EMS Primary Curriculum Guidance
Ofsted’s revised inspection framework takes a greater focus on the sequential development of skills throughout children’s learning across the curriculum. Inspectors are looking for evidence of how the curriculum utilises and builds on skills and learning from previous years. In music, this is tied to how each level builds on the listening, performing and composing/improvisation skills from the previous year and how each new learning experience uses previous knowledge as the starting point for development.
The National Curriculum for music is a flexible one, and can be successfully taught in a variety of ways. Rather than devise a set curriculum, we have put together a framework outlining the expected progression/attainment for some of the key musical skills in each of the year groups across EYFS, KS1 and KS2 that schools can use as a tool to help review and assess their current schemes of work.
You can download the guidance from the list of documents on this page.
We have also added some guidance on the Model Music Curriculum published by the DfE and the following from our Music Education Conference in February 24:
- Presentation on National, Local and School music planning and discussion points
- Presentation and supporting planning examples from Samantha Ojokor's session on skills progression & musical assessment
We have now also added a Music Subject Lead folder checklist from our online session in September 2024, and a document on what to expect during an inspection. Although Deep Dives are no longer taking place in primary inspections, we feel this is still a useful document to consider what you might expect to be asked about during an Ofsted inspection.