Music at The Roundhill Academy is part of the Arts faculty. Together with art and drama we aim to provide students with the opportunity to express themselves creatively whilst developing their musical knowledge, skills and understanding. The three main areas of study are composing, performing and listening/ appraisal. Through these main activities students are encouraged to explore their own potential, creativity and self-confidence.
The emphasis at The Roundhill Academy is on practical music making, providing students with a wide variety of instruments and the necessary space to create music in a positive supportive environment.
Along with the timetabled curriculum, students are encouraged to explore additional instrumental tuition through our many visiting tutors. Currently over 70 students are involved in extra lessons on a variety of instruments. In order to support students, the academy subsidises lessons for parents receiving benefits in an attempt to reduce the financial burden.
As well as formal tuition, students are encouraged to explore their interests and musical potential through open door drop in sessions that run at lunch times and afterschool. Students can work on their own, in groups or seek one to one support from the teaching staff. Various more formal extra-curricular opportunities are also offered to students who have particular strengths, interest or need.
Students in year 9 have the opportunity to choose music as an option subject. This gives students a taster of the GCSE course and encourages them to develop their Performing Creative and Listening skills required at Key Stage 4.
The department is well resourced, allowing students the chance to sing and play with a variety of stimuli.
Through key Stage 3 we study a variety of topics:
• Beat
• Rhythm
• Harmony
• Band Composition and Performance
• Film Music
• Song Writing
• Melody
This leads onto a GCSE music course. Currently the academy follows the demanding EDEXCEL syllabus. Students study composition in more detail and explore a large variety of different music to study and analyse.
Learning Journey
For more information about Music in the Curriculum contact Tim Clamp – tclamp@wreake.bepschools.org
Year 7 Unit 1 – Beat
Students explore beat and rhythm through practical and theoretical methods. Students use the Kodaly system to learn how to read rhythmic notation. Students will learn how to compose polyrhmic pieces.
Unit 2 – Pitch
Students will build on their knowledge of rhythmic by exploring with notes that are high or low. Students will sing melodies and use solfa to understand relative pitch. Students will learn to compose basic melodies using notation software.
Unit 3 – Keyboard Skills
Students will develop keyboard skills with the focus on technique. Students will work towards a solo performance on the keyboard and will perform a variety of popular and classical music.
Unit 4 – Harmony
Students will explore what happens when notes are played simultaneously. Students will learn to sing in harmony as well as learn chords on the keyboard, guitar and ukulele. Students will explore addition of chords to their melodies from unit 2. Students will work towards a culminative performance of “The Wellerman” in ensembles.
Year 8 Unit 1 – Theme and Variation
Students will explore how to provide variations to famous melodies by great composers. Students will also compose their own theme and provide variations. Students will study theme and variation structure.
Unit 2 – Film Music
Students will study the music of great film composers such as John Williams and Hans Zimmer. They will explore the impact of music in film, tv and video games. Students will compose a loop composition to accompany a scene from a film before composing their own leitmotifs.
Unit 3 – Jazz and Blues
Students will explore the work of great jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday. Students will be introduced to an eclectic mix of jazz music including trad jazz, bebop and big band. They will learn about 12 bar blues structure and perform in ensembles. Students will explore improvisation and will be encourage to specialize in an instrument of their choosing.
Unit 4 – Offbeat
Students will learn about rhythmic syncopation through the study of reggae, ska and mento. They will be exposed to prominent musicians and bands such as Bob Marley, The Skatalites, The Specials and Gentlemans Dub Club. Students will study the theory behind chord structures and perform three little birds in ensembles.
Year 9- Unit 1 – Battle of the Bands
Students will combine all of their previous ensemble skills to perform “Smoke on the water” by Deep Purple. Students will be exposed to the theory required to study GCSE Music and will be assessed in performing and appraising.
Unit 2 – Mash Ups
Students will learn about chords I, IV, V and Vi and explore the 4 chord trick. Students will work on their own mash up performance before using the 4 chords in a composition of their own.
Unit 3 – What makes a good song?
This unit begins by exploring ‘What Makes a Good Song?’ through practical musical investigation of two ‘good’ songs as case studies: “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran and “Shotgun” by George Ezra. Pupils explore Hooks/Riffs, Structure, Melody and Lyrics through listening and analysis and performing parts of each song as short musical arrangements.
Pupils learn about the importance of Hooks and Riffs, Popular Song Structure and the various difference components/sections within, Melodic Motion (Conjunct and Disjunct Motion) and Lyrics within both these case studies and a range of other popular songs.
Unit 4 – Composing with DAW
Students will use digital audio workstations to complete a culminative composition that demonstrates their key stage 3 study.
