Music speaks to the soul and the emotional responses it creates have affected human societies throughout history.   Music education allows children to compose and perform in a universal language that can be shared and understood across nationalities and cultures.  Through our music curriculum at Olney Middle, we aim to give our pupils the listening skills that will enable an understanding of musical styles from a variety of cultures, allowing them to recognise the responses the music creates within them. They will develop an understanding of the history of music, discovering key composers who have shaped the progression of music through time. Pupils will compose their own music using musical notations and the inter-related dimensions such as pitch, dynamics, timbre and tempo. Using musical instruments and their own voices, they will play and perform, learning to do so accurately and fluently, with control and expression.  As a school, we want our pupils to gain a love of music, to recognise and understand their preferences and to appreciate how music can play a huge part in their journey through life.