Music

Curriculum Lead - Mrs Granton

Intent

At New Pasture Lane Primary School, we believe every child is entitled to a creative, high-quality music education that engages, inspires and fosters a lifelong love of music. Our curriculum is designed to develop pupils’ musical knowledge, skills and understanding, enabling them to appreciate how music is created, performed, produced and communicated.

Through carefully sequenced learning, pupils are given opportunities to perform, listen to, compose and evaluate music from a wide range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions. We aim to nurture self-confidence, creativity and a strong sense of achievement through regular singing, instrumental work and composition.

Our progressive curriculum builds upon prior learning and ensures knowledge and skills are transferable across the wider curriculum. Music contributes significantly to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development by providing insight into diverse cultures, historical contexts and the meaning behind compositions and musical genres.

We are committed to inclusion. Careful consideration is given to ensuring all pupils — including disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND — can fully access and succeed within the music curriculum. Personalised strategies are used in line with our inclusion policy. We actively promote resilience, responsibility and respect as key attributes that support children in reaching their full potential.

Music, by its nature, is a creative and expressive discipline. Through our ambitious curriculum, we seek to inspire curiosity and fascination about music locally, nationally and globally, including connections to our local area and city.

End Points

By the end of EYFS, pupils will:

Sing confidently and create simple musical representations of their ideas, thoughts and feelings
Experiment with ways of changing sounds and compositions
Talk about their strengths and identify areas for improvement respectfully

By the end of Key Stage 1, pupils will:

Use their voices creatively and expressively
Play tuned and untuned instruments musically
Listen to and appraise high-quality live and recorded music
Create simple compositions using the inter-related dimensions of music
Speak confidently about their learning and musical inspiration

By the end of Key Stage 2, pupils will:

Retain and apply key musical knowledge and skills, including local musical connections
Compose, perform and improvise with increasing confidence
Read and use basic musical notation
Develop an understanding of the history of music

The music curriculum is taught progressively through three interrelated pillars:

Technical
- Competence in controlling sound (instrumental, vocal or with music technology)
- Use of a communication system, such as staff notation or guitar tab
Constructive
- Knowledge of the musical elements in performing, composition and listening
- Knowledge of the components of composition
Expressive
- Musical quality in a performance
- Musical creativity
- Knowledge of musical meaning and culture across the world and through time

The pillars of music are developed through the curriculum which progressively builds pupils knowledge and skills of the following key concepts or 'big ideas':

Singing – developing pitch, melody, rhythm and vocal control individually and in groups
Listening – responding to music, expressing opinions, identifying instruments, structure and musical features
Composing – improvising, composing and notating music using standard and non-standard notation
Performing – rehearsing, presenting and evaluating individual and group performances
Musicianship – understanding pulse, rhythm, pitch, tempo, dynamics, timbre, texture and structure

Implementation

At New Pasture Lane School, we use the Charanga music scheme as the foundation for planning. The scheme aligns with the Model Music Curriculum and provides high-quality songs, resources and structured progression to ensure challenge and depth.

Music is taught progressively across year groups through a detailed knowledge and skills progression document. This ensures prior learning is revisited, consolidated and embedded.

At New Pasture Lane Primary School, our musical activities are designed to engage and inspire children through a variety of enriching experiences. Pupils participate in warm-up games and singing activities that build foundational skills and confidence. Instrumental work encourages hands-on learning, while improvisation and composition foster creativity and personal expression. Performance is a key element of our music programme, with opportunities for both individual and group rehearsals, culminating in regular performance occasions that celebrate the children’s progress and talents.

We enhance our curriculum through music teachers from the Remarkable Arts music service who provide pupils — particularly disadvantaged pupils — with access to instrument tuition, classical composers, Makaton signing singing assemblies, local musical heritage and music beyond their everyday experience.

Subject-specific vocabulary is revisited regularly in classrooms to support retention and confident use in both verbal and written responses.

Reading strengthens music learning through song lyrics, listening activities, composer studies and reading musical notation. Where appropriate, meaningful cross-curricular links are planned through a themed approach to deepen understanding and vocabulary acquisition.

Assessment is ongoing and informed through observation, performance outcomes and assessments, which assess pupils’ understanding, interpretation and application of musical knowledge.

Impact

The impact of our music curriculum is demonstrated through:

Video recordings of performances and practical lessons
Confident use of musical vocabulary
Progressive development of skills across year groups

Evidence shows clear progression over time, with prior knowledge embedded and built upon year after year. Pupils develop resilience, confidence and the ability to overcome challenges through rehearsal and performance.

Our pupils understand how music contributes to well-being, self-expression and personal development. They leave New Pasture Lane School equipped with musical knowledge, confidence and appreciation that will continue to inspire them beyond the classroom.

charanga ltp.pdf

npl music curriculum progressive objectives.pdf