Music
The vision for faith music education at Star is to profoundly develop pupils’ musicality by offering musical experiences that resonate with their faith and cultural contexts whilst ensuring that they have meaningful encounters and develop a thorough awareness of the rich musical contexts of Great Britain and the world around them. Pupils’ experiences in music will provide for them narratives that reverberate with them as lifelong experiences; enabling some to thrive as promising musicians whilst instilling in all a deeper appreciation of the music they and others encounter.
Our vision is ambitious and designed to submerge pupils in musical experiences both within and outside the classroom setting where pupils:
- perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods
- appreciate genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians
- learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others
- learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and progress to the next level of musical excellence
- understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated
The whole-school curriculum operates at three levels and addresses pupils’ academic, personal, faith and social development. The three individual elements of learning provide a different component to the education of every pupil. Intellectual, personal, faith and social maturity are the goal of these structured layers of learning at the school. There are three guiding elements which are brought to life in the faith music curriculum:
- Educational excellence:
- Music teachers enable pupils to play and perform confidently in a range of solo and ensemble contexts using their voice, playing instruments musically, fluently and with accuracy and expression.
- They can improvise and compose; and extend and develop musical ideas by drawing on a range of musical structures, styles, genres and traditions
- Character development:
- Teachers emphasise that the music they love will be part of the narrative of their lives and bring colour to the experiences that shape them.
- Music will be a source of comfort through difficult times and help them to manage their emotional and spiritual wellbeing
- Service to communities:
- Music education enables pupils to become more aware of cultures and social contexts at both micro and macro levels.
- Pupils learn that music is a powerful means to communicate and raise awareness of ideas and peoples’ contexts throughout history.
- Musical performances lend to developing community cohesion, lift the spirit, improve mental and emotional wellbeing, hence supporting those at a disadvantage.
Pupils build on their previous knowledge and skills through performing, composing and listening. They develop their vocal and/or instrumental fluency, accuracy and expressiveness; and understand musical structures, styles, genres and traditions, identifying the expressive use of musical dimensions. They listen with increasing discrimination and awareness to inform their practice as musicians. They use technologies appropriately and appreciate and understand a wide range of musical contexts and styles.
Pupils learn to:
- 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 range 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 devices
- listen with increasing discrimination to a wide range of music from great composers and musicians
- develop a deepening understanding of the music that they perform and to which they listen, and its history
- know more remember more and develop Music excellence
The following principles underpin the Music curriculum:
- tacit knowledge (knowledge of music gained through experience that are often difficult to put into words) is a key golden thread when implementing the music curriculum
- declarative knowledge (factual knowledge about eras, styles, composers or performers, as stated in written essays about musical culture) is explicitly taught to bring about and enrich musical understanding
- procedural knowledge (knowledge exercised in the performance of a task) is an opportunity for pupils to show their musical understanding through listening, composing and performing
- pupils encounter examples that give meaning to the concepts of musical elements
- compositional components are identified for development and sufficient practice time is given to support fluency of key knowledge components
- pupils are taught about quality and creative diversity in pupils’ musical offerings. This provides opportunities to consider musical culture and meaning
- automaticity is the goal. We expect pupils to develop competency and fluency in reading and analysing musical scores
- large amounts of practice enabling pupils to develop performing, composing and listening fluency
- concepts and terminology of musical elements are taught and embedded within wider units of work, taking prior learning into account
- teachers provide opportunities to develop knowledge of the components of composition and support work towards stylistic composites
- lessons have extensive listening opportunities to help develop pupils’ expressive intentions and the ability to critically acclaim a piece of music
- tasks at a technical level are appropriate for pupils to be able to realise their expressive intentions
- there is space in lessons for exploration, inconsistency and independence
- teachers provide opportunities to gain knowledge of musical culture and repertoire, which is part of a broad education and a joy in and of itself
Year 7
Year 7 Pupils build upon musical knowledge they have from a primary level and develop strong knowledge of melody, rhythm and musical structures. Pupils get to know the importance of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in Islam and utilise their music creativity to compose and perform various musical pieces about Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
| Migration | The Full Moon | Beloved |
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Faith Through Music Pupils explore the concept of migration with specific exploration of the immigration of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ from Mecca to Madinah. Pupils create soundscapes with an awareness of the elements of music representing this migration |
Faith Through Music Pupils explore the description of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the love his companions had for him. Pupils sing and listen to a variety of anasheed describing Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and create their own nasheed lyrics with an awareness of rhythm and pulse |
Faith Through Music Pupils explore the deep love, and reverence Allah ﷻ has for Prophet Muhammad ﷺ through singing a variety of anasheed from the ‘Salaat and Salaam’ genre. They subsequently create their own versions of ‘Salaam’ within the confinements of musical structures |
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Explicit Musical Concept Knowing about the elements of music Pupils learn about the elements of music through composing, performing, and listening and appraising tasks. They learn to know how the great composers have used the elements to create different moods |
Explicit Musical Concept Knowing about rhythm and pulse Pupils learn about rhythm and pulse through composing, performing, and listening and appraising, and learn to know how the great composers have used rhythm of varying complexities in their works |
Explicit Musical Concept Knowing about musical structures Pupils learn about musical forms through composing, performing, and listening and appraising, and how the great composers have used form and structure to create intrigue and contrast in their works |
Year 8
Year 8 Pupils build on previous years knowledge to know: the elements of music more deeply, melody and rhythm through a variety of composing, performing and listening tasks. Pupils develop a richer appreciation of music related to specific cultures through the exploration of key beliefs from Islam.
| Salawaat | Asmaa Al-Husna | Qasidah Burdah |
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Faith Through Music Pupils explore ‘Salawaat’ – Praising Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, in the form of chants and popular Anasheed, where they go on to create their own chants of Salwaat to a variety of musical scales |
Faith Through Music Pupils learn about the Divine Names of Allah ﷻ and how they impact on a Muslim’s devotional lifestyle, and as a spiritual conduit between Lord and servant. Pupils use their knowledge of dynamics, instrumentation, music technology and how composers have created cosmic music to create their own rendition of Asmaa Al Husn |
Faith Through Music Pupils learn about Qasidah Burdah, a thirteenth-century ode praising Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, which originated from the African continent. They sing, with percussion accompaniment, renditions of Qasidah Burdah utilising conventions of African music |
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Explicit Musical Concept Knowing musical scales Pupils learn to know about musical scales through composing, performing, and listening and appraising, and how the great composers have used scales to create mood and effect in their works |
Explicit Musical Concept Knowing about sounds, and dynamics and instrumentation Pupils learn to know about the connection between music and the cosmos through composing, performing, and listening and appraising, and how the great composers have manipulated musical features to create enigmatic effects in their work |
Explicit Musical Concept Knowing about polyrhythms Pupils learn to know about rhythmic features and devices used in African music through composing, performing, and listening and appraising, and experience a rich repertoire created and/or inspired by African music |
Year 9
Year 9 Pupils know about other musical features and devices that the great composers used to make music more interesting through time and place. They use their musical knowledge to compose, perform, listen to and appraise music based on specific cultural and social musical contexts, with an awareness of some key Islamic concepts.
| Dhikr | The Call | Jamaal |
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Faith Through Music Pupils know about ‘Dhikr’ chants as a genre within Islamic music and how this develops the connection between The Creator ﷻ and His creation. Pupils create their own Dhikr motifs based on the conventions of minimalistic music to stimulate a variety of moods. |
Faith Through Music Pupils explore a fundamental belief in Islam, that of the Judgement Day, where one of its significant signs is the blowing of the trumpet by the archangel Israfil (AS). Pupils also investigate the Adhaan (Call to Prayer) and make links to knowing about music for special occasions such as Fanfares |
Faith Through Music Pupils explore Jamaal (beauty), an appreciation of being different and empathy towards one another’s life journey. Using these concepts they compose and perform pieces of music, inspired by the Islamic faith, based on the conventions of musical variation |
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Explicit Musical Concept Knowing motifs, polyrhythms and repetition Pupils learn about the development and conventions of minimalist music through composing, performing, and listening and appraising, and how composers have used small rhythmic motifs to create a bigger piece |
Explicit Musical Concept Knowing about music for special occasions Pupils learn about the history, origins and uses of Fanfares through composing, performing, and listening and appraising, and how the great composers have created a variety of Fanfares from different times and places |
Explicit Musical Concept Knowing ways to develop musical ideas Pupils develop their ability to recognise, explore and make creative use of the elements of music found in variation form. They learn about the concept of ground bass, as a type of variation form and explore how composers have used variation form in a selection of music from different times and place |
- Music teacher
- Musician
- Nasheed artist
