Intent

Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. We aim to 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. 

At Moretonhampstead, we use the Kapow Music scheme to develop the skills, knowledge, and understanding needed for our children to become confident performers, composers, and listeners.

Vocabulary

Children will develop the ability to apply subject specific vocabulary in Music through consistent modelling by adults whilst establishing a culture of high expectations for discussions and debates. See a list of relatable vocabulary here.

Implementation

Our curriculum introduces pupils to music from across the world, encouraging respect and appreciation for the music of all traditions and communities. Pupils build musical skills through singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising, composing and listening and responding to music. They develop an understanding of the historical and cultural context of the music they encounter and learn how music can be notated.

Kapow Music adopts a spiral curriculum model; this is where key knowledge and skills are revisited and built on at a level appropriate to children’s development. New learning is weighted toward the beginning of each key stage, allowing for regular opportunities to revisit, consolidate and apply it in subsequent years. As a result, knowledge and skill development may appear more concentrated in some year groups than others.

Rolling Programme

The National curriculum organises the attainment targets for Music under five strands:

• Listening and evaluating
• Creating sound
• Notation
• Improvising and composing
• Performing – singing and playing

Accordingly, Kapow Primary’s Music curriculum has been structured with these strands running through each unit, ensuring balanced coverage of the different areas of Music.

We hold a weekly whole-school singing assembly and children in KS2 can attend choir sessions, with regular opportunities to perform in the community. Our school also offers a range of peripatetic music tuition including piano, drums, guitar, violin and woodwind instruments.

Impact

At Moretonhampstead, we want to help pupils recognise themselves as musical and to nurture a lifelong love of music. 

Formative assessment includes questioning, observation, discussion and peer interaction, retrieval practice and reflection.

Our Music curriculum also supports the development of transferable skills, including teamwork, leadership, creative thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and presentation and performance abilities. These skills are integral to pupils’ development as learners and have wide application in their lives beyond school.