Curriculum coherence in music

Well hello there and welcome to update #031!

Photo by israel palacio on Unsplash

When we’re considering coherence across the key stages, it’s helpful to know about the content and approaches that are being taught in different phases.

We can ask:

·  What is the journey for a pupil as they learn about a subject in their time at school?

·  What are the concepts and big ideas that they will understand as they learn about a subject over the key stages?

·   How does what is taught in primary link to what they will be learning in secondary?

One way is to have a brief overview of the programmes of study for music, for example. This means in primary that we have a broad outline of the programmes at KS3 and even more important that secondary colleagues are familiar with what pupils have learnt in primary.

Another way is to have some insights into what subject leaders have to say about the development of their subjects in their phase. The subject networks on Myatt & Co have colleagues talking about how they develop the subject in their setting. In primary music for example, there’s Nick Sermon talking with Rachel Higginson about how he goes about he makes sure his pupils get a good deal in music in his school and you can access his slides and resources here.

And then for secondary music, we can compare with an example from Jenetta Hurst in conversation with Steve Willshaw where Jenetta explains

• The types of knowledge that she is aiming to develop and the role of text in each of these

• The relationship between musical fluency and musical literacy

• The role of lyric writing in developing literacy

• Choral singing and reading

• The importance of literacy in describing music.

You can access these recordings with a 7 day free trial.

And we’ve just launched a Myatt & Co app to make it even easier to access this rich work! Click here for Apple and here for Android.

Until next time

Mary