Music
Help your school's pupils develop their skills, confidence and enjoyment with our music guidance and resource section.
Music has the power to change lives, but is also important in its own right as an enriching and fun experience for children. There are proven links between music and social skills and educational attainment. Behaviour, well-being, self-esteem, confidence, team-working, concentration, reading and maths skills have all been proven to improve with good music provision.
With this in mind it is recognised that all children should be able to access quality musical experiences. In 2000 the then Secretary of State for Education pledged that over time all pupils in primary schools who wish to should have the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument.
From September 2009 we are running a year-long celebration of music education and music-making entitled Tune In — Year of Music which is helping make a wide range of music-related opportunities available to children up to age 19.
Music as an entitlement
It is a legal entitlement for all young people aged 5 to 14 to have music as part of their curriculum. At Key Stage 4 students are entitled to follow a course of study in a subject within each of the four entitlement areas. One of four entitlement areas is the arts, which includes music.
The Music Manifesto
The Music Manifesto works to ensure that all children and young people have access to high quality music education. Comprising a coalition of partners that includes government, companies and other organisations and schools that make pledges to enhance pupils' lives through music education. It is led by a voluntary, independent group that works closely with DCSF and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) but remains independent of government.
Published in October 2006, the second Music Manifesto report laid out a clear path for involving as many young people as possible in making music. In part to help realise these ambitions, the Government announced in November 2007 a £332m funding package for music over three years.
Wider Opportunities at Key Stage 2
Wider Opportunities is a scheme that enables every child to learn a musical instrument, initially for free, and usually based on large group or whole class instrumental lessons. For those that wish to continue thereafter tuition is expected to be affordable. Wider Opportunities is supported by the Government's Music Grant to Local Authorities. LAs also receive an allocation of the Music Instrument Fund Capital Grant to purchase instruments to support their Local Wider Opportunities programmes.
Key Stage 2 music CPD programme
To encourage the development of whole-class instrumental and vocal programmes, the Key Stage 2 music continuing professional development (CPD) programme has been developed is for all teachers involved in the delivery of music at Key Stage 2. Provided by the Open University and Trinity College London and centrally funded until July 2011, it has a particular focus on first access to instrumental/vocal tuition for Key Stage 2 pupils through the Wider Opportunities scheme.
Places on the programme are free and are open to classroom teachers, teaching assistants, instrumental/vocal teachers and community musicians. You can download a postcard with information on the programme or access information on running the programme within your LA Music Service. You can download the Key Stage 2 guidance for instrumental and vocal tuition.
Key Stage 2 Music CPD programme
KS2 Music CPD programme — postcard
KS2 Music CPD programme — running the programme
Instrumental and vocal tuition — KS2 guidance
Secondary National Strategy: Key Stage 3 music programme
This provides a complete CPD programme for Key Stage 3 music teachers, with a series of six training units, supporting resources and exemplars of effective practice. The original DVD from 2006 has been transformed into a website and fully updated to reflect the requirements of the secondary National Curriculum.
Secondary National Strategy: Key Stage 3 music programme
Help with specialist tuition for gifted children
Exceptionally talented children are able to receive grants for specialist tuition at existing junior departments of music conservatories and eight centres for advanced training. The grants are available as part of the Music and Dance scheme.
Music colleges and specialist school status
Any maintained secondary school in England can apply to be designated as a specialist school in one of 10 specialist areas, including music. Schools focusing on music are known as music colleges. Read about the characteristics of a music college and find out about the application process.
Music colleges and specialist school status
Schemes of work for music
QCDA and the Standards Site both make available essential information on schemes of work for music.
National Curriculum programmes of study — Key Stages 1 and 2 (QCDA)
National Curriculum programmes of study — Key Stages 3 and 4 (QCDA)
Schemes of work for music — Key Stages 1 and 2 (Standards Site)
Schemes of work for music — Key Stage 3 (Standards Site)
Current projects of interest
Sing Up puts £40m nationally towards targeted resources, training and activities. Its aim is that by March 2011 all primary schools in England will become 'singing schools' — where singing is embedded in the school and every child has a quality singing experience every day.
In Harmony is a community development programme aimed at using music to bring positive change to the lives of very young children in some of the most deprived areas of England. Inspired by the hugely successful Venezuelan project El Sistema, the programme encourages participation in music — in the form of the Symphony Orchestra — which can have huge personal benefits for the children involved, providing opportunities to grow and develop, both socially and musically.
