Music
Welcome to the Music Department at UCS.
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Curriculum Overview
At Quest and the UCS our intention is that pupils are given the highest standard of music education, and the optimal musical opportunities that will engage and inspire them to develop a love of music and unlock their full potential as musicians, thereby increasing their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement.
Our curriculum challenges students to think, act and speak like those working in the field. We develop a firm understanding of what music is through listening, singing, performing, analysing, and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions, and musical genres using both traditional and virtual instruments.
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Our curriculum not only covers the National Curriculum but is based around the model music curriculum to give our students the very best platform and foundations to enhance their music learning. As a digital school we place a strong emphasis on music technology and the use of digital audio workstations to compose, sequence and arrange music. The life skills that are developed, and are at times explicitly taught, are an integral part of the development of the subject specific skills as well as creating well-rounded individuals. The core principles that are developed would include: Problem solving, perseverance, diligence, team work, time management, organisation, responsibility, cultural history, listening skills, confidence, social skills, discipline, self-evaluation, interpersonal skills, sense of achievement.
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Opportunities are embedded for students to be able to hone and develop the practical aspects of performance and composition, but equally important is the ability to understand how the development of life skills, such as confidence, self-awareness, perseverance and discipline give them a holistic experience that they can take beyond their musical studies.
We are committed to ensuring children understand the value and importance of music in the wider community, and are able to use their musical skills, knowledge, and experiences to involve themselves in music, in a variety of different contexts to enhance the lives of others in the wider community.
Despite Music at the UCS being a new and growing department, we have ambition for our learners and expect them by the end of KS3 to be fluent performers, active listeners and creative individuals that speak the language of the industry coherently and fluently.
Teaching Music
Our KS3 music curriculum aims to get students making music from their very first lesson. We start Year 7 with a musical performance unit which encompasses the basics of rhythm reading, musical notation and performing to allow our students to start a journey to become experts in the field. By the end of Y7 through of carful sequencing of musical skills students will be able to confidently know how to read and apply the reading of music to perform and compose on a variety of instruments. The department believes in a skills based curriculum rather than teaching topics.
With the foundations of musical playing, performing and music tech established in Y7, this allows use to continue our journey in Y8 and Y9 to revist and build upon what has already been established. It is important to remember that the development of musical skill is not linear. Our sequencing is taught in such a way where basic skills are revisited in greater depth and at greater levels of complexity as our students develop. Our road map which is shared on the school website clearly shows that each year we revisit skills in music technology, musical performance, composing and listening.
With the end goal of preparing our students to study and achieve at KS4.
Culture
Our curriculum is based on topics that have a real life comparison and context, which allows our students to have a connection and understanding with the topic which in turn allows for increased engagement and progress from all of our students.
The department is lead by a teacher who is also a working professional in the music industry. These professional standards are fed through to the students from the beginning of KS3 to allow our students to act and speak like an expert.
The department extra curricular actives gives an opportunity for students to mix across year groups which allows the older students to take the lead to inspire and motive the younger students to create the next generation of musical talent.
If students display low effort in their work or homework then the department follows the school’s behaviour policy and uses positive reinforcement to bring the best out of our students so that they are able to achieve and unlock their full potential.
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We make a conscious effort to plan opportunities for our students away from the classroom to bring the curriculum to life and enrich the lives of our students.
Our music teacher is also a working professional and employer within the music industry and this provides students with the experience of standards and expectations in the industry which promotes high aspirations for future careers. It also provides students with first hand, direct contact with potential employers to ask questions.