Holmes Chapel
6th Form College
Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School & Sixth Form College
Our Curriculum
Music
Overview
The Music curriculum at HCCS is designed to give all pupils in music the opportunity to explore and develop key skills in music as well as the spiritual, moral,social and cultural aspects of education. The students study using a variety of different methods, and undertake projects which involve individual, group and whole class outcomes. Each curriculum is linked through content and skills to the previous and subsequent stage of learning to ensure continuity and progression.
KS3
The curriculum in years 7-9 is designed to introduce and develop the students' understanding of the key musical elements, their ability to perform using instruments and voices,their ability to analyse and evaluate music as well as developing their compositional skills. This is achieved through following schemes of work which progressively develop their skills to that by the end of year 9 they have had a rounded musical education which will have developed their understanding of music and musical processes and SMSC aspects,while also providing the grounding for further study of the subject at KS4.
KS3 Projects follow the same outline for each project
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Title page/ key information
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Stimulus task (listening/ performing/ information)
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Composition brief with assessment criteria
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Rehearsal/ peer assessment
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Performance
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Assessment (self/ teacher) plus review homework
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End of Unit Assessment​
Overview of GCSE Music
GCSE Music involves performance, composition and analysis and covers a wide variety of musical styles. The course can be accessed with various musical abilities – singing or instrumental skill and a genuine interest in music. GCSE Music is both practical and analytical and lessons involve a mixture of individual and group work.
Performance: students will each record a solo and an ensemble performance. This may be performed on any instrument/voice and in any style. The difficulty level of the piece is taken into account when assigning a mark to the performance.
Composition: students also compose two pieces of music individually. These can be created on the computers or played live.
Listening and appraising: much lesson time is spent analysing eight set works. These pieces span a range of genres – from the Star Wars soundtrack, to a Bach Concerto, to the song Defying Gravity from the musical Wicked.
Course Structure Unit Topics/Unit Title Assessment Weighting(%)
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Performing Music Coursework 30%
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Composing Music Coursework 30%
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Listening and Appraising Written Examination 40%
