Exemplification of Standards at KS3: Music

Exemplification of Standards at KS3: Music

Additional guidance notes

What is this document for?

This document provides additional background notes for the music section of QCDA’s ‘Exemplification of standards’ files. These can be found on QCDA’s web site at:

The QCDA site contains generic advice about the use of the materials, but there is no subject-specific guidance which explains how the overarching principles used across all the foundation subjects apply to music. This document therefore explains the detailed thinking that informed the development of the pupils’ work and written commentaries for music, and clarifieswhy the music materials appear as they do.

In doing so, the document provides explicit guidance on musical progression, standards and assessment practice, but it should be stressed that its prime function is to describe the context for the materials. It doesnot intend to imply that the exemplifications must be used in any particular way, or that there are any additional expectations of music teachers!

How is this document structured?

There are several sections, eachexploring key questionsabout the materials.You can ‘control-click’ on each heading below to take you directly to that section, or simply print out the whole document.

What is on the site, and how might I best useit?

How do the materials and their assessments relate to the National Curriculum?

Are any aspects of musical learning seen as particularly significant, and how is integrated practice reflected in thematerials?

What are the key markers of progression, and are these really ‘average’ standards?

How much evidence is needed for judgements to be secure, including types and breadth of evidence, and the amount of physical evidence that has to be kept for each pupil?

What do music departmentsreally need to remember?

What willI find on the site?

Lots of pupils’ work – grouped according to the units of work pupils studied across a whole year, and including their planning, first attempts at practical ideas, explanations and discussions of work in progress, final performances, evaluations, scores, research evidence, etc. This all shows ‘evidence of learning’ from six individual pupils: when the complete set of evidence from any single pupil is taken together, it exemplifies the expected standard for one of the levels, from Pupil A at level 3 right through to Pupil F at level 8.

Written commentaries – including the original context for the teacher’s planning, and what the evidence from each unit of work demonstrates about that pupil’s learning. There is also an overall assessment about the total evidence for each pupil leading to a final judgement about the standards shown.

Please note: for each pupil, evidence is drawn from at least four units of work, withseveral pieces of evidence per unit. However, the written commentaries only describe what the total evidence from each unit shows about the pupil’s learning. There is therefore no marking of, or commentary on, individual items of work: this is deliberate, as an holistic approach to the assessment of pupils’ work in music is essential if an appropriate judgement about standardsis to be made.

Level judgements – a final judgement which describes why the complete set of evidence from each pupil exemplifies the standard of a particular level. This means that it is possible to look through an entire bank of evidence which, when taken together, demonstrates the expectation for each of the levels from level 3 through to level 8.

Please note: the only explicit references to levels are in these final, overall judgements. There are no references to individual pieces of work being ‘level x’ or ‘level y’, nor are there any references to so-called ‘sub-levels’. The levels are summary judgements to be used at points of transition only, and cannot be used in music to describe the standard achieved by either a single piece of work or by a range of evidence from a single unit. This is because QCDA states that ‘A range of experiences is essential for attainment at levels. Understanding of a variety of genres, styles and traditions is also essential for attainment especially above level 4’. Such a range cannot be demonstrated by work from one unit, much less from a single piece of work (such as a performance or a composition).

How might I best use the materials?

You might:

a) simply browse the materials, to get a feel for the standards across all the levels, the range of evidence that demonstrates musical learning, and some sense of what is essential in making judgements in music. If you do this, be sure to look at the materials ‘in the round’: individual items of work should not be looked at in isolation from everything else.

b) use the materials to inform your department’s understanding of national standards, by:

• creating a portfolio of work from your own pupils
• moderating this portfolio against the exemplification, ideally in a joint session with other music teachers. This will help develop confidence in recognising what is significant about musical learning, and in making secure judgements about pupils’ progress over time
• using the outcomes of this process to inform changes to planned learning, particularly for units of work, but also for individual lessons

Back to headings

How do the headings of the written commentaries relate to the National Curriculum, and why are they always grouped in three paragraphs?

The national curriculum’s ‘Importance of music’ statement explicitly identifies three aspects of musical learning:

• Paragraph 1 is about context, the big picture, the significance of music as an art form. This is picked up by the heading ‘understanding the nature of music’
• Paragraph 2 is about practical engagement, the necessity of pupils performing, composing, singing, etc. This is picked up by the heading ‘communicating through creative music-making’
• Paragraph 3 is about critical listening, analysis and appraising. This is picked up by the heading ‘evaluating and informing practice’

The national curriculum’s first three ‘Key Concepts’also relate directly to the same aspects of learning (though, confusingly, in a different order!):

• Key Concept 1.1 – Integration of practice relates to the practical aspects of learning: ‘communicating through creative music-making’
• Key Concept 1.2 – Cultural understanding relates to the context of musical learning: ‘understanding the nature of music’
• Key Concept 1.3 – Critical understanding relates to analysis and evaluation: ‘evaluating and informing practice’

If the national curriculum specifies these three aspects of learning as being of primary importance, it makes sense for any commentary about that learning to relate the evidence to the same three key areas. In order to retain the emphasis on the quality of musical outcomes implicit in the levels, the statements about practical work also refer to ‘creativity’ and ‘communication’. These are, of course, the final two Key Concepts in the national curriculum (Key Concepts 1.4 and 1.5). By referring to them within a music making context, the commentaries strongly imply integrated practice: pupils will develop their understanding of the nature of music if their practical work is designed to reflect a specific context, and is informed by constant analysis and refinement of work in progress.

Back to headings

Are any of the three main areas of learning more important than the others when making judgements about standards?

Yes– ‘understanding the nature of music’ is regarded as critical in determining standards. This is because:

• The national curriculum levels are unique in having an initial sentence that encapsulates the complete expectation of that level: ‘Each level in music begins with an overarching statement, which identifies the key characteristic of attainment at that level.’ At each level, therefore, the first sentence progressively describes musical understanding, describing both how music works (its relationships, devices, processes and conventions) and its context (intentions, time, place, culture, styles, genres and traditions). Pupils’ capacity to grasp these ideas, and to develop and demonstrate them practically, is at the heart of musical learning and its assessment. The ‘understanding’ paragraph of each commentary is therefore critical, and carries more weight than the other paragraphs when making a final judgement.
• The national curriculum itself describes how the ‘Key Processes’ of the subject (performing, composing, listening, reviewing and evaluating) ‘enable the development and demonstration of musical understanding’. Whilst they are clearly important, therefore, they are primarily intended to support musical understanding, and consequently have less influence when determining overall standards of musical learning.

How do the commentaries reflect the need for ‘integrated practice’?

By constantly referring back to ‘understanding’ - meaning that although there are specific references to technical control or the ability to recognise technical features, it is the quality of the performance or the imagination of the evaluation that leads to evidence of learning being most highly praised:

• Pupils are not just given credit for a technically demanding performance: though it may be a useful indicator of a pupil’s progress in learning, it is more important to identify how the performing demonstrates understanding of the music being explored
• Pupils are not given particular credit just for the ability to ‘improve’ or ‘refine’ a piece of practical work – especially if their refinement is simply at a technical level (i.e. can now play the tune with a left-hand accompaniment, or can compose a counter-melody).

What will indicate strong learning is the capacity to improve practical work by referencing an understanding of the music’s context and purpose (i.e. we need to change this sound because it does not convey the character of the film sequence effectively): in other words, integrating practical work within an overall development of musical understanding.

Back to headings

So what are the fundamental markers of progression?

The most important thing to look for is how the evidence of learning indicates pupils’ musical understanding. As you listen to practical work, hear the pupils talking about their work, see the way their work develops over time – can you identify the extent to which their musical thinking is reflecting the statements in the table below:

Level / Key phrase determining progression: how music works / Key phrase determining progression:
the context
4 / ‘the relationship between sounds’ / ‘how music reflects different intentions’
5 / ‘musical devices’ / ‘how music reflects time, place and culture
6 / ‘different processes’ / ‘contexts of selected musical styles, genres and traditions’
7 / ‘musical conventions’ / ‘influences on selected musical styles, genres and traditions’

Note that the phrases ‘relationships, devices, processes, conventions’ do not try and describe something different – they are simply indicators of progression in the same aspect of learning: overall musical understanding.

The relationship between sounds describes understanding at a stage when pupils start to recognise and use patterns of sound, both vertically (texture) and horizontally (structure). They tend to focus on rhythmic and melodic ostinati and can combine these effectively, and they start to recognise how phrases work (call and response) and develop into longer sections (binary, ternary, introductions, codas etc). They may also begin to develop an understanding of chord structures and how basic melodic patterns ‘fit’ with simple chord sequences. However, this is nearly always ‘generic’ music, without a clear reference to a specific style: it will have a decisive character, but may not be immediately identifiable as a specific type of music.

‘Musical devices’ describes understanding at a stage when pupils start to recognise and use ‘ingredients’ that are specific to a particular musical style, genre or tradition. They might now recognise that a 12-bar blues chord sequence is different from the sort of chord sequence used in a reggae song, or a folk dance. However, while they recognise why certain styles reflect a specific context, they tend still to focus on the ‘what’ of the music rather than the ‘how’: so their practical work often seems to have all the right things in it, but does not somehow gel into something stylistically secure. It is like a cook who has used all the right ingredients, but has not used the method carefully enough to make a great plate of food!

‘Musical processes’ by contrast describes understanding at a stage when pupils start not only to use the most appropriate ingredients, but also to understand the methods by which the ingredients can be brought together to make an effective, high quality outcome. To take the cooking analogy further, these pupils understand the ‘method’ – the different ways of putting the ingredients together. In musical terms, therefore, the pupils know how and why music is created and realised in different ways. They also know how to do this in a range of styles, genres and traditions, and recognise, for instance, that a shared, aurally developed arrangement of a folk song will be probably end up being more ‘authentic’ than if it were written out and performed with a computer-based score-writing package.

‘Musical conventions’ goes a stage further and describes understanding at a stage when pupils start to refine types of pieces within a given style. They know and are starting to understand how a range of artists use the basic ingredients and methods of blues in different ways, and how their music sounds different as a consequence. They don’t just understand ‘blues’ music, therefore, but understand and can begin to replicate the blues music of different eras or artists. They can also begin to experiment, recognising that they can ‘flavour’ the music of one style by incorporating the ‘ingredients’ and ‘processes’ of another. They are not always capable of doing this successfully (which is more typical of a pupil working at level 8), but the process is starting out, and they understand connections and influences of one style upon another.

Are these really ‘average’ standards?

The standards demonstrated by each of the pupils are, overall, at least ‘secure’ for each level, and sometimes ‘strong’. Some aspects of their work might therefore show elements of understanding / learning from the next level up, but they are judged to be overall at the level stated.

This means that other pupils with weaker work might still be judged to be at the same level overall, but without such strength of learning. Another pupil might therefore still be judged to be at level 5, even though there is not so much evidence of their understanding as demonstrated in the exemplification materials – but if they are clearly beyond understanding ‘the relationship between sounds’ and are obviously identifying and exploring ‘musical devices’ (even if not very successfully), then they can be judged to be at level 5 overall.

Note again that the evidence of learning for the exemplification is not marked against separate, sub-level statements in order to ascertain whether the pupils’ understanding is weak, secure or strong: such statements are not appropriate and have no meaning. Individual items of work might be ‘marked’ against teacher-defined or shared criteria for a particular lesson (i.e. the success of an ensemble in performing a samba piece), but when it comes to making an overall judgement, it is the complete evidence of learning that is assessed against the single statements of the levels.

Back to headings

What is the significance of the types and breadth of evidence?

Pupils need to be able to demonstrate their understanding in different ways – so as QCDA puts it, ‘you will need to provide opportunities for pupils to display their achievements in different ways, and to work in a range of situations.’ Ideally, this will include both practical work, and spoken or written work. However, we know that some

pupils have particular strengths and weaknesses, so it is possible to have pupils who:

• Demonstrate understanding best through their practical work (because it sounds right for the stage of understanding they are at), and who struggle to articulate this in verbal or written language
• Demonstrate understanding best through verbal comments or written work, because they struggle to cope with the demands of specific practical skills

Both sets of pupils can still demonstrate understanding, and can therefore be judged to be producing work of a given standard – though the role of the teacher will of course be to try and improve their area of weakness so that they can both participate practically and describe their understanding verbally.

Pupils also need to be able to demonstrate their understanding across a range of musical contexts – by working in a range of styles, genres and traditions. As already quoted, QCDA guidance states that ‘understanding of a variety of genres, styles and traditions is also essential for attainment especially above level 4. Attainment at the higher levels is impossible without depth and breadth of musical study and experience.’ The Secondary Strategy’s music programme ( provides some useful guidance on this, but a simple question will give an immediate indication of whether this is possible for your pupils: does your KS3 scheme of work provide a balance of music across time and place (including world music), popular contemporary music, music for media and music from (broadly speaking) the western classical tradition? If so, itshould enable us to see how secure a pupil’s understanding really is.