Music Curriculum
Music Curriculum Overview
“Music is all around us. It is the soundtrack to our lives. Music connects us through people and places in our ever-changing world. It is creative, collaborative, celebratory and challenging. In our schools, music can bring communities together through the shared endeavour of whole-school singing, ensemble playing, experimenting with the creative process and, through the love of listening to friends and fellow pupils, performing. The sheer joy of music making can feed the soul of a school community, enriching each student while strengthening the shared bonds of support and trust which make a great school.”
(Model Music Curriculum March 2021)
At St Thomas More we strive to provide all pupils with a high-quality music education which engages and inspires children to develop a life-long love of music, increases their self-confidence, creativity and imagination, provides opportunities for self-expression and gives a sense of personal achievement.
We follow the National Curriculum for Music 2014 and also the New Model Music Curriculum 2021. We use planning from the Kapow scheme of work which enables the children to engage interactively to learn skills based on listening and appraising, creating and exploring, singing, playing instruments and performing. Singing is central to the music curriculum at St Thomas More as research has shown that singing has a positive impact on emotional, physical and mental well-being.
There is also the opportunity to learn to play the ukulele and djembe drums as the children’s musical journeys progress. These lessons are taught by a professional music teacher from the Medway Music Hub. We also have peripatetic music teachers visiting the school weekly to deliver private lessons on various wind instruments.
In the summer, our Year 6 children put on a performance that showcases their skills learnt throughout their time at St Thomas More. All children take part in our Christmas Production every year. We sing to the residents of our local care home and have been praised for our singing at Mass.
“I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music.”
Billy Joel
World Music Day
We celebrated World Music Day on Tuesday 21st June by listening and dancing to music through the decades. Foundation Stage started by dancing in the 1940s to Glen Miller's Big Band sound. Then we went through the 1950s with Elvis, then The Beatles, Abba, Technotronic and Whigfield before arriving in the years 2000+ with Pharell Williams. It was a lot of fun and we talked about the changes in music and fashion.
