Our Vision for Music Learning at Burlington

Music lessons are lively and interactive and aim to foster a passion for music.  Through playing, singing, listening, composing and performing, children will develop confidence, communication, thinking and creative skills and improve their emotional well-being.  Bespoke planning is linked to each year group's topic planning, incorporating Kodaly pedagogy and aspects of the Charanga Music resource.  This experimentation continues through the years with Reception learning to play Djembe Drums, Year 1 Boomwhackers and Year 2 Chime bars.  

In Nursery, children engage with a wide range of music and express themselves through movement and singing.  Children gain confidence in their voices through traditional nursery rhymes and vocalisation games. A variety of props are used to make music exciting, with toys, scarves and musical scrunchies. Music is a key tool to aid communication skills, reinforced language through well-chosen repertoire and listening skills are continually developed.  In Reception, children explore a range of movement and action songs developing confidence in their voices. Children learn to recognise patterns in songs and play instruments along to familiar tunes. Percussion instruments are used in games to explore musical elements such as dynamics and tempo. Exploration is encouraged and children create sounds to go with stories such as; ‘Gingerbread Man’, ‘Going on a bear Hunt’ and continue making music at their music stations in their Reception classrooms.  On a Thursday morning Nursery and Reception children with their parents enjoy starting the day with nursery rhymes and simple action songs.  Sunrise Singers hopes to develop confidence, language and literacy skills. Places are given by invitation to those children who would benefit from this session.

In Year 1, children learn a range of songs linked to their class topics. Children continue to learn about the elements of music through exploring changes in tempo, dynamics and rhythm.  In the Spring term children participate in whole class ‘djembe’ drumming; learning to follow a drum leader, copy rhythms and create patterns themselves.  In Year 2, children continue to develop their vocal skills through topic-linked songs. Children develop ensemble-playing skills through learning melodies on chime bars in pairs. They are introduced to musical notation on the stave and  gain an understanding of basic note values and rests and how to follow music.  Year 1 and 2 children gather each week to sing, it’s a special opportunity to hear hundreds of voices gathered in song! 

Aside from timetabled, weekly music lessons, we offer extra curricular opportunities to practise and perform.  Year 2 children can join the after school choir and enjoy learning to sing and perform a variety of songs with actions and props.   The children have delighted audiences at the Christmas Fair, a local nursing home and at the Rose Theatre.  If your child is interested in joining the choir please talk to the office.

The Music curriculum at Burlington follows the National Curriculum.  You can find the appropriate extract of this National Curriculum for Music here: 

National Curriculum in KS1 - Music

Please note this extract covers KS1 (Years 1 and 2) and Key Stage 2 which is followed by the Junior School (Years 3 to 6).

The curriculum map below gives you a complete summary of the Music skills, knowledge and key vocabulary that we teach our children, during each term as they progress from Nursery / Reception and through to Years 1 and 2.

Music @ Burlington - Curriculum Map

Here is a summary of the key learning concepts taught from Reception to Year 2.

Music @ Burlington - Road Map

Here are some photos of our teaching and learning for Music across the school: 

How to Help at Home

Singing traditional songs is always a lovely way to engage musically with your child. This website offers a range of nursery rhymes to sing along with:

BBC Nursery songs and rhymes

At Burlington, we love to celebrate everyone’s musical culture. If you have a song from your family’s culture that you would like to share, please feel free to send an email with a youtube link to the office titled ‘Burlington Music Playlist’ and include any messages about the song. We will then share these pieces in singing assemblies and music sessions.

Charanga - Online Music Resource for Years 1 & 2

Kingston Music Services offer group recorder and ukelele lessons as well as individual violin and piano lessons.  For more information contact Kingston Music Services directly. 

Kingston Music Service web page