Music
Intent
Curriculum aims
The Kapow Primary Music scheme is designed to help pupils recognise themselves as musical and to nurture a lifelong love of music.
The scheme develops the skills, knowledge, and understanding needed to become confident performers, composers, and listeners. The curriculum introduces pupils to music from across the world, encouraging respect and appreciation for the music of all traditions and communities.
Pupils build musical skills through singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, improvising, composing and listening and responding to music. They develop an understanding of the historical and cultural context of the music they encounter and learn how music can be notated.
The scheme also supports the development of transferable skills, including teamwork, leadership, creative thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and presentation and performance abilities. These skills are integral to pupils’ development as learners and have wide application in their lives beyond school.
Personal Development in Music
SMSC
The scheme supports spiritual, moral, social and cultural development by encouraging pupils to:
- Explore different perspectives.
- Reflect on ethical issues.
- Collaborate with others.
- Appreciate cultural diversity through subject-specific content.
British values
Lessons promote British values (democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance) by incorporating activities that encourage debate, respect for differing opinions and an understanding of societal structures.
Cultural capital
Kapow Primary’s Music curriculum broadens pupils’ experiences by introducing them to influential musicians, musical traditions from around the world, and the historical and cultural contexts of different genres.
This ensures they gain the knowledge and skills needed to engage meaningfully with music in society.
Inclusion and diversity
Kapow Primary’s Music scheme has been designed to represent a range of cultures, backgrounds and races.
- The scheme’s visual representation is inclusive and representative of a variety of people and places, challenging stereotypes or historical ideologies.
- Within sensitive units, questions have been included to support pupils’ lived experiences and backgrounds.
- Where appropriate, colonial choices and their impact on musical issues are explored.
The Kapow Primary Music scheme supports pupils in appreciating the complexity of people’s lives, the diversity of societies and the relationships between different groups.
Implementation
Recap and recall
Each lesson begins with a short activity revisiting prior learning. This helps reinforce key knowledge, activate long-term memory and create connections between past and new learning.
Recap and recall activities are varied to keep the start of the lesson engaging and fun while still supporting active recall.
Attention grabber
A short, engaging activity designed to hook pupils into the new learning in the lesson.
This could be a thought-provoking question, a quick investigation or an interactive discussion to spark curiosity and enthusiasm for the topic.
Main event
The core part of the lesson, where pupils engage in activities that develop their understanding of the learning objective.
This includes a mixture of teacher modelling, guided practice and independent or collaborative tasks tailored to support all learners.
Wrapping up
A final reflective activity that consolidates learning.
This could involve reviewing the success criteria, discussing key learning or applying knowledge in a different context to assess understanding and encourage deeper thinking.
SEND
The Kapow Primary Music scheme of work is designed to be fully adaptable for pupils with SEND. Every lesson includes an adaptive teaching section, providing clear guidance on how activities can be modified to meet the needs of all learners.
Pupils learn in a variety of ways. As such, Kapow Primary Music lessons include a range of strategies to support and challenge every pupil, such as:
Scaffolding – activities are designed with flexibility in mind, allowing for additional support or challenge where needed.
Multi-sensory approaches – lessons incorporate different elements to engage all learners.
Clear instructions and structured tasks – ensuring clarity and reducing cognitive load for pupils who benefit from additional support.
Opportunities for collaborative and independent learning – allowing pupils to work at their own pace while building confidence and independence.
By embedding adaptive teaching throughout, the scheme ensures that all pupils, regardless of their starting points, can access and succeed in their learning.
In addition, the step-by-step curriculum design supports pupils with SEND, avoiding sudden jumps in complexity at transition points and allowing for steady, manageable progression.