We believe passionately in delivering a vibrant music curriculum that is progressive and accessiblefor all our children.
Learning music is like learning an undiscovered language with a power to evoke laughter, tears and healing when words fail. Through music, we want our children to be able to express the inexpressible.
It is our aim to always provide and foster a creative environment that allows our young musicians to discover and experience beautiful melodies, interesting rhythms and weird and wonderful instrumentation.
We believe knowledge and creativity are inextricably linked. In order for children to be creatively successful, they need the building blocks of musical knowledge at their disposal by which to experiment and build on. Our curriculum design places progressive knowledge development alongside creativity at its core.
Our curriculum strongly supports the expressive values of individual and collective singing and vocal performance. Singing is integrated throughout all studies.
Within instrument studies, children practice, strengthen and develop the tone andr ange of their voices. Specifically chosen songs are taught to form part of end of study performances. Within origins studies, specific songs are chosen to enable the children to learn to sing in the style of that genre. A singing performance again concludes the the study.
Performance is an important element of each study, as alongside knowledge and understanding, it builds confidence and fluidity while allowing our young musicians to prepare themselves and engage emotionally, physically and mentally. In addition to end of study performances, children have the opportunity to perform individually and in groups throughout studies.
Both types of performance support evaluation, reflection and suggestive improvements.
Our children have the opportunity to learn a carefully selected new instrument, in each year group. This gives children many opportunities to succeed whilst also deepening their understanding of transferrable knowledge including basic music theory such as scales and notation.
Each lesson begins with retrieval practice. This focuses on the interrelated musical dimensions (pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture and structure) and includes music with the instrument being studied.
Instruction focuses on ‘I do, we do, you do’ to develop techniques and deepen children’s understanding whilst simultaneously broadening both their listening and playing.
Composition and notation is carefully built upon.
Throughout our origins studies we have considered and researched a variety of musical styles. They are designed to support the children’s understanding of the history and evolution of music whilst capturing their imagination through the wonderful journey from monophonic Medieval to contemporary K Pop and from Britpop to Ancient Griot and World Music.
Our children listen to and learn from a range of influential styles, genres and eras, rooting their understanding in geographical and historical origins.
Retrieval practice begins each lesson with with a focus on selected artists and songs primarily involved in the history of the study alongside acknowledgement of the key style indicators of each musical genre.
We strive to immerse and enrich our children’s understanding of musical cultures, origins and evolution by providing a unique and rich tapestry of world genres, while introducing them to some of the world’s greatest composers and musicians.
By the time children leave Year 6, children will have experienced a range of opportunities; to be inspired, to build confidence, to allow thinking and creativity and to engage and value the wonderful language of music. Our young musicians will have an opportunity to listen and critique music from array of composers, musicians, and genres from across historyand around the world. They will understand and learn to read and write musical notation. They will experience solo and ensemble performance with a range of instruments and through singing, while developing a deep knowledge of the inter-related musical dimensions.
Our timeline shows the artists and genres children explore through our curriculum. Dark orange are artists and genres and sub-genres focused on. In light orange are artists listened to, associated genres and sub-genres.
We recognise the genres in music are infinite. Our goal is to build children's knowledge of specific genres alongside opening their musical world, inspiring them to expand their own musical journeys.
Below are example documents and support from our curriculum intent.
Our music curriculum is underpinned by progressions in listening, composition, notation, playing and singing. Each progression has black and orange text. Black text shows techniques continuing to be developed from previous years, with orange text the newly introduced techniques for that year group.
Our listening progression, below, encorporates the Interrelated Musical Dimensions throughout.
Below are example Instrument and Origins studies