The national curriculum in England suggests that 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, creative and sense of achievement.

In accordance with the curriculum, we aim 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 Music

During this stage, pupils will 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 Music

We teach our pupils to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. We aim to develop their understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory.

Our pupils are 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.