The Music Department at Avenue is vibrant, lively and fun. We constantly look for opportunities to promote inclusivity, ensemble work and performances while at the same time nurturing our pupils, developing both their confidence and standards of excellence.
Avenue Primary is committed to providing an enriched Arts education for all pupils and to embed Music into the wider Arts and National Curriculum based topics.
Every child engages in quality music education from Reception until the end of KS2 in Year 6.
The aim of our curriculum is to ensure all pupils:
- 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 to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to 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.
In the Early Years, music is incorporated consistently into daily routines and is used to enhance teaching of the core curriculum in addition to being taught as a stand-alone subject in Reception.
In KS1 and KS2 pupils participate in weekly music and sign-language assemblies and a one-hour curriculum music lesson with our dedicated professional teacher Mr Henderson Jones.
The Musical Curriculum at Avenue:
Reception to Year 1
Pupils focus on learning through enjoyment and developing a confident and accurate singing voice, as well as the opportunity to try a variety of fun and exciting musical instruments from the various families. Pupils also experience improvising and performing as a class ensemble through nativities, class assemblies and other school productions.
Year 2 to Year 3
Students will develop their singing and listening skills further, as well as making studies of musical instruments and folk songs, including a variety of traditional and contemporary stringed instruments.
Year 3 to Year 4
The pupils are given an opportunity to study landmark composers and musicians from the 20th century, students will develop an intricate knowledge and understanding of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi.
They also begin to engage with music technology – learning how to sequence existing compositions as well as beginning to develop their own.
Year 5 to Year 6
Pupils will participate in a series of projects including studies of African Music, Film Music, and Musical Theatre. They are also required to engage with music technology at a more sophisticated level, including layering of compositions, editing in midi format and mixing audio tracks and levels. They are also encouraged to work on their own lengthier composition projects.
Musical Opportunities at Avenue
On top of the current mandatory curriculum, there are a rich variety of clubs, trips and opportunities given to all children to experience first-hand the joys of performing music to live audiences.
Currently we offer one-to-one and small group instrument tuitions after school in Electric guitar, Bass Guitar, Ukulele and Piano. Students are actively encouraged to follow both the Rock School and Trinity Music exam boards, with the intention of all students sitting their grade 1 exam at the end of the academic year.
Every year Avenue Primary takes a cohort of both Year 5 and Year 6 students to the 02 Arena where they participate in Young Voices, where students sing popular songs with International singers and celebrities.
We work closely with our local Music Hub, Newham Music, to provide quality and engaging learning experiences. Recently Avenue unveiled the exciting new teaching space “The Music Bus”, a London bus converted into a warm and exciting music room for students to play and learn about music.