The National 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.

The national curriculum 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.

Key Stage 1

Pupils should be taught to: 

• use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes 
• play tuned and untuned instruments musically 
• listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music 
• experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.

Key Stage 2

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 from aural memory.

Pupils should be taught to: 

• play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression 
• improvise and compose music for a range of purposes 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 composers and musicians 
• develop an understanding of the history of music.

Music Demonstration

We were delighted to welcome musicians from MAPAS – our music service – into school at the beginning of term. They plays their instruments and told us all about them. We were pleased that lots of children were interested in learning to play and instrument after the demo.

The Big Sing

We were really delighted to take part in the Big Sing, arranged by MAPAS in June. We learned four songs in school and then went to the rehearsal on the day where we sang with children from other schools. We also learned several new songs which were added into the evening concert. We performed for all the parents – there were about 300 people in the audience, including the Mayor. What a fantastic opportunity it was for all the children and they were great ambassadors for our school!