At Waterfield we aim to provide all pupils with high-quality music education which engages and inspires pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians thus increasing self-confidence, creativity and a sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to Perform, Compose and Appraise Music.

As ‘Musicians’ children experience a sequentially planned ‘Spiral Music Curriculum’ that results in the acquisition of a progressive accumulation of skills.

Conceptual Understanding – occurs when new information and ideas are incorporated into pupils’ existing knowledge framework and includes:

  • An appreciation of composers and their compositions
  • Identifying similarities and differences between composers and their works
  • Knowing about great composers and musicians and understanding the historical and cultural development of their works.
  • Nurturing a genuine interest in the subject and an ability to evaluate their own and others’ performances and compositions.

The essential characteristics of a Musician:

  • A rapidly widening repertoire which they use to create original, imaginative, fluent and distinctive composing and performance work. 
  • A musical understanding underpinned by high levels of aural perception, internalisation and knowledge of music, including high or rapidly developing levels of technical expertise. 
  • Very good awareness and appreciation of different musical traditions and genres.
  • An excellent understanding of how musical provenance – the historical, social and cultural origins of music – contributes to the diversity of musical styles.
  • The ability to give precise written and verbal explanations, using musical terminology effectively, accurately and appropriately.
  • A passion for and commitment to a diverse range of musical activities.

Our Music curriculum is designed to allow ALL children access to, and experience of music, allowing self-expression and development in order for everyone to realise their full potential in this universal language.  

By the end of Year 6 our music curriculum will have instilled inquisitive and knowledgeable appreciators of a diverse range of musical styles.  Most importantly, our pupils will have the cultural confidence to respond in a personal way to music, using the language of appreciation.  They recognise the joy of performance and sharing this experience with an audience, whilst developing communication and building resilience; both invaluable qualities for secondary education and for future adult life.

Implementation

Pupils organise their knowledge, skills and understanding around the following learning concepts:

  • Perform – understand that music is created to perform;
  • Compose – appreciating that music is created through a process which has a number of techniques;
  • Transcribe – understand that compositions need to be understood by others and that there re techniques and a language for communicating them;
  • Describe – appreciating the features and effectiveness of musical elements.

 

At each Key Stage a wide range of content is covered through performing, composing, transcribing and describing music. This approach ensures the children get a rich learning experience covering all aspects of music. There is a clear progression of skills and knowledge to accompany each unit and sets out exactly how the children progress throughout the year, and year on year. Children are also given the opportunity to learn to play musical instruments as part of the curriculum.

Impact

As a result of the music curriculum, children develop a love of music and increased understanding of the impact that music can have on their own and others’ lives. Children demonstrate progression of knowledge and skills which they continuously build on and embed. Through the study of music, we encourage children to develop resilience, communication and taking creative risks. We carefully balance studying musicians from different traditions along with great musicians and composers that develop an understanding of history and culture.