At Beacon View Primary Academy, we believe that music should be an enriching, inspirational and comprehensive element of the curriculum. Music gives pupils a unique way of communicating that can encourage and motivate them through opportunities for personal expression. Music can reflect the culture and society we live in and so the teaching and learning of music enables children to better understand the world we live in, and enables them to feel part of a community. A high-quality music education makes an essential contribution to the creativity, culture, and mental well-being of the nation. We pride ourselves on the fact that every child can learn how to play an instrument before they leave Beacon View and that our pupils are confident and enthusiastic performers.
Specialist teachers from the Portsmouth Music Hub lead instrumental lessons, while class teachers lead singing—guided by a structured routine of warming up voices with vocal exercises, practicing the half-term song, and performing it as a final piece.
Our curriculum has been designed in collaboration with this service, and aims to develop the following musical characteristics:
- A rapidly widening repertoire which pupils use to create original, imaginative, fluent and distinctive composition and performance work
- A musical understanding underpinned by high levels of aural perception, internalisation ad knowledge of music, including high or rapidly developing levels of technical expertise
- A strong awareness and appreciation of different musical traditions and genres
- An excellent understanding of how musical provenance – the historical, social and cultural origins of music – contributes to the diversity of musical styles
- The ability to give precise written and verbal explanations, using musical terminology effectively, accurately and appropriately
- Excitement for a diverse range of musical activities
We also take pride in exposing the pupils to diverse musical genres across various historical eras to provide a rich foundation for emotional literacy and creative expression. Listening to everything from Baroque concertos and Jazz syncopations to 80s Synth-pop and contemporary world music helps children build an expressive vocabulary that goes far beyond spoken language. This reflective process deepens their appreciation of music while cultivating self-awareness, empathy, and open-mindedness as our children discover how human emotion has been captured and shared through sound across cultures and generations.