Music is at the heart of the Castle Park Creative Arts programme with the recently refurbished music department offering first class facilities. Resources include over twenty keyboards, fifteen guitars, 6 PC workstations for digital music technology, a wide range of percussion including two full-size drum kits, recorders for every pupil and licences for Sibelius, Music Ace, Music Island, Listen Hear.

Aims

Through the core strands of Performing, Composing, Listening and Responding we aim to:

• develop an awareness of pitch and rhythm from an early age
• develop solo performing skills on a variety of instruments
• develop group performing skills in a variety of ensembles
• explore and understand the history of music
• understand notation and use this to experiment in composition
• contribute to the positive ethos of Castle Park School through performance

Outline of Programme of Study

All students from Montessori Year One to Form VI attend a weekly music lesson of one hour. There is an emphasis on vocal work throughout the School. Younger pupils start learning about musical instruments predominantly through percussion. From Forms I and II all pupils study keyboard, recorder and tuned percussion. In Form III, guitar and solo drum kit are added to the programme of study. Composition is taught from Form I.

State-of-the-art ICT facilities offer our pupils opportunities to develop their notation skills, using Music Ace, and to investigate the sound and history of music through Listen Hear, an interactive music dictionary. The use of Sibelius software encourages pupils to experiment with their own compositions.

Several co-curricular activities are on offer to all Prep Department pupils, including Rock Band, Samba/African percussion, Irish Music Ensemble and Senior Vocal Ensemble. Children can also opt to study Piano after school with one of our visiting instructors. Guitar, String, Woodwind, Voice and Percussion classes take place, once a week, during the school day.

Music plays an important part in the calendar of events with concerts, recitals, our annual Carol Service, and solo and inter-house competitions.