I wish not merely to be called Christian, but also to be Christian.
Music
Music ‘brings us together, helping us reflect upon who we are, where we have come from, and what lies ahead.’ The arts and music transcend ‘languages, cultures, and borders’ … and helps ‘exchange ideas and styles and share in the artistic vibrancy born from diverse experiences and traditions.’
– Former USA President, Barack Obama (Source: 2010 message to the World Choir Games in Shaoxing, China)
Music is a powerful, unique form of communication that can develop children's ability to listen carefully and express thoughts and emotions. There is evidence to show that musical skills are transferable, promoting cognitive and physical development and evoking profound emotional response.
At Regina Coeli we want all our children to be music makers. We teach through the Jolly Music scheme which is a structured and progressive programme for teaching music skills to children. It is a multi-sensory programme, with all the teaching done through singing. This approach enables children to become instant music makers without the need to learn how to play an instrument. In years 4 and 5 our children have the opportunity to learn to play either the violin or cello. Specialist music teachers through Croydon Music & Arts deliver these lessons. We also have additional music tuition available through Croydon Music & Arts for both piano, guitar and violin.
We aim to enable the children to:
- Develop skills in performance, improvisation and composition
- Be able to sing music from a wide range of genres, both in unison and in parts
- Develop a love of music-making
- Show an awareness of sound and to begin to able to describe these with an increasing use of musical terminology
- Develop an appreciation of high-quality musical performances and to begin to explain the reasons for their likes or dislikes in terms of musical performance
- Understand and describe the elements of musical performance, with increasing use of musical terminology
- Develop the skills required for successful performance
- Be able to listen carefully to musical performance and to evaluate these with increasing accuracy
- Be able to associate music with emotions and to begin to explain how music makes them 'feel'