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Music

Music Intent, Implementation and Impact

 

Intent

Our music curriculum follows the intended learning and ambition of the National Curriculum, to ensure that pupils require to become confident performers, composers, and listeners. It is our intention that through studying music, pupils will have the opportunity to enjoy, succeed and excel in music and develop a life-long love of music. We believe that music should be an enjoyable experience for pupils and teachers. Children participate in a range of musical experiences, to help learn about themselves and develop their skills and knowledge in different context, as well as building up their confidence and resilience at the same time. Through music our curriculum, we support children to develop transferable skills such as team-working, leadership, creative thinking, problem solving, decision making and as the children’s confidence builds, they enjoy the performance aspects of music. It is our intention that through studying music, pupils become more expert as they progress through the curriculum, developing musically across 3 pillars that interrelate in musicianship.

 

The 3 pillars are:

1. Technical Development - this is pupils being able to translate their intentions successfully into sound. This will often involve instrumental playing or singing, but it may also focus on music technology.

2. Constructive Development – this is knowing how different musical components come together, both analytically and in the creative process.

3. Expressive Development is focused on the more indefinable aspects of music: quality, meaning and creativity. 

Music is planned so that it supports pupils in developing these 3 pillars, which in turn support the core areas of study: performing, composing, musical notation, study of seminal musicians and compositions and the study of the history of music.

 

Our music curriculum has been deliberately built around the principles evidence-led practise. This is to ensure that pupils are equipped to successfully think, work and communicate like a musician. Unapologetically ambitious, our music curriculum focuses on pupils using both their conscious and unconscious minds through different learning experiences. Our intention is unmissable; exceptional teacher instruction inspires pupils to acquire knowledge, as a musician, and enable them to skilfully attempt and apply their understanding through high-quality development as a musician. It is our intention that through studying music, pupils become more expert as they progress through the curriculum, accumulating, connecting and making sense of the rich tacit, procedural and declarative knowledge.

• Tacit knowledge refers to the knowledge gained through experience that is often difficult to put into words.

• Procedural knowledge is the knowledge exercised in the performance of a task.

• Declarative knowledge refers to facts or information stored in the memory.

 

Our curriculum recognises that pupils may forget a lot of what they learn after their first encounter, therefore we plan regular opportunities for further practise and application of skills taught, so that knowledge becomes embedded, both within year groups, and across year groups.

 

Implementation

We implement our intent using CUSP Music. A guiding principle of CUSP Music is that each study draws upon prior learning. This makes it easier to cognitively process. This helps to accelerate new learning as children integrate prior understanding. Our curriculum follows a spiral model where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon. Children are taught to sing fluently and expressively, and play tuned and untuned instruments accurately and with control. We provide our children with opportunities to develop their expertise in using a tuned instrument for a minimum of one term as recommended in the Model music curriculum. Children progress in terms of tackling more complex tasks and doing more simple tasks better, as well as developing understanding and knowledge of the history of music, staff, and other musical notations, as well as learn to recognise and name the interrelated dimensions of music – pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics- and use these expressively in their own improvisations and compositions. 

Music is taught as a discrete subject but also across the curriculum. Areas of learning, such as times tables in maths, vocabulary in languages and movement in dance can all incorporate different elements of music. A weekly singing assembly allows the children opportunities to develop their singing skills and gain an understanding of how ensembles work. We also develop pupil’s appreciation skills through a weekly composer file, that links to the assembly theme of that particular week. Performances, such as Christmas plays and nativities, end of term concerts, end of year productions, and links we have made within our local and wider community, but also nationally, demonstrate that music is important to the life of the school. Extracurricular activities, such as choir and peripatetic music lessons, also provide children with experience of making music. 

 

Learning Sequences

We organise intended learning into modules or units. These group the knowledge, skills and understanding that we want children to remember, do and use. Each module aims to activate and build upon prior learning, including from the early years, to ensure better cognition and retention. The skills required for working in a particular subject are outlined e.g. working scientifically. Close attention is paid to the tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary to be taught to allow pupils to engage in the required vocabulary. They are deliberately spaced within and across years to introduce and revisit key concepts. This enables staff to deepen pupil understanding and embed learning. Each module is carefully sequenced to enable pupils to purposefully layer learning from previous sessions to facilitate the acquisition and retention of key knowledge.

 

Impact

The expected impact of following 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 appreciation 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 and articulate an enthusiasm for music and be able to identify their own personal musical preferences.

• Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the national curriculum for music.

 

Please see the Overall Curriculum Statements for more on our Intent, Implementation and Impact.

Music Development Plan