Music

At Keelham Primary, we follow Kapow Primary’s Music scheme, which aims to help every child feel musical and develop a lifelong love of music. Our curriculum is designed to build the skills, knowledge and understanding pupils need to become confident performers, composers and listeners.

Children are introduced to music from a wide range of cultures and historical periods, learning to respect and appreciate diverse musical traditions. They develop key musical skills, including:

• Singing fluently and expressively
• Playing tuned and untuned instruments
• Improvising and composing music
• Listening and responding thoughtfully

Pupils also learn about the history and cultural context of music and how music can be represented through notation. Through music, children develop transferable skills such as teamwork, creativity, problem-solving and presentation, which support learning across the curriculum and beyond school life.

Implementation

Our music curriculum takes a holistic approach, weaving together the following strands:

• Listening and evaluating
• Creating sound
• Notation
• Improvising and composing
• Performing

Each unit consists of five lessons linked to a cross-curricular theme designed to inspire creativity and enthusiasm. Lessons are practical and engaging, incorporating movement, dance and opportunities for performance. Pupils learn to recognise and use the interrelated dimensions of music – pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics – in their own compositions and improvisations.

The scheme follows a spiral curriculum, revisiting and building on prior knowledge and skills with increasing complexity. Knowledge organisers and teacher CPD resources ensure strong subject knowledge and effective delivery. Differentiated guidance is provided so all pupils can access the learning and be challenged appropriately.

Impact

We monitor the impact of our music curriculum through formative and summative assessment. Each lesson includes guidance for assessing progress against learning objectives, and most units conclude with a performance element for summative assessment. Knowledge organisers provide a visual record of key learning, supporting recall of skills and vocabulary.

By the end of Key Stage 2, pupils will:

• Be confident performers, composers and listeners, able to express themselves musically.
• Appreciate and respect a wide range of musical styles and understand their cultural and historical context.
• Understand how music can be written down to support performance and composition.
• Demonstrate enthusiasm for music and identify personal musical preferences.
• Meet the National Curriculum expectations for music.

• National Curriculum Mapping
• Progression of Key Skills and Knowledge
• Music Long Term Plan