Music at key stages 1 and 2

• whether opportunities offered by the circumstances of the school suggest that particular units or aspects should be emphasised or expanded;
• whether the material should be adapted to meet the needs of the children in the school, particularly if they are not attaining at levels broadly appropriate for their age;
• whether the activities should be adapted to meet the needs of any gifted and talented children in the school;
• whether the attainments of the children in the school are such that adaptation alone will not provide a relevant structure for teaching music. This may be the case for some children with severe learning difficulties. In this case, schools may wish to use the exemplar scheme as a resource for developing a scheme that offers children opportunities to experience a range of work across the key aspects drawn from the programme of study.

In all schools, teachers are best placed to judge whether the learning objectives meet the learning needs of individual children and to adapt these to provide appropriate opportunities for all children to succeed. Some of the teaching activities will need to be adapted to ensure that children with special educational needs of all kinds may participate fully and demonstrate their achievements.

The expectations for each unit outline what children might be expected to demonstrate during the course of working through the unit. These expectations are closely related to the national curriculum level descriptions.

The learning outcomes in each unit indicate how children might demonstrate what they have learnt in a unit. Keeping an eye on these intended outcomes while teaching a unit will help in determining the expected progress of children. Feedback during lessons will help to provide appropriate targets for individuals.

Recording every aspect of each child's progress is neither necessary nor desirable. Records should be selective and brief. Significant achievement or weakness may be noted and may serve as a basis for planning appropriate future challenges and possibly form part of an annual report.

Some teachers may wish to express attainment in terms of the relevant national curriculum levels. In determining the level description that best fits a child's work in music, it is important to take an overall view across all aspects of his or her work in music. The level descriptions describe the type and range of performance that children working at a particular level should characteristically demonstrate.

As well as making its own distinctive contribution to the school curriculum, music contributes to the wider aims of primary education. Questions schools might like to consider include:

• To what extent does the school's music scheme of work contribute to the development of literacy and broader aspects of English; physical education; art and design; information and communication technology (ICT); modern foreign languages; personal, social and health education (PSHE) and citizenship; and thinking skills?
• How might music's contribution to these areas be enhanced?

The use of music can both enrich learning in other subjects and consolidate musical skills, knowledge and understanding.

In the early years, music can also aid memory, for example, by helping children to remember numbers, the alphabet and other sequences such as days of the week and months through songs and/or chants.

Many of the units in the schemes of work include direct links to dance and English. Unit 13 could link with art and design. There are also opportunities to develop ICT in several of the units, especially Unit 18.

Music is a distinctive form of communication and every opportunity should be used to encourage children to respond to questions through demonstration, for example children should be asked to show how something could be improved rather than just to talk about it. However, spoken language also plays a significant part in enabling children to develop their musical understanding, and music can make a significant contribution to the development of literacy. Children can develop language skills by:

• singing songs with attention to meaning and diction and an awareness of phrase;
• using their voices creatively and descriptively when composing and performing;
• discussing musical features and describing sounds and how they are used in their own and other people's music;
• negotiating with others in group and class music-making activities;
• collecting information using reference books, CD-ROMs, e-mail and the internet;
• asking questions to help them clarify tasks, discover other views and increase their understanding;
• responding to questions that require:
  • analysis and factual recall, for example 'What did you do?' 'What sounds were used?'
  • reasoning, for example 'Why did you do that?'
  • evaluation, for example 'What went well?' 'What could have been better?' 'What effect does it create?'
  • creativity, for example 'How will you make it better?' 'Could that be done in a different way?' 'What else have you done that might help you decide what to do next?'

Units 1, 8 and 15 are based on singing, so modern foreign languages could be introduced and extended by the choice of songs in a relevant foreign language. The singing of songs in other languages is also effective for musical development as it encourages children to use their singing voices rather than their everyday speaking voices.

PSHE underpins all the units. Through the music scheme of work children are helped to:

• develop confidence and responsibility and make the most of their abilities, for example by sharing opinions and exploring emotions, taking a lead in performing and composing activities, and recognising and extending their skills by learning to play a musical instrument outside the classroom;
• develop good relationships and respect the differences between people, for example by creating music together in groups recognising the contribution of others, and experiencing and appreciating music from different times and cultures.

By using thinking skills children can focus on knowing how as well as knowing what - on learning how to learn. Many aspects of music education contribute to the development of thinking skills. The following examples show how the different thinking skills can be developed in every unit.

These enable children to locate and collect relevant information, to sort, classify, sequence, compare and contrast, and to analyse part-whole relationships. These skills can be developed and demonstrated in music when children identify patterns and changes in sound, for example getting higher or lower, louder or quieter.

These enable children to give reasons for opinions and actions, to draw inferences and make deductions, to use precise language to explain what they think, and to make judgements and decisions informed by reasons and/or evidence. These skills can be developed and demonstrated in music when children describe why they have chosen particular sounds, and how the music creates different effects and moods.

These enable children to ask relevant questions, to pose and define problems, to plan what to do and ways to research, to predict outcomes and anticipate consequences and to test conclusions and improve ideas. These skills are developed and demonstrated in music when children try out different ideas and combinations of sounds and make improvements through trial and error.

These enable children to generate and extend ideas, to suggest hypotheses, to apply imagination, and to look for alternative innovative outcomes. These skills are developed and demonstrated in music when children take ownership of their own work and work independently. The organisation of the activities in the units into the three stages 'Introduction', 'Exploration' and 'Bringing it all together' is specifically designed to enable the development of creative skills. The last stage, in which the teacher steps back and allows the children to make their own decisions, is a critical part of enabling creative development. Creativity in music is not just about thinking skills, however, as creativity can also happen intuitively.

These enable children to evaluate information, to judge the value of what they read, hear and do, to develop criteria for judging the value of their own and others' work or ideas, and to have confidence in their judgements. These skills are developed and demonstrated in music when children express thoughts and feelings about music with confidence.

• identifying music that illustrates the main focus of the unit, bringing it to school, and discussing why they chose it;
• listening to music in many different situations and identifying how and why the music is used;
• practising rhythm and melodic patterns;
• collecting ideas for composition work, for example melodic patterns heard at a railway station;
• asking parents, carers, grandparents and family friends about the music they enjoy and why they enjoy it.

Children should experience as wide a range of different kinds of music as possible. Each unit provides an opportunity to listen to music from different times and places. For example, Unit 11 could include: Night on the bare mountain (Mussorgsky and Tomita), Deep river (spiritual and arranged by Tippett in A child of our time), Amazing grace (hymn and Never ever by All Saints). See copyright for additional information on copyright issues.

When choosing repertoire for each unit, it can be helpful to check that during each of the three two-year programmes (years 1 and 2, 3 and 4, and 5 and 6) all children experience:

• classical, folk and popular music;
• music from different cultures, including English, European and other cultures, such as African and Indian;
• music from the past and the present;
• music by well-known composers and performers.

The intention is that children listen to music in two ways. They should listen to:

• selected pieces several times to develop depth of understanding and encourage a greater engagement with the music (each unit identifies one main piece);
• a number of short extracts selected to develop breadth of experience and reinforce learning in the unit.

The units often use nursery rhymes as examples. This is because they are well known. The intention is that teachers will also choose other songs as appropriate to the interests and maturity of each class.

The interrelated skills of performing, composing and appraising are developed in all units, as are listening skills and the ability to apply musical knowledge and understanding.

The interrelated skills of performing, composing and appraising are developed in all units, as are listening skills and the ability to apply musical knowledge and understanding.

The interrelated skills of performing, composing and appraising are developed in all units, as are listening skills and the ability to apply musical knowledge and understanding.