Music

1. Statement of Intent

The intent of our music curriculum is to provide children with a roadmap to the delights and disciplines of music, helping them to appreciate and understand music through different cultures and ages, while also equipping them with the technical skills and creativity to compose and perform.

As the Minister of State for School Standards suggests ‘Having the opportunity to study and explore music is not a privilege; it is a vital part of a broad and ambitious curriculum.’ At Brewood Middle Academy we endeavour to provide this opportunity to all our children with a weekly music lesson delivered by a specialist music teacher and by offering a variety of extra-curricular opportunities throughout the academic year.

2. The National Curriculum

The national curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils build their knowledge of:

  • Singing
  • Listening
  • Composing
  • Performing/instrumental Performance

At Brewood, we follow the Music Model Curriculum which is designed to introduce the next generation to a broad repertoire of music from the Western Classical tradition, and to the best popular music and music from around the world.

The Music Model Curriculum is designed to sequence all of the areas of the National Curriculum whilst developing a love of music and making music a key priority in school, with weekly singing practice, live music performances and a range of extra-curricular opportunities.

3. Lesson Structure

Listening task or GAP task starter: Depending on the topic, children will be given either a listening starter or to identify their GAP task based on the previous lessons EBI.

LO & SC: Children are asked to read and discuss their WWW and EBI from the previous week with a partner identifying where they made progress and what their next steps are. The learning objective and success criteria are shared with pupils at the start of the lesson.

Demonstration: Teacher discusses the task and success criteria and demonstrates to the class highlighting key areas of the success criteria, the importance of peer feedback and the challenge task.

Practical Task: Children have 7 minutes to work on their practical task giving and receiving partner feedback based on the success criteria.

Performance and feedback: Following the practical task, children are encouraged to perform and receive verbal feedback from their peers, identifying their WWW and EBI based on the success criteria. Children are encouraged to use subject specific terminology when giving feedback.

Practical Task: Children have a further 7 minutes practical time to develop their work, based on the peer feedback received.

Review and Reflect: At the end of each lesson children complete their WWW and EBI in their music booklets using the success criteria. 

4. Curriculum Implementation – Planning and Teaching

The leader of music uses the Music Model Curriculum to plan schemes of work. Music is led by a specialist music teacher across both key stages.

Schemes of work are planned to recap, retrieve and build on the knowledge of the main areas within the curriculum.

Within each unit, there are many opportunities for pupils to revisit prior learning, particularly notation and the interrelated dimensions of music with an emphasis of performing and composing/improvising.

Children are given a music booklet for each topic. Each booklet contains a lesson by lesson evaluation page, an outline the learning intentions, includes any musical resources and knowledge organisers specific for that topic.
Children are encouraged to annotate and use their booklet to support their learning.

Pupils are regularly given GAP (General Action Point) tasks which aim to either support, consolidate or extend pupils knowledge and understanding. 

5. Impact and Assessment

The impact of our music curriculum is to allow every child the opportunity to develop their skill on a musical instrument, to be made aware of the different styles, genres and traditions of music around the world and to have a ‘can do’ approach to performing.

Through extra-curricular opportunities children are encouraged to perform in front of big audiences and have the opportunity to watch established live performers to encourage and inspire them.

Formative Assessment:

Pupils’ progress is assessed using regular formative assessment in lessons through strategies such as questioning, regular retrieval tasks, small whiteboard responses, partner performance feedback, class performance feedback, peer and self-assessment, live teacher feedback and whole class feedback.

Summative Assessment:

Summative assessment in Music takes place at the end of every topic (end of a half term or term).
Children complete an end of unit peer or self- assessment and complete a knowledge tester to demonstrate their understanding of the topic. A selection of children are assessed and moderated by the teacher in front of the class.

6. Cultural Capital

Music is one of the central building blocks of any culture and the shared knowledge of music is crucial cultural capital in understanding where we came from and our place in the world. An inclusive approach to this cultural capital is offered to our pupils at the start of each lesson with their listening starter. Pupils are encouraged to be open minded in their listening as well as knowledgeable about the breadth of musical genres in the world today.

In addition to this, through our topic based schemes, children are made aware of different cultures and musical traditions from around the world including India, Jamaican and the Caribbean and Indonesia.

Through extra-curricular activities, children have the opportunity to perform at Birmingham’s Young Voices Concert which is the biggest UK choir tour.
Our children perform at local community events such as the Brewood Light’s Switch On, Deansfield Residential home and at St Mary & St Chad’s church Brewood.

In addition to this, we take our children to London to watch a West End Musical and participate in a dance workshop at Pineapple Dance Studios.

7. Inclusion – Equal Opportunities and SEND

In line with our intent, we believe every child must have an equal opportunity to achieve their full potential and access an ambitious and coherent curriculum that leads to deep learning and an understanding of a sustainable world, regardless of race, gender, cultural background, ability or Special Educational Needs or Disability. If a child has a special educational need or disability, we will do our very best to ensure we meet that child’s individual needs when accessing the Music curriculum. We comply with the requirements set out in the SEND Code of Practice.

To support all pupils, we provide scaffolding and differentiated tasks for beginner and advanced musicians. Children are partnered in mixed ability pairs to support beginner musicians in their musical journey.

8. The Subject Leader

Mrs Bainbridge has been the teacher of Music at Brewood CE Middle Academy since September 2017.  She provides a consistent approach to all music classes and since September 2022 has been teaching at St Mary’s CE First Academy, Wheaton Aston, our Federated school.

Monitoring of music is important at Brewood Middle and is a key part of the Music Middle School Network Meeting agenda, to allow middle schools in the area to share their professional opinions and moderate teacher assessments.

9. British Values and SMSC

British Values

Democracy
Take into account the views of others in shared activities.

The Rule of Law
Undertake safe practices, following class rules during tasks and activities for the benefit of all. Understand the consequences if rules are not followed.

Individual Liberty
Work within boundaries to make safe choices during practical musical activities. Make own choices on performance pieces and use of the interrelated dimensions of music, where appropriate.

Tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs
Use musical artists and styles to learn about different faiths and cultures around the world. Eg. Reggae artist Bob Marley and the Rastafarian faith.

Mutual Respect
To behave appropriately, allowing all participants the opportunity to work effectively and to perform to the class with a sense of support and appreciation. Take turns and share musical instruments. Work collaboratively on instruments providing verbal feedback to each other’s performance respectfully and to enable progress.

 

SMSC

Spiritual Education
Singing as part of celebrating and praising God through weekly singing practise.

Moral Education
Understanding the importance of sharing musical experiences within the community, particularly for the older generations ie performing at local residential homes. Giving children the opportunity to identify with artists and songs and allowing their musical preferences to show who they are and express their feeling and emotions.

Social Education
Developing personal qualities and using social skills: Working in pairs or as part of an ensemble. Extra-curricular opportunities to perform with others and to perform for the wider community.

Cultural Education
Understanding and appreciating personal influences: taking into account other people’s views and understanding how to express own views. Eg. How to explain to their partner their EBI and why.

10. Overview Document
“PE-plan”


The curriculum develops pupils’ love of learning across a range of subjects.

— OFSTED April 2018

Should you require any of our school information in a paper format please contact our office on 01902 850266

 

CONTACT INFORMATION

Executive Principal Mr R Dickson

Brewood CE Middle Academy
School Road
Brewood
Stafford
ST19 9DS

Telephone - 01902 850266
Facsimile - 01902 851332
office@brewood.staffs.sch.uk

Inclusion Lead - Mrs L Guy 01902 850266

 

COLLABORATIONS