At Austin Farm Academy, we believe that Music is a vital part of children’s education, with a significant and valuable role in encouraging creativity. The Music curriculum aims to develop children’s understanding of music through an active involvement in performing, composing, listening and appraising. The curriculum is based on the principle that it should be fun and engaging for all concerned so that pupils can develop a love and appreciation for music. A high-quality music education aims to engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and foster their talent as musicians, and in doing so, will increase their self-confidence, critical skills, ability to listen, creativity and a sense of personal achievement. Every child is a born musician, and music plays a role in every aspect of our lives – wherever and whoever we are. These beliefs lie at the heart of our music curriculum.

The units of work are aligned with the National Curriculum for Music and the non-statutory Model Music Curriculum Guidance published in 2021. The units are from the Charanga scheme of work. Each lesson contains a song around which the musical learning is centred around ensuring that the musicianship skills of listening, singing, performing, composing and improvising are revisited and developed all the time. The knowledge and skills that children will develop throughout each music unit are mapped across each year group and are progressive throughout the school. The emphasis on skills ensures that children build an understanding of the musical elements through a variety of musical genres. This systematic approach to the development of musical elements and musical genres means that children are given opportunities to express their creative imagination, as well as practise and develop their musical understanding. The curriculum map has been carefully designed with particular thought to the order of units, following a spiral approach to musical learning, with children revisiting, building and extending their knowledge and skills incrementally. Units build upon each other, developing knowledge, both substantive and disciplinary, vocabulary and skills. The music elements (pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations) are revisited and built upon to ensure long-term retention.

The structure of the music curriculum ensures that children are able to develop their knowledge and understanding of how a piece is musically constructed, paying attention to genre, timbre, tempo and dynamics.