Purpose of study

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.

All musical learning at our school is built around the Interrelated Dimensions of Music: pulse, rhythm, pitch, tempo, dynamics, timbre, texture, structure and notation. These dimensions are at the centre of all learning; they are musical building blocks. This is an integrated approach to musical learning where games, the interrelated dimensions of music, singing and playing instruments are all linked (spiral of learning).

Aims

The school music curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils:

• perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including works of 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 play tuned and untuned instruments, 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 inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations
• develop an enjoyment and love for music, and a rich, musical vocabulary which can be used to describe and appraise music
• have wider opportunities to develop their musical understanding and confidence through participation in activities outside of the music lesson, e.g. lesson tuition, school choir, school band, productions and performances

Organisation

• Our school uses Charanga, an online learning programme developed by Essex Music Services. Each year group has six units of work, and each unit comprises strands of musical learning which correspond with the national curriculum for music: Listening and Appraising; Musical Activities; Warm-up Games; Optional Flexible Games; Singing; Playing instruments; Improvisation; Composition; Performing.
• Music is taught in discrete half termly topics, though opportunities for cross curricular study are always explored. There may also be times where a unit of work is reduced due to a year group production and the associated songs/music studied during rehearsals.
• Musical units are chosen to offer a breadth of different styles of music from different cultures and periods in history.

For further information, including the skills, knowledge and areas of study for KS1 and KS2, please see our school's curriculum overview below: