Across all areas of the National Curriculum at Riverside Primary School, teachers set suitable learning challenges, respond to pupils’ diverse learning needs, modify the curriculum to remove any potential barriers to learning and assessment for particular individuals or groups of pupils. Teachers have an excellent knowledge of the needs of all pupils in their classes and are able to plan personalised and differentiated learning experiences which meet the needs of individual pupils. Inclusion is always at the centre of any teaching approach.

Music- Supporting Children with SEND

In many ways’ music is a unique subject as it is one of the oldest forms of communication that exists. Music combines creativity with emotion and can be accessed in many different ways; it allows opportunities for exploring identity, developing team work, self-expression and making an emotional connection to others and the world around us.

In music there are lots of technical vocabulary and new concepts for children to grasp along with a wide range of skills to be taught from understanding theory, listening and appraising to playing instruments and performing. To include pupils with SEN and/or disabilities teachers consider what makes a topic difficult for individuals or groups of pupils. In music this may be understanding and using new vocabulary, playing a variety of instruments or the types of music explored.  Staff help pupils with SEN to overcome any barriers to participating and learning, and make any reasonable adjustments needed to include disabled pupils in all aspects of school life.

In order to enable all children to access the music curriculum at Riverside there may be opportunities for:

• pre-exposure to new learning material such as a new instruments or piece of music to be studied.
• the use of visual aids to support understanding.
• consideration to how group work is organised- the size of groups, where they work and level of support required.
• making use of personal equipment such as ear-defenders.
• use of a range of strategies including: modelling, imitating and demonstrating to help learners understand musical concepts.
• beginning lessons with a recap of previous learning or recapping new vocabulary.