Our Music Subject Leader is: Miss Purslow

Intent

At our school, we believe that music is a universal language that has the power to inspire, connect, and enrich lives. Our Music curriculum is designed to nurture creativity, self-expression, and a love of music. By providing rich opportunities to listen, perform, compose, and evaluate, we empower every child to develop their musical skills, knowledge, and confidence.

Our intent goes beyond technical skills: music becomes a vehicle for embedding our school values. Children build resilience by persevering through the challenges of learning instruments, rehearsing performances, and refining their compositions. They learn respect by valuing the traditions of different cultures, listening attentively to others’ contributions, and celebrating diversity in music from across the world. Through ensemble work, pupils practise reciprocity, collaborating effectively, balancing their own voice with that of others, and developing a sense of unity in performance. Music also offers opportunities for reflectiveness as pupils listen critically to their own work and the work of others, evaluating and refining their ideas. Finally, pupils show responsibility by taking ownership of their practice, preparing for group work, and contributing positively to the musical life of our school.

Through this broad and balanced curriculum, we aim to ensure that children leave our school not only as confident musicians, but also as thoughtful, responsible, and creative individuals.

Implementation

Our Music curriculum is taught through a spiral approach using Kapow Primary’s mixed-age long-term plan, which ensures clear progression across all strands of music — performing, listening and evaluating, improvising and composing, creating sound, and notation. Each unit revisits prior knowledge while deepening skills, enabling children to master core concepts over time.

In the Early Years and Key Stage 1, children explore untuned and tuned instruments, pulse, rhythm, and pitch through playful and engaging activities. As they move into Key Stage 2, they encounter greater technical challenge, including learning notation, developing instrumental skills, and composing more structured pieces. Singing is at the heart of our curriculum, complemented by opportunities to explore music technology, digital composition, and music from a wide range of genres and traditions.

Teachers are supported with CPD videos, step-by-step planning, and assessment tools, ensuring consistency and high-quality delivery even where staff are not music specialists. Performances, class recordings, and community events provide authentic opportunities for pupils to share their learning and celebrate their achievements.

Impact

The impact of our Music curriculum can be seen in the growing confidence, creativity, and collaboration of our pupils. By the end of their primary journey, children are able to:

• Perform with accuracy, expression, and confidence in both solo and group contexts.
• Compose and improvise with creativity, using notation and technology to record and develop ideas.
• Listen critically to a wide range of music, identifying features and articulating preferences with musical vocabulary.
• Appreciate music from a diverse range of cultures, traditions, and historical periods, building respect for the richness of human creativity.

The values of resilience, respect, reciprocity, reflectiveness, and responsibility are clearly evident in pupils’ attitudes and behaviours. They demonstrate resilience in mastering complex rhythms, respect when celebrating the achievements of peers, reciprocity in collaborative performances, reflectiveness when refining their compositions, and responsibility in preparing for concerts and representing the school.

Our assessment strategies, including formative feedback, performance reviews, and summative quizzes, ensure progression is monitored and celebrated. Recordings and live performances provide evidence of improvement in skill and confidence over time. Ultimately, pupils leave our school with not only the ability to read notation, play tuned instruments, and compose structured pieces, but also with a lifelong appreciation of music and an understanding of its role in shaping identity, culture, and community.