Music Curriculum  

The Music curriculum at The Duston School intends to inspire creativity, self-expression and encourages our children on their musical journey. We hope to foster a lifelong love of Music by exposing children to diverse musical experiences and igniting a passion for music. By listening and responding to different musical styles, finding their voices as singers and performers and as composers, all will become confident, reflective musicians.  

The Primary Knowledge Curriculum is used to plan The Duston School Music curriculum. The curriculum is well sequenced (eg. Beat and Pulse are revisited and built upon during each academic year) and the knowledge taught is valued and specified (eg. A diverse range of musicians and genres are taught). Knowledge is taught to be remembered through retrieval practice and prior knowledge being revisited. Substantive and disciplinary knowledge are intertwined and revisited to ensure that children have a firm understanding of key concepts.   

This curriculum, which is informed by the Model Music Curriculum (MMC) (2021), develops musical knowledge within this conceptual framework. Musical knowledge is gained through experience which is developed through singing, listening, composing (including improvising) and performing. 

Weekly singing assemblies are held and a range of songs and compositions practised and enjoyed by all. A different musician in introduced each week and their genre and culture discussed. Musician of the Month is covered each month with children learning about the musician and their music. There are opportunities to listen to a range of the musician’s music throughout that month. NMPAT and Rock Steady provide peripatetic lessons on a range of instruments for individual children and the music access scheme is used to teach a musical instrument to a whole year group for term in lower key stage two.