KS3 Music

Recognising impact

This unit aims to help music teachers review and refine their practice in structuring learning so that there is an explicit focus within lessons on musical engagement through sequences of episodes that enable pupils to ‘engage – learn – review’.

The unit leads teachers to plan and teach lessons that:

• engage pupils from the outset with musical experiences and thinking;
• build on prior learning, and then set challenging tasks with high expectations;
• structure the learning to maintain motivation;
• require pupils to think for themselves to explore creative solutions to musical problems;
• conclude with positive musical outcomes and learning.

This will enable teachers to:

• engage, challenge and immerse all pupils in musical thinking and learning from the start of the lesson;
• explicitly draw out the main messages of the lesson and relate these main messages to learning within the whole unit;
• clarify why an individual lesson might focus on a different aspect of musical learning from that identified in the rest of the unit;
• provide short, sharp challenges for practical activities;
• address learning issues and highlight progress made for the whole class when sharing work in progress;
• create time for reflection and refinement after feedback has been given on first attempts and intervene when necessary;
• provide enough time for performances of compositions to be prepared so that the final performance properly reflects the quality and process of the work’s creation;
• focus conclusions about learning on musical experiences.

As a result, pupils:

• are immediately engaged in musical experiences and develop curiosity about further musical learning;
• can confidently describe and reflect on the purpose of any musical activities, and understand how these musical activities will support learning within the overall unit of work;
• are clear about expectations and timescales for activities or episodes within lessons;
• are actively involved in their learning, work constructively and are able to judge the success of their work;
• understand how to improve their work and are given time to do this;
• know how to use thinking skills to develop work in progress;
• internalise their musical learning as a consequence of musically rewarding conclusions to lessons.