Construction of the Music Curriculum
The music curriculum at Newby Primary has been carefully designed and planned to provide opportunities for all children to be their best. We strive to provide a curriculum that is engaging, fun and purposeful yet tailored to our pupils' interests and needs. Our curriculum is humanity rich and supports an understanding of British values. We believe that it is of huge importance that the children experience their learning first hand so staff endeavour to make each topic and area of learning based on tangible experiences, whilst following an adapted National Curriculum. The music curriculum has been carefully curated to give our children the opportunity to listen to and perform music from a range of genre and historical periods.
Ambition of the Curriculum
At Newby Primary, we recognise the vital role of music in allowing curiosity, creativity and self –expression to develop alongside resilience, confidence and critical thinking skills. Through listening to each term’s key pieces, we aim to get pupils creative with a range of musical genre and develop imaginative responses to music. Our aim is to produce children who leave Newby Primary as confident musicians who appreciate a wide range of music. Year on year, our curriculum introduces every member of our school community to a wide range of music and artists, including those from different periods and cultures. This in turn creates world citizens with an understanding of how art impacts and enhances societies and our surroundings. High priority is given to opportunities for discussion, commentating on what we have heard, and talking through ideas and plans for our own work. Every year, there is a clear progression of skills, which build on prior learning. Our hope is that children learn to read music and will leave school with the ability to play at least one musical instrument.
Skills and Content
DfE Model Music Curriculum March 2021
At Newby, we are confident that our Music curriculum is as ambitious as the model curriculum set out by the DfE. We have reviewed our curriculum using the model curriculum as a framework.
In response to the model framework, we have begun to put together overview documents, similar to those given by the DfE. Our 'Listening Curriculum' uses the same headings, for example, and demonstrates how the Newby Curriculum meets the same aims but in a way which is relevant to our children.
Our curriculum aims to ensure our children have a global awareness. The music children experience as they progress through school has been carefully planned to cover music from around the globe. Our learning experiences in music aim to develop long term, memorable knowledge, concepts and skills which can be applied flexibly. This is because we know that long term, deeper knowledge grows when links are made between concepts, which build on prior knowledge and are applied in different contexts. As the children progress through the school, the skills and techniques develop with them and are built upon year upon year.