I would teach children music, physics and philosophy: but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning. (Plato)

At Atlas Academy we expect the highest aspirations for our pupils. We want all children to learn and make academic progress no matter their starting points. We have a clear vision for what we want pupils to achieve during their time at Atlas and have designed our curriculum to give all pupils the knowledge, skills and understanding they will need in their future years.

Purpose of Education for Music

At Atlas Academy, music enables our children to develop their knowledge and critically engage with a wide variety of music from different cultures and time periods. These skills help children to develop their skills in music and also begin to refine their individual tastes. Regardless of how long pupils are with us, be it their full primary years or just two or three, we intend for our pupils to:   

  • develop their listening and response skills;
  • compose their own music using a variety of instruments;
  • perform and share the music they have created;
  • appraise the music of their peers and other music creators;
  • be exposed to music from a variety of cultures and time periods.

Music complements the vision and core values of Atlas Academy. In its simplest form, Unity through Diversity is achieved when pupils know about and respect the differing opinions, likes and dislikes of others both in our school and wider community, so that they are able to live and work alongside each other in harmony. Our belief that our pupils and our school community is ‘GREAT’: gifted, resilient, engaged, aspirational and together. 

  • GIFTED: as a multi-cultural school, so many of our pupils are come from different cultural and heritage backgrounds. They therefore may have different musical tastes, knowledge or experiences which are infinitely valuable to share with their peers. In addition to this, children are given the opportunity to experience many different musical instruments and improve their abilities with these instruments. 
  • RESILIENT: pupils learn about how to continually improve on their musical compositions based off of the opinions and advice of their peers.   
  • ENGAGED: music lessons encourage pupils to contribute through discussion and collaboration; pupils reflect on their own ideas and those of others. 
  • ASPIRATIONAL: pupils are given the opportunity to perform their compositions to the rest of the school and at whole school events, which they will work on to perfect for extended periods of time. 
  • TOGETHER: lessons are structured so that children learn skills together and support each other in partner work. 

Our curriculum drivers (vocabulary acquisition, cultural capital, cultural awareness) are at the heart of all our music lessons:
VOCABULARY ACQUISITION: children are continually introduced to new, subject specific vocabulary which they are encouraged to use regularly.
CULTURAL CAPITAL: children are introduced to many different musical genres and encouraged to appraise these, forming opinions on what they like, dislike and appreciate the composition and creativity of the music they are surrounded by.
CUTLURAL AWARENESS: as part of the music curriculum, children are introduced to music from a variety of different cultures and time periods, whilst being encouraged to analyse the similarities and differences these have from each other. 

Curriculum Implementation

At Atlas Academy, we teach music through the Charanga scheme. The scheme provides teachers with carefully sequenced week-by-week lessons for each year group in the school, from ages 5–11. It has lesson plans, assessment, clear progression, and engaging and exciting whiteboard resources for every lesson. The Scheme supports all the requirements of the national curriculum and is in line with published Ofsted guidance. 

 In Reception children will focus on: 

  • Listening and Responding 
  • Exploring and Creating Singing
  • Sharing and Performing 

In Key Stage 1 and 2 children will focus on: 

  • Listening and appraising 
  • Musical activities (games, singing, playing instruments, improvisation, composition) 
  • Performing and Sharing 

These are taught across the school; learning deepens and broadens in each year group. Lessons are delivered by class teachers to their own classes each week in order to teach the required knowledge and skills in a developmental and age-appropriate way. In addition to this, in Year 3/4 the children have the opportunity to learn with a specialist teacher in their peripatetic lessons.  

Impact of the Curriculum

In music, teachers assess pupils’ learning in lessons and adapt their teaching to be responsive to pupils understanding. As the curriculum progresses it is increasingly more challenging and pupils have the opportunity to review and extend their understanding over time as well as combine and apply different aspects of knowledge an skills development. Leaders speak to teachers and pupils to check the impact of the curriculum and to make any strategic decisions about its content or design. This might include additional practice, more review and repetition of key themes or increased opportunities to apply their knowledge and skills.

In addition, Leaders measure impact of music through:

  • Lesson observations – how well children are contributing to discussions and how they are using the vocabulary and instruments they are being introduced to. 
  • Learning walks – how well the curriculum intent is embedded in the environment as well as within lessons. 
  • Pupil voice – we listen to pupils’ views about their learning and how well curriculum content is understood and applied to practical creations and musical ensembles. 

Music Curriculum Overview

Click here to view our rationale for music.

Click here to view our music long term plan.