Our music curriculum uses units of work from Music Express and is designed to enable children to grasp a solid understanding of the elements of music and experience a variety of musical styles from around the world, from the past up to modern times. Each unit of work provides children with the opportunity to experience some of these elements, in order to truly develop their skills as a musician.
In addition, our curriculum offers children the experience of playing 2 musical instruments (recorder and samba) for 2 academic years, an experience provided by Professional musicians.
Our music curriculum is built around the following: beat, rhythm, pitch, exploration of sound, composition, structure, notation, singing, performance and musical history. These elements run through and across year groups, ensuring children are able to build knowledge over time. Objectives which have a repeated theme link prior learning with new learning and it enables the children to make links between the information they learn in order to build knowledge and make musical progress.
Our units of study go beyond national curriculum expectations, by including a strong cultural emphasis through learning to play instruments under the guidance of professionals from the music service and through the arts, in particular our Manchester Arts in Education Initiative project, where children in Y5 and Y6 combine music, drama, dance and art over six months, culminating in a professionally produced public performance which is recorded.
Our children’s cultural capital is further enhanced through our choir and singing assemblies. The year 4 choir is part of a network of schools from across Manchester which meets regularly in the Spring Term at Museums and Galleries in Manchester. These rehearsals result in a fabulous performance at the Museums and Galleries. In addition, the year 6 school choir also perform in school at The Winter Fayre and at local care homes.
Music Curriculum Overview
Page Last Reviewed: 21.03.2023
