key stage 2

Pupils should be taught to:

sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They should develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory.

Pupils should be taught to:

play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression
improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music
listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
use and understand staff and other musical notations
appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians
develop an understanding of the history of music

Progression of skills in music

As they progress through the school, children develop their musical skills in:

Singing songs with control and using the voice expressively
Listening, memory and movement
Controlling pulse and rhythm
Exploring sounds, melody and accompaniment
Control of instruments
Composition

Children are exposed to the work of many musicians, singers and song writers from different cultures and periods of history.

Music is a subject that lends itself well to a class topic and so frequently, you see other subjects ‘come to life’ through music.

There is a clear progression of skills in every strand of music.

Our Progression of Skills documents set out what will be taught in each year group based on the National Curriculum. When planning, teachers will consider the overall Learning Objective; a focus for the objective and the resulting Success Criteria.

Please see our progression of skills documents attached in music for:

Developing musical vocabulary is also very important. Here is a progression of vocabulary development: MUSIC Vocabulary subject sheet

Choirs

Infant Choir – any child in Year 2 may join this choir. We expect full commitment for the year. The choir meets at lunchtime on Tuesday.
Junior Choir – any child in Year 5-6 may join this choir. The choir meets after school on Tuesday 3.30-4.30pm.

Music Concerts and Performances

Our Candlelight Concert involves the Infant and our current Junior choir called the Holly Harmonies. We sing religious songs in the theme of festival of light occurring at this time of year, such as Hanukkah and Diwali. We sing a range of songs from traditional to modern songs.
Infant Choir ( Year 2) perform ‘Candlelight Concert’. They also do the Infant Festival in November each year, where we perform together with other schools based on a book and theme.
This year our Holly Harmonies have a very special opportunity to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in April 2025, this again is with many other schools and we sing collectively based on the theme this year it is : ‘All Under one sky’. (see more details below)
The Holly Harmonies also sing at the the Barnet Music Festival every year in June.
Previous choirs in HPS choirs have performed in special borough events and events London-wide or nationwide. These have included performances at the Royal Albert Hall, The Dorchester Hotel and on TV programmes such as the ‘Terry and Gabby Show’ and the BBC’s ‘Children in Need’. We have performed ‘Henry V’ by William Walton with the Royal Orchestral Society.

End Of Term Festive Sing Along

In the last week of the Autumn Term we had a very festive singalong in the hall with our Y2 classes and the Junior Choir. There were a selection of festive songs – some calm and gentle, some more jolly and raucous! Year 2 enjoyed singing the dreidel song. We enjoyed a couple of solos, silent night with Ukulele accompaniment and an appearance by Frosty the snowman.

Royal Albert Hall Festival songs and lyrics

Here are the songs and lyrics for the Royal Albert Hall concert:

Another Day of Sun:

Another Day of Sun Part 2:

Celebration:

All Under One Sky:

All Under One Sky Parts:

May it be FULL:

Celebration Part 1:

Furrem Part 3:

RAH-2025-All-Under-One-Sky-Lyrics

Here is the Tarekita video.

Instrumental tuition

There are many factors to consider when selecting a suitable musical instrument for your child to learn. The age ranges we recommend for Instrumental Tuition are:

CELLO and VIOLIN for children in Years 2 – 6;
FLUTE, CLARINET, ALTO SAXOPHONE, DESCANT RECORDER, for children in Years 3 – 6
CORNET for Years 3&4 children
TRUMPET for Years 5&6 children
DRUM KIT and TABLAS for children in Years 4 – 6;
GUITAR for Years 5&6 children)

However, parents should contact Barnet Education Arts Trust to discuss the suitability of their child to the chosen musical instrument. The telephone number is 0208 959 4111.

Barnet Education Arts Trust administers all enrolment and payment details, not Holly Park School.