At Hadleigh Community Primary School we want to make music an enjoyable learning experience where every child feels valued and eager to achieve their very best. We believe that music is powerful and enables both personal expression and emotional development.

Children in all year groups, from Nursery to Year 6, receive a music lesson from our specialist teacher, Mr Betts. In addition to this, children from Reception upwards take part in a weekly singing assembly and receive a number of ‘top up’ sessions across the year.

Curriculum Instruments
The core instruments that children use to access our music curriculum are:

Singing

from Nursery

Glockenspiel

from Year 2

Djembe

from Year 2

Ukulele

from Year 2

Drum Kit

from Year 3

Bass Guitar

from Year 4

iPad (Garageband)

from Year 5

Keyboard

from Year 6

In addition to these, we have a well-resourced music room with many other instruments for the children to use and explore.


Our curriculum takes inspiration from the following three sources:

“Music is the universal language of mankind.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poet

We believe that music unites everyone across the world. It is a powerful communication tool and shows us all that we are connected. Music is a language and our pupils are taught to interpret and use that language, in its many forms, across our curriculum. Pupils discover music from the Western Classical tradition, popular culture and from all over the world, following the key processes of “know – recreate – create”.


“And if I stay true to my song, then I really can’t go far wrong. It’s MY music and my music makes me, ME.”

‘The Music In Me’ by Sophy Henn

Music can be an important part of one’s identity and sense of self. We teach our pupils to form their own musical opinions about the music they listen to and to respect the opinions of others. Throughout the curriculum, pupils are taught to compose their own music in a number of different ways. As the children progress into key stage 2, we guide them to reflect on their musical skills and talents; discovering what kind of musician they are.


“The only thing better than singing is more singing.”

Ella Fitzgerald, The ‘First Lady of Song’

Singing is a central part of life at Hadleigh Community Primary School. Children sing as part of the specialist music lessons, but also in weekly singing assemblies, celebration assemblies and across the curriculum. We sing to learn, to celebrate, to remember and simply because singing is what we do!