At Smithdown Primary School, together we grow through the universal language of music. We believe that music is an essential part of a broad and balanced education — one that promotes positivity, creativity, and a strong sense of belonging within our diverse community.
Our Music curriculum is designed to be ambitious, inclusive, and progressive, ensuring that every child — including those with SEND or other vulnerabilities — can experience success as a musician. Through a rich sequence of learning from the Early Years to Year 6, pupils develop technical, creative, and critical skills while nurturing confidence and self-expression.
We aim for all children to:
Enjoy and value music as an important form of personal and cultural expression.
Develop musical skills in singing, listening, performing, composing, and evaluating.
Appreciate music from a wide range of genres, traditions, and historical periods, reflecting our multicultural world.
Grow in confidence through performance and collaboration, celebrating success together.
Music is an integral part of life at Smithdown. It is taught by our specialist teachers, Mrs Naylor and Mr Humphreys, who deliver engaging, high-quality lessons to ensure consistency, progression, and enthusiasm across the school.
In the Early Years Foundation Stage, children explore sound, rhythm, and movement through songs, body percussion and untuned instruments. These experiences lay the foundation for listening, coordination, and early musicianship.
In Key Stage 1, pupils use their voices expressively, begin to read and write simple notation, and develop understanding of the interrelated dimensions of music — pitch, rhythm, tempo, and dynamics — through performing, listening, and composing.
In Key Stage 2, pupils deepen their understanding of musical structure, style, and form. They explore music from different cultures and historical periods, compose and perform using tuned instruments and digital technology, and refine their work using musical vocabulary and notation.
Music at Smithdown goes beyond the classroom. Pupils participate in:
Choir and instrumental groups, developing teamwork and performance confidence.
Singing assemblies and whole-school celebrations, fostering joy, unity, and pride.
Half-termly Music Celebration Assemblies, where every child has the opportunity to perform and share their learning.
Community events and performances, helping pupils connect their learning to the wider world.
Assessment in music is ongoing and practical, based on teacher observation, listening, discussion, and recorded evidence of performances. This ensures that progress in musicianship, creativity, and confidence is recognised and celebrated for every learner.
By the end of their journey at Smithdown, pupils:
Demonstrate a secure understanding of musical concepts and vocabulary.
Can sing, play, perform, and compose with increasing control, accuracy, and expression.
Appreciate and discuss music from a wide range of genres, cultures, and historical periods.
Show confidence and enjoyment in performing to others, both individually and as part of an ensemble.
Recognise the importance of music in everyday life and in shaping cultural identity.
Develop resilience, collaboration, and pride — living out our motto, “Together We Grow.”
Music at Smithdown nurtures creativity, builds confidence, and gives every child a voice. It helps them understand that music is not only something to learn, but something to feel, share, and celebrate — a skill and a joy that will stay with them for life.
We value the importance of performance. We have a school choir who and, throughout the year, all children will be given the opportunity to showcase their musical talents in our half termly music assembly. Parents are warmly welcome to these special occasions. Our timetable will be confirmed soon.
Music Assembly Timetable – dates to be confirmed
In music we have been looking at largo (slow tempo) and presto (fast tempo). We have been using our voices and bodies to move/sing in this way. Today we enjoyed using our bodies as instruments and changing tempo to match the beat.
Today we had lots of fun working in groups to create a dance and role play as our character dancing in the rays of sun from our new book in English.
We listened to music about the sun and got into character. 
Playing a range of scales on the glockenspiels this morning 🎼 🎶
Year 4 absolutely loved their first ukulele lesson today. They have a passion for music and different singers/bands. We can’t wait to start practicing songs with our new instrument. 🎶
This week we have learnt two new songs, I’m a little tea pot and tiny Tim. We have had fun exploring with the soap and water. We have also been making cups of tea using the tea bags.
We loved taking part in BeatleMania today!
”We all lived in a yellow submarine!” 🎶
We are practicing songs for our big teddy bear sleepover coming up on Wednesday 9th July at 2.15pm! All parents and families welcome.
Thank you all for coming to our Father’s / Special Person assembly 🌟 the children worked so hard practicing both songs and making their lovely art work. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
We listened to the lovely sounds of the violin and sang along to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
We have had a great time playing the claves in music. We had to keep to a beat and then stop!
In music, we had a great lesson singing our new song ‘Tongo’ whilst using the glockenspiel. We are really enjoying the new skills taught during our music lessons.
We had an amazing afternoon in our lion dancing workshop. Happy Lunar New Year! 
We have had the best day today…
First, the children were visited by Santa 🎅🏽 who told the class how good they had all been. We were then all treated to the most tasty Christmas dinner. We then went back to class to enjoy yet another favourite treat of ice-cream whilst watching the ‘Beauty and Beast’ panto. What a great 🎉 party day!
We had a lovely morning with our Hands assembly and our DT craft activities. Thank you to all our adults who turned up to support us.
We’ve been working so hard this half term in music. The improvement in our playing is amazing!
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For our PSHE lesson we are celebrating differences. In previous weeks we have spoken about racism, bullying and rumours and now we are researching a range of countries and what their culture looks like.
Yesterday we had a great time at the International Slavery Museum. We had a workshop in the ‘legacies of the transatlantic slave trade’ and then had time to explore the museum with our task sheets. 
Today we have loved our class campfire. We enjoyed toasting the marshmallows, creating a s’more and having some hot chocolate. We even had a blast from the past with some children’s songs and rhymes. 
We’re using a range of percussion instruments to tap out beats and rhythms in music today.
Today we use glockenspiels and xylophones in our music lesson to play the C triad and the F triad. We played this to Bob Marley’s “Three little birds”. 
Year 3 had another great ‘Hands’ practice. We are really enjoying learning new sign language.
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We are really trying hard to get the notes on the ukulele. The finger positioning is so difficult!
A wonderful morning learning the ukulele. We even had some amazing solo performances!
We are really enjoying our ukulele lessons and learning so much. 🎼🎶🎼🎵
We really enjoyed singing songs and listening to the sounds of the ukulele in music today.
Wow we have had a great time for our Big Teddy Bear Sleepover! First we started with a super singing assembly with Mrs Naylor. It was fun singing and dancing with our teddies. Then we made our teddies a bed to sleep in. We could not believe what they got up too when we went home. This morning we woke our teddies up with a lovely breakfast.
I love starting off our Wednesdays with our singing assembly. It puts a smile on all our faces and gets us ready for our work.
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Reception have been listening to Mrs Naylor play the harp in our music lesson today!
We’ve learnt about ‘Gamalan’ music, traditional music in Indonesia, and now we’re playing in groups our own versions.
We have been thinking of actions and qualities to fit a character. We’re now choosing and using percussion instruments to play to represent our character, their qualities and actions with music. ? ? ? ?
We had our first ukulele session last week. Chords and frets ???#smithdownmusic
4KM had a great music lesson this morning? the children also learnt how to play a new note? @ResonateHub #smithdownmusic
4KM had a great music lesson playing their trumpets, the children were even able to learn a new note?? #smithdownmusic @ResonateHub
Year 4 had a wonderful morning! They were amazing learning their first note on their trumpets. #smithdownmusic
This morning we learnt a Harvest song in our music ? assembly. We are really enjoying practising this song about this special time of year #smithdownmusic
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We are enjoying our first music lesson with Mrs Naylor! #smithdownmusic @SmithdownPrimR
Dancing with scarves in our music lesson. #smithdowneyfs #smithdownmusic @SmithdownPr
We all love our music lessons with Mrs Naylor! #smithdowneyfs #smithdownmusic
We enjoyed our very first music lesson yesterday! #smithdowneyfs #smithdownmusic
We had lots of fun in music this morning dancing and freezing to the beat. #smithdowneyfs #smithdownmusic @ResonateHub
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Using instruments to make animal sounds!
We had a great time learning a new song about a teddy today.
We love our ukulele lessons ??
