Expressive Arts Curriculum Intent Statement

Intent

What will our pupils experience throughout their Expressive Arts curriculum at Longcause?

We aim to create an environment where pupils are supported to express themselves safely and communicate meaningfully with others. We aim to inspire our pupils to cultivate their own personal interest in Expressive Arts, growing their cultural capital through a diverse and creative curriculum.  

Why do we want this?

We strive to: 

• Inspire positive personal expression in our students.
• Develop students ability to communicate with others confidently and effectively with others through a creative outlet
• Grow students' cultural capital through their experience of a wide range of creative cultural influences.

Implementation

Music at Longcause is delivered as part of Expressive Arts through ‘Music’ and ‘Music and Movement’ Each of these is taught over a term, once per year, with Drama being taught over the third term. (See curriculum map for details).  

To ensure total coverage, each area of Expressive Arts (Music & Movement, Drama and Music), is taught through three separate schemes of work, following a progression where key skills are rehearsed and built upon. Ultimately, class teachers assess the scheme that is best fit for their pupils although generally, Explorers Primary pupils access ‘Pre Scheme A’, Secondary Explorer and Primary Adventurers will access Scheme A and Secondary Adventures along with Pioneers will access Scheme B. This enables maximum opportunity for pupils to access the whole curriculum and hone key skills throughout their time at school.

We recognise that Music is a subject that lends itself well to cross curricular learning. Therefore we are keen to promote opportunities to extend and rehearse students’ learning through other subjects, including but not limited to, Music with R.E and MFL, Drama within English and dance within PE. Within our Early Years based Primary Explorers curriculum, students use music and song throughout the day at the start and end of lessons, specific timetabled songs daily and weekly ‘Exploring my Imagination and Creativity’ sessions.  

Impact:

• Promotion of wellbeing and building self esteem through learning positive self expression 

• Develop their communication and relationship building skills through engagement with peers and working towards a common goal
• Enrichment of pupils’ cultural capital by exposing them to a range of experiences that they may not have encountered before as well as perhaps leading to a special interest that furthers wellbeing and supports personal relationships outside of school