The Music Curriculum
Vision
Learning music skills has many benefits for both the individual and the wider community. It helps to break down social barriers and encourages cross-cultural understanding, as well as helping the individual to boost their problem solving, muscle memory and listening skills.
The Music Curriculum will:
- foster an interest in listening to music by introducing children to a range of music from other cultures and from the history of music
- provide opportunities for children to perform together both with singing and with musical instruments
- stimulate and encourage children’s curiosity about music and creativity in experimenting with it by improvising and composing
- help children develop their awareness of cultural similarities and differences
- lay the foundations for future music study by providing opportunities to learn basic skills on a range of instruments
Intent
It is our intent at Carrington Junior School to ensure that children gain a firm understanding of what music is, through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, improvising and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions, and musical genres. Our curriculum is designed to develop a curiosity for music, as well as an understanding and acceptance of the validity and importance of all types of music across different cultures and environments. We are committed to ensuring children understand the value and importance of music in the wider community and are able to use their musical skills, knowledge, and experiences to involve themselves in music, in a variety of different contexts.
Implementation
Through the National Curriculum and the Model Music Curriculum (2021), our music curriculum ensures students sing, listen, play, perform, improvise, compose and evaluate. This is embedded in classroom activities and children are exposed to a wide range of musical genres to listen to throughout the day, using the recommendations of the Model Music Curriculum, as well as a wide range of music that incorporates the topics that the children are learning in other subjects. Weekly singing assemblies, concerts, performances, and the learning of instruments, all feed into the rich and broad musical diet that the children are exposed to. We are in the unique position that all children learn music through learning different musical instruments. Year 3 learn through the violin, Year 4 learn through the ukulele, Year 5 learn through brass instruments and Year 6 learn through African drums and again revisit the ukulele to build on prior learning.
Our skills progression grid demonstrates how children develop their musical skills as they move through the key stages. The elements of music are taught and children are able to use some of the language of music to discuss it, and understand how it is made, played, appreciated and evaluated. In the classroom, children learn how to both improvise and compose focussing on different dimensions of music, which in turn feeds their understanding when listening, playing, or analysing music.
