Music at SRWA

The KS3 curriculum is designed to broaden horizons and build core competencies. It ensures that students from all musical starting points can progress, providing a robust bridge from Key Stage 2 and establishing the required foundation for Key Stage 4.

Our KS4 curriculum provides a GCSE pathway following the Eduqas syllabus. Students develop their performing, composing, listening and appraising skills through 4 areas of study: Musical forms and devices, music for ensembles, film music and popular music. They perform on their main instrument or voice and develop their own compositional style through practice tasks and coursework. Listening and appraising skills are further developed and strengthened, and students learn to analyse, discuss and assess set works and previously unheard works.

Our curriculum introduces sequences of learning in the key areas of performing (including singing), composing, and listening and appraising, introducing and revisiting skills and knowledge through different projects throughout KS3. The 3 interrelated pillars of progression are included in every lesson to develop the musicianship of every student:

Students develop their knowledge and skills in the following areas:
Performing (technical)- students develop vocal control and learn to play a variety of acoustic and digital instruments with increasing fluency, accuracy, and expression in both solo and ensemble contexts.
Composing (expressive)- students create original music, learning to use the inter-related dimensions of music, including pitch, rhythm, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture and structure. They use traditional methods alongside Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs);
Listening and Appraising (constructive)- students listen with increasing discrimination to a wide range of music. This encompasses the Western classical tradition (from Baroque music to 20th century), popular music, and world music, building an awareness of social and historical contexts;
Notation and language (technical, expressive and constructive)- students learn to communicate musically by interpreting different kinds of notation and using technical vocabulary to analyse what they hear.

Beyond academic frameworks, our music curriculum targets the development of the whole student throughout school and beyond. It is designed to foster important transferable skills including:

Resilience and organisation through practice and rehearsing, self-confidence through performance opportunities in and out of the classroom, collaborative teamwork through ensemble rehearsals, school cohesion and community via extra-curricular clubs and concerts, creative problem-solving through composition and cultural empathy through the study of a diverse repertoire.

Our extra-curricular provision offers students pathways to progress their musical interests and talents, with further support tailored to the individual.