Music

Music

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.
 

Intent

The school uses the 2014 National Curriculum and EYFS Curriculum for directing the teaching of music, which is supplemented by the 2021 DfE Model Music Curriculum. We intend to build a music curriculum, which develops learning and results in pupils knowing more and understanding how the knowledge and skills can be applied to their own musical development. We will design a curriculum with appropriate subject knowledge and skills in exploring, creating, performing and evaluating music so that children can reach their full potential at Wansdyke School.

Implementation

The school will implement a clear and comprehensive progression of skills as outlined in the National Curriculum and further detailed in the Model Music Curriculum. Children will have access to key knowledge, language and meanings in order to understand and readily apply to their work of music and across the wider curriculum. Where applicable links to music will be made to develop effective learning experiences. Music is taught weekly, which enables children to rehearse and refine songs for performance, develop an understanding of a piece or genre of music and develop their own ideas for composition. The projects are intrinsically linked to important artists or movements and are time lined accordingly to give children the historical and wider world exposure. Skills and prior knowledge are built upon and revisited throughout the school with strong links made to previous knowledge and other curriculum areas.

Impact

Through the carefully structured curriculum and high quality teaching, we expect the outcomes to be effective. Children will retain knowledge about their focus musician or composition for each unit of work, remember their knowledge and understand how to use it and apply the skills demonstrated in their own compositions. This will enable children to succeed and achieve their age related expectations. Children will ultimately understand what being a ‘musician’ means.  A growing bank of exemplification supports staff with understanding age related expectations and formative assessments.