Music

Intent – why do we teach what we teach in Music? 

Music allows students to communicate in a universal language without barriers; a language that is understood by all. The music curriculum at Harris Academy Chobham has been exclusively designed to inspire students, supporting the development of their unique individual musical talents. This allows all students to appreciate music as an art form whilst providing opportunities to develop their own musical interests and musical voice. Outside of musical development, our curriculum enables students to learn about different cultures and periods of historical significance in a practical and immersive way. We provide our students with authentic musical experiences with practical music making at the heart of the curriculum. Our curriculum has been carefully scaffolded to best support incremental skill development, ensuring students are appropriately challenged at all levels. We believe everyone has musical talent and it is our job as educators to provide opportunities via the curriculum and the co-curricular offering that help them find and develop their own musical interests. As Maya Angelou once said 'I believe every person is born with talent' and the music team, both classroom and wider peripatetic, at Harris Academy Chobham believe the same.

Implementation – how do we teach Music? 

Our curriculum focusses on three key areas of development within the pillars of Music Education: Performing, Composing and Appraising. We give regular opportunities throughout our curriculum for students to explore and develop skills and knowledge in these areas, including singing, developing technical skills on a variety of instruments, using music technology, engaging with a variety of notations appropriate to style and using the inter-related dimensions of music to appraise and compose. With practical music making central to our curriculum, students will regularly work on developing independent instrumental skills and apply these to both solo and ensemble work. The skills that they develop enable all students, regardless of starting point, opt for a music pathway beyond KS3 in keeping with the mantra of the Harris Federation, that 'music is for everyone'.