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Music at St James's

Our curriculum allows pupils to explore a wide range of cultures and traditions whilst developing pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the subject.

Our aim is: to equip pupils with knowledge so they understand how music works; study the elements of music so they understand interconnecting concepts and study the context of music so pupils understand their place in the world. 

Whilst studying the above central strands, pupils develop their performing, composing and appraising skills.  

It is our intent, that pupils’ study of music not only develops their academic progress but also a wide range of transferable skills.  Skills such as; resilience, confidence, organisation skills, time management, self-discipline and inter-personal skills.

Music Departmental Overview and Development Plan

Music Departmental Overview and Development Plan

Instrumental Lessons and extra-curricular

The music department offers a full range of instrumental lessons. These include brass, woodwind, strings, percussion, voice, piano and guitar. Instrumental lessons are provided by Bolton Music Service on a weekly basis during the school day.

A wide range of extracurricular activities are available, catering for all abilities.  These include:

School orchestra
Training orchestra
School choir
Chamber choir
Show choir
Jazz band
GCSE composition drop-in sessions
Music theory club

Each year, the music department works with the drama department to produce a large scale school production.  In recent years, these have included Les Miserable, Hairspray and Jesus Christ Superstar.

The music department also runs regular residential trips and foreign tours, our most recent being Lake Garda – Italy.

Curriculum

Music Learning Journey
Music Assessment Grid

Key Stage 3

Music in key stage 3 is practical based, therefore a wide range of instruments will be provided for pupils to use during lessons. Online resources will be made available for independent learning at home.  Pupils can expect a weekly, one hour lesson in year 7 and a fortnightly one hour lesson in year 8.

Key Stage 4

We offer a choice of two qualifications in KS4, allowing pupils to focus on their musical interests and strengths.  These are the traditional GCSE music (Eduqas) and the Btec technical award in music practice (level 2), focusing on music technology.

Please follow the links below for more information on the respective course specifications:

GCSE specification

Btec specification

  • TTLP