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KS3 Music

a professional development programme

Objectives and outcomes

This training unit promotes the view that the fundamental aim of music at Key Stage 3 is to develop pupils’ musical understanding. It defines this essential understanding as an outcome which is the result of combining two areas of learning:

  • knowing about musical conventions, processes and devices;
  • exploring a range of diverse musical styles, genres and traditions through practical music making.

By identifying this outcome as the main focus for learning, the unit suggests that although knowledge about music and practical experiences are critical, they should be seen as the means by which the main aim of musical understanding is enabled rather than being ends in themselves. It therefore supports the National Curriculum (2008) guidance about the Key Processes of performing, composing, listening and reviewing and evaluating: ‘These should be seen as interrelated skills and processes that enable the development and demonstration of musicianship and musical understanding.’

In helping you to structure pupils’ musical learning so that there is an explicit focus on musical understanding, the unit will guide you to:

  • explore in detail the precise nature of musical understanding;
  • consider how to plan for a breadth of musical understanding across the key stage;
  • understand what progression in musical understanding looks and sounds like;
  • recognise that the expectations, outcomes and a sequence of learning should be planned for first, with purposeful activities to deliver that learning being planned for later;
  • plan and teach a unit of work that has musical understanding as its main focus.

The unit therefore describes a new process for planning Key Stage 3 units of work. Working through each section of the unit in turn will be the most effective way of developing your thinking about this planning process. To start, and in order to get a proper sense of the extent to which your teaching currently focuses on musical understanding, use Activity Resource 1 Microsoft Word 53kb as the basis for a discussion with your pupils.

After exploring this introduction, you may want to