ABSTRACT
Every maintained school is required by law to produce a prospectus, giving information on a range of specified issues, including the curriculum. In addition, schools are encouraged to produce a policy statement for each subject area. The advantage of a policy statement is that it
supplements the information in the prospectus and provides more details of what is to be covered within a subject and how this is to be done;
provides a means of relating the aims for a specific subject to those of other subjects and to the aims and mission statement of the school as a whole;
informs new staff and reminds existing staff of the approach to be taken to the subject;
provides a focus for a critical examination by governors, staff and other interested parties of the priorities for presentation and development within that subject – a very necessary requirement in music, where curriculum planning has too often been based on traditions and assumptions which have not been examined critically.
A policy, therefore, is a manifesto; it presents an overview of the general principles underlying the school's approach to the subject. The more detailed information of how these principles are to be put into practice will be contained in the scheme of work. The policy statement should remain fairly constant and should not need to be altered as often as a scheme. Nevertheless, it should never become a tablet of stone and, like all documents, should be revised periodically to reflect developments and changes of emphasis in the thinking on the subject.
