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Music

At Alban City School, we believe that every child has the right to access a rich and broad music curriculum with high quality teaching and enrichment opportunities. Music provision at Alban City School is a cornerstone to shaping our pupils into being well-rounded, knowledgeable individuals. It is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. We aim to engage children and inspire a love of music to increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As they progress through the curriculum, all children will have opportunities to perform, compose and to listen with discrimination to a wide repertoire of music.

Linking to the National Curriculum, our curriculum for Music aims to ensure that all pupils can:

  • perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of great male and female composers and musicians, who have a wide range of backgrounds and physical abilities.
  • learn to sing with increasingly accurate pitch and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to use tuned and untuned percussion, have the opportunity to perform to their peers
  • understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: rhythm, pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

At Alban City School, we deliver a Kodály-influenced music curriculum which is inspiring, engaging and accessible to all.

What is the Kodály concept of music education?

An approach, developed by Hungarian composer and educator Zoltán Kodály, which involves the children learning through singing and playing musical games.

By singing simple songs, children gradually learn the elements of music, including pulse, rhythm, pitch, dynamics and tempo. Games reinforce the learning and make the lessons fun. Key skills being built include listening and singing in tune. In this way, we build children’s motivation, enthusiasm and confidence, and lay the foundation for a lifetime of enjoyment.

How does this fit with music in the National Curriculum?

The Kodály philosophy fulfills the current National Curriculum requirements and so much more. By learning through developmentally appropriate folk songs and games, an inner felt/heard sense of pulse, pitch and rhythm builds on both an unconscious and conscious level. This is the key to musical literacy, exploration, improvisation, composition, listening, appraising and performance which are present in all Kodály lessons. The Kodály philosophy develops aural, kinaesthetic and visual learning in all pupils, proving a valuable holistic concept for all abilities. “Singing is accessible to all, anybody can do it, and it is the most logical and secure way to develop musicianship skills. It also boosts confidence and social skills and develops existing talent for those who want to pursue music at an advanced level.”  – Lucinda Geoghegan, NYCOS Creative Learning Director and one of the Board Directors of the International Kodály Society.