A guide to

Cambridge Primary Music

A guide to the Cambridge Primary Programme

Introduction

Cambridge Primary Music encourages creativity and builds confidence, helping learners develop a deeper understanding of self-expression. It also shows them the importance of communication as they learn to connect with other musicians and audiences. It emphasises musical exploration and gives learners the opportunity to perform and present their music at every stage of development. The focus is on play and responding to music, which leads to an increasing awareness of self and personal musicality.

Our curriculum is flexible so you can combine music from your local context with music from other cultures. Learners will experiment and contribute as they follow a wide variety of possible musical paths. This helps them to develop an affinity with music and to find ways to express their unique musical personality. Throughout Cambridge Primary Music, learners will develop a genuine depth of understanding, so they can both make music and make sense of music. This prepares them to be lifelong makers and listeners of music. It also provides a solid foundation for learners who continue to study music through the Cambridge Pathway.

Cambridge Primary Music learners:

cultivate a joy of music through participating in meaningful and enjoyable experiences
develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to think and contribute as musicians
collaborate with others in purposeful and expressive ways through singing and playing instruments
nurture individual and collective creativity
use their growing knowledge to explore and generate music that is unique, valuable and relevant.

Teaching Cambridge Primary Music

We provide a wide range of practical resources, detailed guidance, innovative training and professional development so that you can give your learners the best possible experience of Cambridge Primary Music.

We believe that for teaching and learning to be effective, there should be alignment between curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. We have designed Cambridge Primary Music around this principle:

Curriculum – taken from Primary Music Curriculum Framework

34MM.01 Participate in unison and part singing or playing.

Pedagogy – 34MM.01 activity taken from the Stage 4 Scheme of Work

Play learners a recording of a song with simple rhythms and repeated phrases such as ‘A Ram Sam Sam’. Ask learners to clap the pulse of the song as they are listening. Play the song again and ask learners to clap the rhythm of the song.

Can you identify the types of rhythms used? (ta and ti-ti)

Display the lyrics to ‘A Ram Sam Sam’. Introduce learners to the following actions and ask them to perform the actions when they hear the lyrics:

‘A ram sam sam’ –clap once on ram and then tap knees twice on sam sam

‘Guli guli’ – spin forearms over one another

‘A Rafiq’ -clasp hands together or hold hands with a friend

As a class explore singing or chanting the lyrics and whilst performing these actions. Once learners are confident this could also be performed as a round. Ask learners to work in small groups to create their own actions or body percussion patterns to accompany the song. Once learners have rehearsed their body percussion compositions, give them time to perform them to the rest of the class. You may wish to record learners’ performances using simple music technology.

Resources:

An audio recording of a song with simple rhythms and repeated phrases such as ‘A Ram Sam Sam’
Simple music technology for audio recordings (optional)

Assessment

Learners add recordings of the rehearsals and performances to their music portfolio. The teacher and learners review the portfolio to inform the next steps of learning.

Curriculum Framework

The Cambridge Primary Music Curriculum Framework is available to download on the Music (0068) page of the Cambridge Primary support site. It provides a comprehensive set of learning objectives that give a structure for teaching and learning and can be used to assess learners’ attainment and skills development.

We have divided the learning objectives into two main areas called ‘strands’, which run through every stage:

In the Cambridge Primary Music curriculum, separate learning objectives are provided for Stages 1 and 2. This allows for the rapid cognitive and social development in these years. In Stages 3 and 4 the same learning objectives are used to structure learning. Learners should listen to and perform a wider range of music in Stage 4 than in Stage 3. The same is true of Stages 5 and 6, where the same objectives are used for both stages.

We have designed the learning objectives to ensure progression in learning from Stage 1 to Stage 6 and onwards into Cambridge Lower Secondary. You can download a Progression Grid, that outlines the progression for all learning objectives across all stages, from the Music (0068) page of the Primary support site.

**Find information in the Progression Grid**

**Find information in the Progression Grid**

In the Progression Grid, identify the stage that you will be teaching, and the prior knowledge that learners are expected to have. It is important to ensure that this prior knowledge is secure before moving on to new skills and knowledge.

Below is an example taken from the Progression Grid showing how knowledge, understanding and skills progress across the stages:

learners playing different instruments with the teacher in a classroom setting

Curriculum Framework

We have divided the learning objectives into two main areas called ‘strands’, which run through every stage:

Below is an example taken from the Progression Grid showing how knowledge, understanding and skills progress across the stages:

Learning objective examples
Strand	Stage 2	Stages 3 and 4	Stages 5 and 6
Making music	Contributing to performances with mostly accurate timing and awareness of pulse and melodic shape.	Contributing to performances with mostly accurate timing and with increasingly accurate tuning, control and expression.	Performing with increasing confidence, expression, skill and level of musicality and making adjustments to own performance in response to others.
Making sense of music	Listening and responding to music through asking and answering questions and making sounds and movement.	Listening and responsing to music, beginning to use technical language accurately to describe features of the music.	Beginning to discuss how music reflects the contexts in which it is created, performed and heard.

Pedagogy

The Curriculum Framework gives you a list of learning objectives for each stage. Our support materials then give you guidance on:

the order in which to teach the objectives
ways of grouping them
how to split the objectives into smaller steps, and how to differentiate to make the work easier or harder
suitable activities through which to teach
ideas for active learning.

Our support materials include:

Progression Grids
Schemes of Work
Teacher Guide
Training

Find and access these support materials, on the Music (0068) page of the Cambridge Primary support site. You can find more general information about these support materials on the About Cambridge Primary page of the Cambridge Primary support site.

Cambridge Primary Music is flexible, allowing you to use musical instruments of any kind (as well as other objects and music technology). Learners should have opportunities to improvise and compose using a range of singing techniques and musical instruments. They should also present and perform regularly to a variety of audiences. The curriculum is designed to supplement rather than replace instrumental or singing lessons.

Learners should also have opportunities to listen to and evaluate a range of music. This includes each other’s compositions, and pieces from their own and different cultures, times and places. This will support them to be more adventurous in their listening choices, experiment with new ideas and be more creative when contributing to compositions. Playing different types of music as learners enter the classroom can help to expose them to a range of music. It can also set the context for making music and thinking musically. Learners should have regular opportunities to develop active listening. This requires them to notice musical features, such as dynamic changes, instrumentation, stopping and starting, tension and release.

**Find information from the Scheme of Work**

**Find information from the Scheme of Work**

Look at the Scheme of Work for the stage that you will be teaching. Select one of the suggested activities and think about how you will deliver the activity in your classroom with your learners.

How can you make this activity more relevant to your local context and to your learners, for example, through the choice of songs or instruments?
What resources are available in your school and how will you need to adapt the activity to make best use of those resources?
Where do you need more support from your school/colleagues?

For more information on the approaches to teaching and learning in Cambridge Primary Music, refer to Section 3.4 of the Teacher Guide.

Young girls using drumsticks to create music

Assessment Guidance

Assessment guidance provides support and advice on how to assess learners in the classroom, including:

examples of how teaching and learning activities can be assessed
approaches to recording achievement
different approaches to reporting results.

There is no Cambridge Primary Progression Test or Checkpoint for this subject.

Find the Assessment guidance on the Music (0068) page of the Cambridge Primary support site.

You can find more general information about Assessment guidance on the About Cambridge Primary page of the Cambridge Primary support site.

Leaners sat on the classroom floor making music with their hands

Assessment Guidance

Assessment guidance provides support and advice on how to assess learners in the classroom, including:

examples of how teaching and learning activities can be assessed
approaches to recording achievement
different approaches to reporting results.

Find the Assessment guidance on the Music (0068) page of the Cambridge Primary support site.

You can find more general information about Assessment guidance on the About Cambridge Primary page of the Cambridge Primary support site.