Intent

At Idle CE (A) Primary School, our curriculum intent is rooted in our vision of 'providing everyone with the opportunities to thrive through faith, learning, and shared goals: growing together. We foster bravery in facing challenges, celebrate teamwork, and nurture a spirit of helping others.'
Children cannot thrive or aspire to things they have never encountered, and our curriculum extends beyond the academic, structured to engage our children in memorable experiences filled with joy, love, and courage.

Through our music curriculum, our intent for all pupils is:

• To have a brilliant music education, identifying and removing barriers, including those faced by pupils in low-income households and those with SEND.
• To promote a broad musical culture, providing pupils with ‘cultural capital’ that broadens their horizons and nurtures love for diversity, developing an understanding of people and cultures around the world through music.
• To have opportunities to learn to play different instruments, to sing, and to create and perform their own music, fostering joy in creativity and self-expression.
• To have opportunities to express themselves, explore creativity, work hard, persevere, and shine, building courage to perform and share their talents.
• To have the opportunity to progress musically, exploring their interests and talents with confidence and enthusiasm.

This intent draws inspiration from the National Plan for Music Education – The Power of Music to Change Lives (July 2022).

Implementation

In order to enable pupils to thrive, we will ensure we are equipping our children with the necessary skills to be brave, inquisitive, and resilient.
Through our rich musical curriculum and wider musical culture, we aim to nurture a sense of pride in achievement, celebrate community and culture, and create an inclusive environment where every child feels valued.

We do this through:

• A broad musical curriculum, based on the Model Music Curriculum, underpinned by a secure skill progression that enables pupils to encounter, develop, revisit and apply musical skills, progressively building on these over time.
• Dedicated curriculum time of at least one hour per week (Key Stages 1 and 2) supported by co-curricular music opportunities.
• A strong grounding in music opportunities within Early Years.
• A dedicated music lead with the skills, expertise and experience to drive the subject across school and liaise with the local Music Hub.
• Working alongside the local Music Hub (Bradford Music and Arts) to provide specialist tuition as part of the WCET programme throughout Key Stage 2 as part of the overall music curriculum.
• Instrumental hire provided free of charge, including instruments to take home and practice in UKS2 (cornet, ukulele, trombone, euphonium), to remove economic barriers to learning to play an instrument.
• Co-curricular musical opportunities for all, both within and beyond the school day, include weekly Singing Worship and the ‘Young Voices’ after-school choir.
• Opportunities to engage with peripatetic instrumental lessons via the Music Hub within the school day. These can be part-financed for those pupils from low-income families or those with SEND.
• Specialist SEND provision within KS2 to address barriers to pupils accessing whole-class music tuition.
• Ongoing staff CPD to develop appropriate skills and develop use of resources to support effective music delivery.
• Opportunities to listen to performed music and take part in music making with others, both within school and as part of the wider Music Hub offer.
   

Impact

By embedding these principles, we prepare our children not only to succeed academically but to flourish as creative, confident individuals who contribute positively to the world around them. We aspire for our curriculum to be empowering and for it to be accessible to all. As musicians at Idle CE(A) Primary, pupils will have the opportunities to express themselves, explore creativity, work hard, persevere and shine.

We empower our pupils as musicians to:

• Develop singing and instrumental skills and have the opportunity to progress further following their interests and talents through individual or group peripatetic music lessons which can be partially or fully-funded as well as sign-posting pupils to opportunities to take part in music making outside of school.
• Understand and appreciate a wide variety of musical styles and genres, including live and recorded music, developing an aural bank of music along with knowledge of its cultural context.
• Create and hear their own music.
• Perform for others and with others, both in school and as part of wider community events.
• Celebrate their musical successes, both in school and within the wider community.

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods: 

• ∙Pupil discussions and interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice). 
• ∙ Annual reporting and tracking of standards across the curriculum.
• ∙ Photo and video evidence of the pupils practical learning. 
• ∙ Use of the assessment tools provided within the Charanga scheme. 
• ∙ Dedicated music leader time.
  

Music Development Plan 2025-26 ( will be updated and uploaded shortly)