Music

Our Music Knowledge Organisers

We have developed Knowledge Organisers (KO) because research shows that our brains remember things more efficiently when we know the ‘bigger picture’ in a topic or subject area and can see the way that areas of knowledge within that subject area link, forming schemata. Making links, essentially, helps information move into our long-term memory. Regular retrieval of knowledge in the classroom and at home using our Knowledge Organisers helps us remember more effectively, helping us store knowledge in, and recall it from, the long-term memory, freeing up space in the working memory to take on new knowledge. Knowledge Organisers enable teachers to ensure that key information is taught over a sequence of lessons, assessing knowledge-based outcomes.

Music Knowledge Organisers Summer First Half Term 2021

Our Music Curriculum

Purpose of study

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.

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 will know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study.

Subject content

Key stage 1

Pupils will be taught to:

• 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 inter-related dimensions of music.

Key stage 2

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

Pupils will be taught to:

• 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 inter-related dimensions of music
• listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
• use and understand staff and other 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.