Music

Intent

Our Music Curriculum is intended to help children feel that they are musical and to develop a lifelong love of music. We focus on developing skills, knowledge and understanding that children need to become confident performers, composers, and listeners. Our curriculum introduces children to music from all over the world and across generations, teaching children to respect and appreciate the music of all traditions and communities.

Children will develop the musical skills of singing, playing, improvising, composing, and listening to music. They will develop an understanding of the history and cultural context of the music that they listen to and learn how music can be written. Through music our curriculum helps children develop transferable skills; teamwork, leadership, creative thinking, decision making and presentation and performance skills. These skills are vital to children’s development as learners and in their lives outside and beyond school.

Our Music Curriculum works to ensure children meet the end of Key Stage attainment targets.

Implementation

Our Music Curriculum takes a holistic approach to music in which the stand below creates engaging and enriching learning experiences: -

• Performing
• Listening
• Composing
• The history of music
• The inter-related dimensions of music

Over the course of the curriculum, children will be taught how to sing and expressively play tuned and untuned instruments with control. They will learn to recognise, and name interrelated dimensions of music; pitch, duration, temp, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics – and use these expressively in their own compositions.

The curriculum is a spiral curriculum, with key areas revisited again and again with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revisit, and building on their previous learning. Children progress in terms of tackling more complex tasks and completing more simple tasks better as well as developing understanding and knowledge of the history of music, as well as the interrelated dimensions of music.

Children will actively participate in musical activities drawn from a range of styles and traditions, Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work as well as improvisation and teacher-led performances. Knowledge organisers for each unit support children in building a base of knowledge in recalling key facts and vocabulary.

Strong subject knowledge is vital to be able to deliver a high-quality Music Curriculum. We have a clear cycle of CPD for staff to ensure that they feel fully skilled to deliver our Music Curriculum.

Lessons are timetabled in unit blocks to ensure that learning is closely connected and that children can immerse themselves in their Music learning. We have a dedicated and well-resourced Music Studio where all lessons take place

Impact

The impact of our Music Curriculum is constantly monitored through assessment, learning walks and pupil discussions. Each unit is assessed against key learning aims.

Our children will leave primary school equipped with a range of skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education and to be able to appreciate music throughout their lives.

Overall, we intend that the impact of our Music curriculum is that children will: -

• Be confident performers, composers and listeners and will be able to express themselves musically at and beyond school.
• Show an appreciated and respect for a wide range of musical styles from around the world and will understand how music is influenced by the wider cultural, social, and historical contexts in which it is developed.
• Understand the ways in which music can be written down to support performing and composing activities.
• Demonstrate enthusiasm for music and be able to identify their own personal musical preferences.
• Meet the end of Key Stage expectation outlined in the national curriculum for music.