Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. It is the study and development of performing, composing, analysing and evaluating music.  Music education should engage and inspire students to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. 

Curriculum Aims

The aim of our curriculum is to produce a rounded artist with sound practical and theoretical skills.

Our curriculum aims for Music are framed around the National Curriculum and the exam specifications we follow and is rich, broad and varied and carefully sequenced to provide our students with a rich, broad and varied exposure to music. 

Students will acquire a developing love of music and improve their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As students progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon.  

We aim to broaden students' musical experiences and interests, develop imagination and foster creativity and develop knowledge, understanding and skills needed to communicate effectively as musicians by training students to develop awareness of a variety of instruments, styles and approaches to performing and composing alongside developing awareness of music technologies and their use in the creation and presentation of music.  

Students to engage actively in the process of music study, develop performing skills individually and in groups, develop composing skills to organise musical ideas and recognise links between the integrated activities.

By allowing students the opportunity to engage with and appreciate the diverse heritage of music, their personal, social, intellectual and cultural development is supported, encouraging understanding, respect and tolerance of a range of cultures and musical styles/traditions.

Our student experience is enhanced through our enrichment curriculum, where students, informed and inspired by their Music lessons, can take part in a wide variety of music ensembles and have the opportunity to perform at college and within our local community.

Curriculum Design

Our Music curriculum design is informed by the 3 pillars of technical, constructive and expressive, as recommended by Ofsted Research Review series: Music. 

The curriculum is designed to ensure that students develop technical competence in controlling sound (voice and keyboard) and the use of staff notation; constructive knowledge by learning the musical elements and the components of composition; expressive skills and musical qualities by being given the space to be musicality creative and building knowledge of musical understanding across the world and time.

Our Music curriculum is also designed around the key skills of performance, composition, aural perception and theory.  Throughout our curriculum these key concepts are introduced in the first few topics in Year 7 and then throughout the rest of the year, in subsequent years and beyond to GCSE and A-level, they are embedded and developed to achieve increasing confidence, maturity and sophistication.

Please click the link to view our Music Curriculum Year Overview

Future Pathways and Next Steps 

Through the study of Music, we aim to unlock each students' potential and inspire them to achieve excellence by being the best they can be. This can lead to a wide range of future opportunities, some of which include:  

University Degrees: Music, Music Production, Music Technology, Music Therapy

Apprenticeships: Acoustics Technician, Sound Technician

Careers: AR Representative, Film and Video Game Composer, DJ, Instrument Maker, Lyricist, Mix Engineer, Roadie, Session Musician, Music Journalist, Radio and TV Production, Song-writer

Students can find out more about the subject and careers above by logging into their Unifrog account at https://www.unifrog.org/sign-in and using the Subject Library and Careers Library tools.