Why is music important?

Music can be used to help children express themselves and their emotions. Children are encouraged to experiment, through improvisation, composition and in using a range of instruments, to find different ways in which to be creative, while at the same time finding a way to demonstrate their emotions in a constructive manner and relate to others.

It allows children to explore their creativity and expression along with their team working skills by closely working with other pupils.

Aims of the Music Curriculum

The national curriculum for music in Key Stage 1 aims to ensure that all pupils:

• use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
• play tuned and untuned instruments musically
• listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music
• experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the interrelated dimensions of music.

The national curriculum for music in Key Stage 2 develops this knowledge and these skills further to ensure all pupils:

• play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression
• improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music
• listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
• use and understand musical notations
• appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians
• develop an understanding of the history of music.

We use Kapow for our music planning which is based on the following principles:

• Cyclical – children return to the same skills and knowledge throughout Key Stage 1 and 2.
• Increasing depth – each time a skill or area of knowledge is revisited it is covered in more depth.
• Prior knowledge- prior knowledge is revisited so children can build upon previous foundations. 

Our music curriculum ensures that pupils are taught the key musical knowledge and vocabulary and these terms and knowledge are revisited and interwoven throughout units in each group enabling pupils to build upon and embed their understanding through spaced practice retrieval.

Please click on the attached Curriculum Handbook to view the Intent, Implementation and Impact of our Curriculum.

Associated Pages