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Fernhurst Primary School

Music

At Fernhurst Primary School, the children  have weekly music lessons with school staff and there are opportunities to develop further musical skills by taking up one of the many offers from our specialist teachers to learn to play the piano, guitar, brass, drums and more.  Each term, children can share in sharing assemblies and annually, those children with an interest in music are invited to join the choir at either the O2 or the Royal Albert Hall to perform during their time at Fernhurst.  

Music is taught weekly.  We do not block our subjects as we want children to return regularly to the subject knowledge and concepts in order that they are regularly retrieving the taught knowledge and concepts, embedding these in their long term memory.  This enables them to make progress - know more and remember more.

Our pupils will form a music schema* by using concepts as the basis for schema. We call these threshold concepts; these are the big ideas which form the basis for the subject schema. We will continually revisit these concepts throughout the entire curriculum, in every year group, in every music topic. In music the threshold concepts relate to:

  • Singing
  • Composing and performing
  • The historical, social and cultural origins of music - contributing to the diversity of musical styles
  • Playing instruments individually and as part of a group

We strengthen the schema with knowledge. The knowledge comes from our topics. Within each topic are knowledge categories, the facets of each threshold concept that helps to strengthen the schema. We further deep connections through tasks. This is what is developed through our planning.  

*Schema – A subject schema is a way of organising knowledge in a meaningful way; it is an appreciation of how facts are connected and the ways in which they are connected. A schema is distinct from information, which is just isolated facts that have no organisational basis or links.