Music and the National 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. 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.

The national curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:  perform, 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 § learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence § understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

Attainment targets By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study.

Music – key stages 1 and 2

Subject content

Key stage 1 Pupils should be taught to:

A. use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes

B. play tuned and untuned instruments musically

C. listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music

D. experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.

Key stage 2 Pupils should be taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They should develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory.

Pupils should be taught to:

A. play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression

B. improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music

C. listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory

D. use and understand staff and other musical notations

E. appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians

F. develop an understanding of the history of music.

Music at Springfield

Children at Springfield learn a wide variety of musical styles, instruments and skills.  Each class has a weekly timetabled music lesson, led by a qualified music teacher.  The following table shows the key instruments and skills that are  covered in each year group.  Outlining  a clear progression of skills isn’t straightforward because of the  free and creative nature of the subject.   Some lessons cover each of the listed skills by themselves and some half termly schemes of work may supersede what the stated skills of a year group are. The table below demonstrates the the development of skills that takes place throughout individual lessons, half termly units and year groups.