Meyer and Land’s work (among subsequent others) on threshold concepts (TCs) has been influential in numerous subjects, particularly in higher education. However, despite its growing international interest, its application into the domain of music in schools is a highly under-researched area. This article draws on the notion of TCs focusing on the context of lower-secondary school (Key Stage 3: ages 11–14) group composing. Using video-recorded and interview data from three case-study schools in the English Midlands, examples of TCs are presented and how formative assessment was, or could have been, a key process in them being crossed is discussed.

Meyer 和 Land 关于阈值概念 (TC) 的工作（以及随后的其他工作）对许多学科都有影响，尤其是在高等教育领域。然而，尽管它在国际上的兴趣日益浓厚，但它在学校音乐领域的应用仍是一个研究不足的领域。本文借鉴了 TC 的概念，该概念侧重于初中（关键阶段 3：11-14 岁）小组作曲的背景。使用来自英格兰中部地区三所案例研究学校的视频记录和访谈数据，介绍了 TC 的示例，并讨论了形成性评估如何成为或可能成为他们被交叉的关键过程。