Music

Intent

At Penwortham Priory Academy, the Music Curriculum is at least as ambitious as the National Curriculum. At its core, it aims to foster a love and passion for music, recognising children’s prior learning from Key Stage 2 and use this to provide a challenging learning experience, which engages pupils of all abilities and character.

The Music Curriculum teaches pupils to perform, compose, listen to and evaluate Music in order to develop and enhance highly desirable skills in areas such as self-management, creativity, data analysis, performance, teamwork, problem-solving, and communication, all of which will make them an attractive prospect for both potential employers and enrich their later lives as appreciators of the Arts in general as a member of an audience at a concert, festival, or musical.

Central to this process is providing thinking hard skills, alongside leadership, organisational skills, resilience, initiative and communication skills. Teaching, performance, composition and arts administration are among the popular destinations for Music graduates, but others include broadcasting, publishing, law, politics and the Civil Service. Specialising in performance, for example, can result in entry to conservatoires in the UK and abroad and the further enhanced life experiences which will result.

Knowledge underpins the approach to teaching music at Penwortham Priory so we ensure that pupils know the detail of what they will learn, how it links to the schema and, consequently, how it links to other subjects We believe that pupils deserve to understand this ‘big picture’. Their knowledge and skills are sequenced and mapped deliberately and we use spaced retrieval practice, low-stakes testing and repeated practice so that the knowledge taught is remembered and can be applied to situations beyond school. Pupils acquire a broad vocabulary through the disciplinary literacy to which they are exposed in all lessons.

Learning is contextualised via extra-curricular activities and trips and visits in addition to the classroom experience where pupils immerse themselves in new experiences in learning about the local, national and international communities to which they belong.

Through studying music at Penwortham Priory Academy, pupils will…

•  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 professional 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 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 elements of music: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

Schematic links with other curriculum areas include the mathematical link with rhythm and pulse in all performance contexts, in particular African dance music via cross rhythm and polyrhythm. The lyrics of song and rap have clear cross-curricular references with English. Humanities links are clearly evident via studies in music through time in its historical context and musical genres from across the world such as Samba from Brazil and the Western Classical tradition established in Europe. 

At the heart of the Music Curriculum Intent is for all pupils to maximise their creative potential regardless of their previous primary experience and exposure. Similarly, it seeks to provide pupils with both the creative and cultural capital to succeed in their future life, regardless of any social or cultural-based inaccessibility or disadvantage.

The ultimate goal for pupils studying Music at Penwortham Priory Academy is for them to be able to think, speak and write like a musician.

Teachers of Music

Mr Taylor - Lead Teacher of Music

Lessons

Year 7 - 2 hours per week for 2 half terms per academic year – approx. 24-26 hrs
Year 8 - 2 hours per week for 2 half terms per academic year – approx. 24-26 hrs
Year 9 - 2 hours per week for 2 half terms per academic year – approx. 24-26 hrs
Year 10/11 - 3 hours per week