Curriculum Leader:
Mr. Christopher Higgins (chiggins@stmichaels.bhcet.org.uk)
Departmental Staff:
Subject Background:
The KS3 curriculum has been planned so that students get a wide range of knowledge, understanding and skills within different areas of Music. The different projects have been carefully planned so that students build up on their prior knowledge, understanding and skills and make progress throughout this key stage. The projects cover a wide range of different specialisms of Music, particularly looking at the development of Music from 1600 through to the modern day and the impact this has had on cultural, social, religious and political development throughout this time period. All key stage 3 students can experiment with a wide range of skills in Music to develop their own unique style. Students have opportunities to experiment with different instruments, media, genres and stylistic idioms throughout this phase of their education. Students are encouraged to broaden their understanding and knowledge of different periods in history, musical movements and the course covers many different musicians that are relevant to their studies. Within Key Stage 3 students are assessed on their knowledge and understanding as well as their skills within their performance, compositional and final outcomes across all units.
The KS4 curriculum has been planned so that students get a wide range of knowledge, understanding and skills within different areas of the Music industry. The different projects have been carefully planned so that students build up on their prior knowledge, understanding and skills and make progress throughout this key stage.
The UK music industry remains a vibrant and highly competitive force, contributing a record £8 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK economy in 2024—an increase of 5% from £7.6 billion in 2023. Export revenues also reached a new high of £4.8 billion, up 5% year-on-year.
The industry's employment footprint expanded to 220,000 full‑time equivalent jobs in 2024 with live music being the main economic driver, marking a 2% rise from 216,000 in 2023. Of these, roughly 157,800 individuals were working in the music creation sector—a rise of nearly 3%.
Y11 Revision - Music