Standard gives 18 sessions per year; extended gives 36 sessions per year.
Year 3 Music Curriculum Map
New Orleans Stomp anchors 1920s jazz, swing, notation, chords and ukulele links.
Short, repeatable activities rather than one long task.
Ready to teach as-is or adapt in the Curriculum Designer.
Structure
How Year 3 music is structured (Jazz focus)
The Standard Curriculum for Year 3 is taught through three terms of six sessions. Pupils spend the year in a 1920s Jazz and swing sound world built around New Orleans Stomp.
Each lesson uses around nine short activities, so pupils keep revisiting warming up, movement, pulse, rhythm, notation, chords, listening and performance while the Jazz content steps up.
- Vocal warm-ups, Jazz dance and New Orleans Stomp give the year a clear performance anchor.
- Rhythmic Pyramid, Weekly Drum Routine and Copy Cat strengthen timing and coordination.
- Stave reading, clefs, barlines, notes C-E and Quickfire Chords introduce notation in context.
- Listening tasks and the whole-class ukulele route support ensemble and tuned-instrument expectations.
Delivery
Weekly lessons or shorter "bursts"
Year 3 can run as a weekly lesson or as shorter bursts of singing, movement, rhythm practice, notation and listening.
The New Orleans Stomp project keeps those smaller tasks connected, so teachers can adapt timing without losing the planned progression.
Teach weekly
Use the route as a dedicated 30-45 minute music slot with a clear lesson flow.
Teach in bursts
Split the same mapped content into songs, listening games, movement, vocabulary and practice moments across the week.
Keep the map
Whether lessons are weekly or split up, the underlying route still gives leaders a coherent progression story.
Standard Curriculum view
What happens across the Year 3 Standard Curriculum?
The Year 3 Standard Curriculum overview shows how familiar activity types repeat across the 18 sessions while the Jazz examples, notation work and ensemble expectations become more demanding.
Pupils learn the style by singing, moving, drumming, reading, listening and playing together rather than treating Jazz as a one-off listening topic.
Vocal warm-ups, song bank & New Orleans Stomp
Warm-ups, dance and the anchor song help pupils feel swing, phrase clearly and perform with more confidence.
- Vocal Warm Up routines
- Dance: Jazz and movement work
- Perform: New Orleans Stomp
Jazz concepts, history & instruments
Short learning clips build knowledge of Jazz, New Orleans, swing, style features and key instruments.
- Jazz history and artist context
- Instruments and band roles
- Vocabulary for swing, groove and style
Pulse, rhythm, Copy Cat & Weekly Drum Routine
Rhythm games and desk-drumming routines make timing, coordination and Jazz groove physical.
- Rhythmic Pyramid
- Weekly Drum Routine
- Copy Cat rhythm work
Stave notation, clefs & Quickfire Chords
Pupils begin connecting stave patterns and simple chord work to the music they are singing and playing.
- Treble clef, stave and barline ideas
- Notes C, D and E
- Quickfire Chords variations
Listening games, ensemble work & whole-class ukulele
Listening tasks and ukulele links help pupils hear parts, play together and meet Lower KS2 ensemble expectations.
- Music Detective and Critical Listening
- Ukulele course links
- Whole-class ensemble habits
Explore the curriculum in your school
Open the pre-curated schemes, preview the activity flow and see whether the route fits your timetable.