The Curriculum 

Why we teach Music

Music is taught in a cross-curricular approach following the National Curriculum 2014.

Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high-quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon. 

Aims

The national curriculum for music aims to ensure that 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 interrelated dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations

Subject content

Key stage 1

Pupils should be taught to:

·use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes

·play tuned and untuned instruments musically

·listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music

·experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the interrelated dimensions of music

Key stage 2

Pupils should be taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They should develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory.

Pupils should be taught to:

·play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression

·improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music

·listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory

·use and understand staff and other musical notations

·appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians

·develop an understanding of the history of music

Role of the subject leader:

The subject leader for the Arts (Ms Ashleigh Lindsay) is responsible for improving the standards of teaching and learning in the arts subjects.

This is done in the following ways:

• tracking pupil progress in the arts subjects; art, music and dance
• monitoring of school environment through completion of learning walks
• monitoring teaching and learning through observing lessons
• monitoring teaching and learning by completing scrutiny of books and work produced.
• delivery of staff meetings and CPD of teaching and learning strategies for teaching staff and LSAs
• purchasing, organising and auditing of resources
• making links with arts and cultural organisations
• organising whole school arts and culture days
• keeping up to date with the arts in the curriculum and media
• supporting the teaching of the arts