Music

One good thing about music — when it hits you, you feel no pain.”

- Bob Marley

What is the intention of the KS1 and KS2 Music Curriculum?

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.

Music teaching at the Peckham Primaries ensures that all pupils perform, listen to, review and evaluate a range of music. They have the opportunity to 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. Children should understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, rhythm, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations. Musical practice also develops our pupils’ cultural capital alongside a range of important life skills, including social skills, resilience and critical thinking.

The Aims of our Music curriculum are outlined below. Pupils will:

1. Build an understanding of the basic elements of music: pitch, rhythm, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture and structure.

2. Gain competency with a range of instruments, including voice, African drums, recorder and ukulele.

3. Be given the opportunity to interact with different aspects of musical practice, including group and solo performance, critical listening, learning to read musical notation and improvisation.

4. Develop important life skills.

5. Acquire knowledge of and influence from music across the world.

At HPAPP, Music is taught by class teachers and split into two parts: theory and singing. All lessons are practical and may involve using instruments such as untuned percussion, body percussion or the voice. Pupils will have the chance to interact with Music in a variety of ways, including listening and discussion, practice and performance, and improvisation and composition. We supplement our Music lessons with instrumental enrichment activities and after school clubs led by specialist teachers from Harris Academy Peckham.