Foundation Subjects: / National Curriculum Coverage: Music / Cycle A / Cycle B
Autumn 1 / Autumn 2 / Spring 1 / Spring 2 / Summer 1 / Summer 2 / Autumn 1 / Autumn 2 / Spring 1 / Spring 2 / Summer 1 / Summer 2
0-11 months
Exploring and using media and materials /
  • Watches and explores hands and feet

  • Repeat actions that have an effect

Being imaginative
/
  • Uses voice, gesture, eye contact and facial expression to make contact with people and keep their attention

8-20 months
Exploring and using media and materials /
  • Explore and experiment with a range or media through sensory exploration, and using whole body

  • Move their whole bodies to sounds they enjoy such as music or a regular beat

  • Imitates and improvises actions they have observed, eg clapping or waving

Being imaginative
/
  • Enjoy making noises or movements spontaneously

  • Uses sounds in play eg ‘brmmm’ for a car

  • Responds to what they see, hear, touch and feel

16-26 months
Exploring and using media and materials /
  • Begin to move to music listen to or join in rhymes or songs

  • Notices and is interested in the effects of making movements which leave marks

Being imaginative
/
  • Express themselves through physical action and sound

  • Pretend that one object represents another, especially when objects have characteristics in common

22-36 months
Exploring and using media and materials /
  • Joins in singing favourite songs

  • Creates sounds by banding, shaking, tapping or blowing

  • Shows interest in the way musical instruments sound

  • Experiments with blocks, colours and marks

Being imaginative
/
  • Begin to use representation to communicate, eg drawing a line and saying ‘that’s me’

  • Begin to make-believe by pretending

30-50 months
Exploring and using media and materials /
  • Enjoy joining in with dancing and ring games

  • Sing a few familiar songs

  • Begin to move rhythmically

  • Imitate movement in response to music

  • Tap out simple repeated rhythms

  • Explore and learn how sounds can be changed

  • Explore colour and colours can be changed

  • Understand that they can use lines to enclose a space, and then begin to use these shapes to represent objects

  • Begin to be interested in and describe the texture of things

  • Use various construction materials

  • Begin to construct, stacking blocks, vertically and horizontally, making enclosures and creating spaces

  • Joins construction pieces together to build and balance

  • Realises tools can be used for a purpose

Being imaginative
/
  • Developing preferences for forms of expression

  • Use movement to express feelings

  • Creates movement in response to music

  • Sing to themselves and make up simple songs

  • Make up rhymes

  • Notice what adults do, imitating what is observed and then doing in spontaneously when the adult is not there

  • Engages in imaginative role-play based on own first hand experiences

  • Builds stories around toys, eg farm animals, needing rescue from an arm chair ‘cliff’

  • Use available resources to create props to support role-play

  • Capture experiences and responses with a range of media such as music, dance, paint and other materials

40-60 months
Exploring and using media and materials
Tools=instruments /
  • Begin to build a repertoire of songs and dances

  • Explore the different sounds of instruments

  • Explore what happens when they mix colours

  • Experiment to create different textures

  • Understand that different media can be combined to create new effects

  • Manipulates materials to achieve a planned effect

  • constructs with purpose in mind, using a variety of resources

  • Use simple tools and techniques competently and appropriately

  • Selects appropriate resources and adapts work where necessary

  • Selects tools and techniques needed to shape, assemble and join materials they are using

Being imaginative
Instrument sounds=colours /
  • Create simple representations of events, people and objects

  • Initiate new combinations of movement and gesture in order to express and respond to feelings ideas and experiences

  • Choose particular colours to use for a purpose

  • Introduce a storyline or narrative into their play

  • Play alongside other children who are engaged in the same theme

  • Play cooperatively as part of a group to develop and act out a narrative

Early learning goals
Exploring and using media and materials /
  • Children sing songs make music and dance and experiment with ways of changing them. They safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function

Being imaginative
/
  • Children use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes. They represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, art music, dance, role play and stories

Key Stage 1 / Theme / Topic
  • use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes

  • play tuned and untuned instruments musically

  • listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music

  • experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.

Lower Key Stage 2 / Theme / Topic
  • play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression

  • improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music

  • listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory

  • use and understand staff and other musical notations

  • appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians

  • develop an understanding of the history of music.

Upper Key Stage 2 / Theme / Topic
  • play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression

  • improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music

  • listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory

  • use and understand staff and other musical notations

  • appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians

  • develop an understanding of the history of music.

Key Stage 3 / Theme / Topic
  • play and perform confidently in a range of solo and ensemble contexts, using their voice, playing instruments musically, fluently and with accuracy and expression

  • improvise and compose; and extend and develop musical ideas by drawing on a range of musical structures, styles, genres and traditions

  • use staff and other relevant notations appropriately and accurately in a arrange of musical styles, genres and traditions

  • identify and use the inter-related dimensions of music expressively and with increasing sophistication, including use of tonalities, different types of scales and other musical knowledge

  • listen with increasing discrimination to a wide range of music from great composers and musicians

  • develop an deepening understanding of the music that they perform and to which they listen, and its history

Year 7/8
Year 9