Meet the Music Team
Helen Lennon
Miss Lennon is a classically trained singer who after completing her Grade 8 in singing achieved a diploma and became an Associate of the Victoria College of Music London. Music, singing and performing has always been her passion and she continues to be a member of the Musicians Union. Miss Lennon is committed to ‘keeping music live’ giving children in the school rich opportunities to engage with music professionals and experience live performances and performance opportunities for themselves whenever possible. Miss Lennon is committed to ensuring that Music remains at the heart of our school.
Jill Thomason
Music has always been a lifelong love for Mrs Thomason. She learnt to play the piano and violin at an early age and loves to bring children together to perform. Mrs Thomason coordinates the music curriculum throughout KS1 and KS2 and is constantly seeking opportunities to enrich the children’s musical experiences in addition to our Charanga Music Scheme which she oversees throughout the school.
Annemarie Roberts
Mrs Roberts is an active member of an adults Rock Choir and joining with them to perform is a weekly highlight for her. Mrs Roberts delivers weekly music lessons in KS2 following our Charanga Scheme. Mrs Roberts enjoys teaching the children the recorder and the glockenspiel within music lessons and after school. Mrs Roberts loves to work alongside education staff from some of our great national institutions including the Royal Opera House and the English National Opera delivering their school projects with the children. Mrs Roberts delights in widening the children’s music cultural awareness through these collaborative projects.
Clare Armitage
Mrs Armitage has been singing all her life and continues to regularly perform solo in our local church. Mrs Armitage takes a strong lead in working with and advising our KS2 school choirs and is always looking for opportunities for the children to perform. Her enthusiasm and gift for music and singing inspires our choirs and the children to sing their hearts out and perform to an extremely high standard.
Intent, Implementation and Impact
- How is your school’s curriculum being delivered? (Implementation)
- What difference is your school’s curriculum making? (Impact)
- What is your school trying to achieve through its Music curriculum? (Intent)
Intent
At St Oswald’s we embrace the power of music to inspire creativity and self-expression and to support wellbeing.
It is our intent that through our Music curriculum we make Music an enjoyable learning experience that develops children’s musical skills and fosters a lifelong love of music. Our Music curriculum is designed to furnish children with important and accurate music knowledge, to encourage children to explore their capacity for creativity; to think critically; be curious and have a growing understanding (empathy) of music’s impact on people.
We are committed to providing a musical experience which through the skills of listening and appraising; singing; composing; performing; and evaluating, children should secure their understanding of the musical elements of pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and, when appropriate, notation. They should be resilient in developing these skills, as they move through the school.
Through our Music teaching we aim to enable our pupils to grow in precision, passion and confidence when engaging in all aspects of musical knowledge and understanding and for each child to aspire to reach their full musical potential through singing, composing, playing instruments, performing and evaluating.
Implementation
At St Oswald’s we deliver a broad and balanced Music curriculum which provides children with opportunities to:
- Perform, listen to, review and evaluate Music across a range of historical periods, genres styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians.
- Learn to sing and use their voices.
- Create and compose music on their own and alongside their peers.
- Learn a musical instrument and progress to the next level of musical excellence.
- Understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.
We use the award winning, online music platform ‘Charanga’ to support the planning and delivery of our Music curriculum in KS1 and KS2.
Every child has a weekly music lesson when Music skills and knowledge are taught through a variety of teaching and learning styles and opportunities to listen and appraise; compose; perform and evaluate over a sequence of lessons.
At St Oswald’s we take advantage of every opportunity to enrich the musical curriculum for our children. We encourage our children to participate in a variety of musical activities and performances through which are opportunities to develop their talent as musicians and in turn, increase their self-confidence, inventiveness and sense of achievement.
Impact
There is an expected progression of skills mapped for each year group to identify the learning which will take place in each stage throughout the school by following the Music programme of study against which the children and Teachers will assess impact and attainment.
Impact is also monitored and evaluated through termly pupil voice and subject questionnaires.
Musical Events & Activities 2022/23
Autumn 2022
ENO Project
Samba Band
Christmas Performances
Music Mark Accreditation
Presto Music School Assembly
Spring 2023
Young Voices Concert
Y6 Choir ‘Encore! Encore!’, Brindley Theatre
KS1 Music Festival
Royal Opera House – Magic Flute
Music ambassador School Presentation
Chinese Music Workshop
Arabic Music Workshop
St Oswald’s works closely with Accent Music Hub who deliver music provision in Warrington and Halton. More information about Accent Music Hub can be found on their website:
