Music - learning journey & curriculum

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; thus transforming lives.

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.

Our curriculum exploits an innate relationship with music and in its early stages uses that to convince students that they are all musical.

Our highly practical curriculum allows all students to perform, compose, 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. Over time this ensures our students can truly think, write and talk like musicians.

We create opportunities for students to use their voices, instruments and technology, to create and compose music on their own and with others. On top of this all our students have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument and progress to the next level of musical excellence as well as being able to perform in front of a range of audiences where they receive the greatest of all feedback from an applauding and appreciative audience.

We want to nurture a lifelong appreciation of music and inspire futures with its cultural, social and emotional benefits, whilst also giving students the opportunity to make music, think more musically and become even more musical.

Our curriculum has the ambition that all students should be able to perform to a challenging level with a focus on keyboard skills at KS3, they should be able to compose at a level that demonstrates a good understanding of compositional intent, creativity and self-expression, and that they should regularly listen to music from a wide range of genres, cultures and eras that will spark a curiosity to discover and appreciate a broad repertoire of work.

Our students regularly face the challenge of performing in front of their peers and watching their own performance back so that they can reflect on their progress and develop the confidence to share their musical ability with others.

We encourage active listening rather than hearing music; to analyse and appraise music using subject specific vocabulary and be able to justify and evidence an opinion about music whether it’s to their taste or not.

Our curriculum aims to allow a truly comprehensive cohort of students to access music studies beyond KS3. In KS3 all students learn to play keyboards, sing and create rhythmic work which allows all to access a musical outcome and for which the process is also recognised alongside the product. Regular group work gives all students an equal role in the quality of the final performance and encourages students to be supportive of each other’s needs. A range of topics also allows students to recognise strengths across different genres and skills.

At KS4 we have the facilities and subject knowledge to allow students to perform and compose on a wide range of instruments, including Music Technology. Music Technology allows students to perform and create in a number of ways and removes the barrier of higher-level instrumental skills being needed.

From Year 7 onwards students start to develop the appraising skills and technical vocabulary that build in complexity towards the high levels needed for KS5 study.

To appraise music, it is broken down into fundamental elements which remain the same throughout all stages: pitch, dynamics, rhythm, harmony, structure, texture, tempo, articulation, etc. At KS3 the connection of sound to symbol is made through aural ‘5 in 5s’, interim tests and the language used during practical work. At KS4 the elements complexity increases and students learn how to apply knowledge of them to analyse compositional intent including a focus on popular and classical set works, and how to apply it to their own compositions. At KS5 the complexity of the elements deepens further and students develop an understanding of how they and associated devices are exploited in music from the Western Classical Tradition, 20^th Century and Rock and Pop from 1960 – 2000.