Primary Music Magazine
Issue 3.0 Autumn 2018
We’ve all been there, whether as music coordinator, PPA cover teacher, or classroom teacher… How can we make music ‘fit in’ with our current topic? Thematic planning is a great tool for learning, it can engage and motivate even the most learning averse children to find out facts, deepen their understanding, and develop new skills. However, for subjects like music, which often languishes forgotten at the bottom of the pile, a thematic approach can be problematic as it gets sandwiched into the remaining gaps.
Creative curriculum
How can we make our topic themes fit our music goals, rather than the other way around, asks Elizabeth Stafford
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Music suffers particularly from this treatment as it is a skills-based subject, and this therefore means that it needs to be delivered steadily and regularly. If your child is learning to ride their bike, tie their shoes and tell the time, you probably don’t ask them to ride their bike one weekend, tie their shoes the next, tell the time the following weekend, and then expect to see an instant improvement in the bike riding when they try again three weekends later! However, that is often how the development of musical skills is treated in a thematic curriculum approach.
