“Music touches the very heart of our humanity and a sense of the wonder of music has touched human societies throughout history. Music education offers young people the chance to understand, perform and create in an aural dimension that often sits outside our capacity to describe in words. For many pupils, the music they love will be part of the narrative of their lives and bring colour to the experiences that shape them.”[1]
In music, the development of performance and composition skills underpin the content. Within our music curriculum, students nurture their hope, through extra-curricular activities, performing on stage and feeling success in their end of topic assessments; develop their sense of dignity in all areas of our curriculum; composing, performing and appraising music as we take pride in sharing our music. We build a sense of community through performing and sharing compositions within the classroom, extra-curricular and with the wider community.
We focus on mutual collaboration alongside independence of thought, which is developed through listening and appraising of diverse and varied styles of music.
The music curriculum is designed to support students’ development across the 3 interrelated pillars of:
Technical – how pupils translate their intentions successfully into sound through performance or the use of music technology
Constructive – knowledge of how musical elements are combined, both through analysis and composition
Expressive – indefinable aspects of music, such as quality, meaning and creativity
These disciplines are taught through a wide range of topics that:
- inspire and challenge all students;
- provide a wide range of opportunities for working independently and also collaborating with others;
- provide an inclusive, diverse and engaging curriculum for all;
- develop students understanding of a range of cultures, traditions, genres and styles across historical eras;
- promote a sense of community within school and in the wider community;
- develop literacy skills, particularly around the use of tier 2 and 3 vocabulary;
- provide opportunities for developing a wide variety of transferable skills, such as resilience, respect, and confidence in creative expression.
- All schemes of work build on prior knowledge and skills to prepare students for the next stage in their learning and provide equitable access to key stage 4 courses.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-review-series-music/research-review-series-music (accessed 12th May 2023)
GCSE (Eduqas) – BBC Bitesize
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/examspecs/zbmct39
