Stevie Wonder
At Willow Tree, we aim to inspire children to develop an appreciation for the role that music plays in a variety of cultures, and the role it has played throughout history. Our intention is for children to develop curiosity and confidence, and ensure that all children value their talent as musicians.
We believe that children should gain a secure understanding of what music is by listening and appraising, learning pieces of music, composing, improvising and performing, and develop these skills throughout their time here. We want children to experience music from a range of styles, traditions, genres and historical periods to understand its validity in society.
Our curriculum has been designed to include memorable and engaging experiences, while allowing children to develop knowledge in each of the interrelated dimensions of music - pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and musical notations. Singing is at the heart of our curriculum, and is further developed with lessons in composition, improvisation, learning to play instruments and performing. The Sing Up music scheme supports musical learning. Children have opportunities to express themselves through musical compositions and performances which involve singing and learning to play tuned and untuned percussion instruments. We are fortunate to have a peripatetic music teacher working with each year group for at least one half term per year to deliver a high quality musical experience for all children.
We enrich and enhance musical opportunities through carefully planned experiences linked to subject project learning and cultural events, including offering whole class steel pans tuition for Year 4, individual instrument tuition throughout school and a choir for Years 5 and 6. We live in Salford, Greater Manchester, a city rich with culture, and we believe pupils should gain an understanding of how music and performance both reflect and shape our local history and contribute to the culture and creativity of their surroundings.
Our school aims to develop a growth mindset within our pupils and we encourage our children to be confident in their musicianship, and to be resilient when developing their own musical pieces. We aim to build upon the creative aspirations of each child, and embrace opportunities for children to share their work within the school community and beyond. We aim to increase the numbers of children engaging in musical activities and have increasing confidence to perform to a range of audiences.
