Music

Our music teaching at Alma Primary helps our children to become marvellous musicians! 

At Alma Primary, we encourage a love of music through prayer, singing and listening. Music is woven into our wider curriculum, for example in our Year 5 Rhythm & Beats theme, and we learn a wide range of music in our Hebrew and Jewish Learning lessons. We have weekly whole school singing assemblies, as well as singing in each class. If you visit our school, you may notice our very own musical headteacher walking around playing the guitar and hear children singing along!

In Reception, the children can choose from a range of musical instruments during their free play and also have singing time once a week, as well as learning and practising a nursery rhyme of their choice each week. 

In Years 1 to 6 we have recently signed up to Charanga, a music scheme which matches the requirements of the National Curriculum. We are starting to teach how to play the glockenspiel from Year 2 upwards. We also equip our Year 6 pupils to have the knowledge, confidence and leadership skills to lead the younger years through singing prayers each morning. 

 

Art & Design

Art and Design at Alma Primary helps our children to become imaginative creators! 

Out art, craft and design teaching is about enabling our students to become proficient in a range of skills, whilst also becoming immersed into the work of artists, craft makers and designers. Our teaching provides Alma children with the foundations to draw upon their sensory experiences and motivates them to express their own ideas using their creativity.

Alongside specific art knowledge and vocabulary, children will develop their critical thinking and a deepening understanding of art and design, appropriate to their developmental stage.

Through our curriculum, children develop their skills in drawing, painting, printing, sculpture, collage, textiles, 3D work and digital art, using a range of media and materials. They are given the opportunity to explore and evaluate different creative ideas, introduced to a range of relevant works and develop knowledge of the styles used by famous artists. The skills they acquire are applied to their cross-curricular themes, allowing children to use their art skills to reflect on and explore themes in greater depth.  

Our art and design curriculum encourages pupils to be curious, ask questions and make their own interpretations of art.

Design & Technology

Design and Technology (D&T) at Alma Primary helps our children to become resourceful designers! 

We want our children to become imaginative and enterprising positive risk-takers, designing, creating and making whilst developing an understanding of the developing modern technological world in which we live. At Alma Primary, we want our children to be motivated to make meaningful contributions to society through their creativity and innovation across a range of contexts.

Following the pandemic, we have now refocused our specific Design and Technology work using the nationally acclaimed 'Projects on a Page (PoaP).' Year groups design, create and evaluate specific projects based on the PoaP six essentials of good practice in D&T.

These are:

1. User – Children should have a clear idea of who they are designing and making products for, considering their needs, wants, interests or preferences. 
2. Purpose – Children should know what the products they design and make are for. Each product should perform a clearly defined task that can be evaluated in use.
3. Functionality – They should design and make products that function in some way to be successful. 
4. Design Decisions – When designing and making, children need opportunities to make informed decisions such as selecting materials, components and techniques and deciding what form the products will take, how they will work, what task they will perform and who they are for.
5. Innovation – When designing and making, children need some scope to be original and open-ended with their thinking. 
6. Authenticity – Children should design and make products that are believable, real and meaningful to themselves. 

in summer 2023 we are launching an innovative D&T project in partnership with other local schools.