At Wooden Hill Primary School, the intent of the music curriculum is to ensure that all children develop a lifelong love of music and see themselves as confident musicians by the end of primary school. We want children to know more about how music is created, organised and understood, and to do more musically by actively engaging as performers, composers and listeners.

By the time pupils leave Year 6, they will be able to sing and play a range of instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency and expression; compose and improvise using a growing musical vocabulary; and listen critically to music from different historical periods, cultures and traditions, including those beyond their own lived experience. Children will understand that music is a powerful form of communication that reflects identity, culture and history.

The school’s music curriculum is built around the Kapow scheme which develops through thematic units the key big ideas which are revisited and built upon each year: pulse, rhythm, pitch, tempo, dynamics, timbre, texture, structure and notation. These concepts are introduced simply in Early Years and progressively deepened, enabling children to make connections and apply their understanding in new musical contexts.

Through substantive knowledge, pupils learn factual and conceptual content such as musical elements, styles, genres, instruments and composers. Alongside this, they develop disciplinary knowledge by learning how musicians work: listening analytically, rehearsing, refining, composing, performing, evaluating and responding to music using appropriate musical language. Together, this ensures children leave primary school musically literate, curious and confident.