Overview of KS2 Primary Music Curriculum
1. What is the new music curriculum?
Purpose of Study:
“Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A
high-quality music education should 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. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement
with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in
the musical canon.”
National Curriculum in England: Music Programmes of Study
September 2013
Aims:
The NC for music aims to ensure that all pupils:
• perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods,
genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and
musicians
• learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and
with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology
appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical
excellence
• understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated,
including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo,
timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.
Attainment targets:
By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the
matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study.
Subject content for KS2:
Pupils should be taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and
control. They should develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and
manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds as part of an aural
memory.
• Play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voice and playing musical
instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression
• Improvise and compose music using the inter-related dimensions of music
• Listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
• Use and understand staff and other musical notations
• Appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music
drawn from different traditions and from great musicians and composers
• Develop an understanding of the history of music
Learning about music & developing musical skills through engagement with it listening, appraising, improvising, composing, rehearsing & performing.
2. What is OFSTED looking for?
High quality musical learning and teaching
Demonstrated & supported by:
•
Music Policy for the school
•
Whole school scheme of work including long & medium term plans
•
Skills progression maps showing which skills and vocabulary are to be
covered each year, incorporated within the Key Stage expectations
•
How are TA’s and other support staff used by teacher leading the
lesson
•
Tracking of pupils – inclusion, access, data keeping & data analysis
•
Assessment, recording, reporting
•
Use of technologies
•
Performance opportunities – formal and informal
•
Appropriate resources
•
Correct application of copyright regulations
•
Safeguarding
•
Performance Management
First Access
•
Musical learning prior to entering First Access and how this relates to
the programme?
•
Exit strategy & continuation pathways:
•
further instrumental learning on same/different instruments
•
building on outcomes of First Access when re-entering class
music
Enhancement & Extra-Curricular Activities
•
Choirs, orchestras, ensembles
•
First Access
•
Recorders
•
Instrumental teaching – links to class curriculum, and scheme of work
•
Extra performing opportunities (i.e. assemblies, Open Evenings, Formal
Performances, Local Festivals, Hertfordshire Schools Gala Concert)
Some other things to think about:
• How do these activities enhance the curriculum?
• How are instrumental learners drawn into the music curriculum? Is
differentiation applied?
• Are specific groups of children targeted for their needs, not just their
ability or interests? (SEND, LAC, EFL, FSM’s etc.)
Partnerships with:
• The music hub: Herts Music Service & Local Music Centre/School
• Other discrete arts: visual arts, poetry, drama, story-telling, dance etc.
• Community organisations
• Visiting music teachers
• Visiting professional musicians
• Other professional bodies (i.e. Exam boards, Arts Award)
• Parents – how are they encouraged to become involved, participate and
share any relevant skills?
Transition & Integration
• Between Key Stages, but also between schools both in terms of
curriculum and First Access
• Integration of First Access pupils and other instrumental learners
• A variety of opportunities for performances (see above!)
Joined-up thinking – in all areas of provision and practise
3. Progression and Key Skills across the Primary School – see separate
sheets
•KS2
•Early Years and KS1
Music Skills Progression Key Stage 2
Year 3
Steps & Leaps
Basic pitch notation C-G
Pitch
Year 4
Pentatonic scales
Increased basic pitch notation
to octave (c-c)
Metre
Legato/staccato
Strong & weak beats
Fitting rhythm to a beat in 2, 3 or 4
Duration
4, 4,or 4
Crotchets, quavers, rests
Minims
Add semi-quavers
Crescendo
Year 5
Major & Minor scales
& arpeggios
Time signatures in 2, 3, 4,6
4, 4, 4,8
Dotted minims & semibreve
& equivalent rests
Strong contrasts
Diminuendo
Dynamics
p – mf - f
Year 6
Raga
Blues
(Pentatonic)
Dotted rhythms
Syncopation
Time signatures in 5, 6
4, 8
Accents
Articulation (staccato/
legato)
Wider dynamic range pp-ff
Accelerando
Rallantando
Use of tempi for mood
effects
Tempo
Comparing tempi
Tempi vocab (moderato, allegro
lento, andante,
presto
adagio, allegretto,
a tempo, piu/meno mosso
largo)
Orchestral Families (woodwind,
Identify instruments by
strings, brass, percussion)
names & sounds
Correct beaters, 1 & 2 hands
Timbre Identify non-percussion
instruments by name, picture
& some by sound
Melody
Accompaniment
Major / minor chords
Ostinato – rhythmic & melodic
Question & Answer
Binary Form (AB)
Chorus & Verse
Theme & Variation
Rounds & Partner songs
Structure
Simple 2 part pieces
increasing in difficulty
Electronic sounds
Keyboards
Computer music
Note clusters/chords
Weaving parts together
Texture Unison, 2 part,
Solo, Drones
Simple Ostinato
Rounds & part singing
Other instrumental groupings:
e.g jazz band, rock band,
pop, world music
Keyboards
Ternary Form (ABA)
Rondo Form (ABACAD...)
Contrasting style
arrangements (same
song/piece, different
styles)
Chords I, IV, V
Simple chord sequences
12 Bar blues
Music Skills Progression Early Years & Key Stage 1
Year N
High notes
Low notes
Pitch
Year R
Year 1
Low to high
High to low
Reaching up, staying low,
Musical ladders
Year 2
Pitch relative to another
High – Middle - Low
Long notes
Short notes
Simple rhythm patterns
Duration
Crotchets
Quavers
Playing word rhythms
Making word rhythms fit to
a beat
Add rests
Whisper, talk, shout
Wider graduation of
dynamics
(p – mf - f, and technical
language for each)
Dynamics
Loud (f = forte)
Quiet (p = piano)
Tiptoe/stamp/
Silence
Fast
Slow
Tempo
Walking, running, striding,
skipping, cantering, galloping
etc
Moving (& playing) to a beat
E
Feel the pulse
Noticing the tempo
Playing on the beat
Exploring different sound
sources
Timbre Free-play
Exploring the voice
Together
Recognising names of
percussion instruments
Recognising percussion
instruments by sound
Sorting by wood, metal, skin,
string, wind
Exploring the voice in many
different ways; find singing
voice
Playing together
Playing on your own
How are different
instruments played?
(strummed, plucked, hit,
scraped, blown, etc)
Lots of sounds together
Only one sound
Layers of sound
Beginning
Middle
End
Simple repeated patterns
Question & Answer
Verse & Chorus
Phrases
Adding sounds
together
Texture
Start
Stop
Structure
Echoes