Listen Imagine Compose Primary Toolkit

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) and Birmingham City University (BCU) have published their Listen Imagine Compose Primary Toolkit. 

The purpose of this toolkit
There are many different audiences for this toolkit – classroom primary teachers, primary music leads, specialist primary music teachers, instrumental teachers, composer-educators, workshop leaders, hub leads and orchestral education managers. After much deliberation, we decided to create one version that would work for all audiences. This means that 
you might find some sections more relevant to you than others. 

The purpose of this toolkit is to help teachers and composers support the composing of children and young people. Its focus is on children at Key Stage 2, but also has relevance for those teaching younger or older children. It is intended to help you develop and plan composing activities for young people and to support existing schemes of work (SoWs) – your own, from Listen Imagine Compose Primary (LICP), or from other curriculum providers such as Charanga, Kapow, Music Express, Sing Up, and BBC 10 pieces, among others. Through making suggestions and asking reflective questions the intention of this toolkit is to: 

• Deepen your understanding of what composing is
• Help you think about what children’s composing learning looks and sounds like
• Support you to better understand, listen and respond to children’s early musical ideas, compositions and composing processes 
• Help you think about what it is to progress as a composer
• Build a culture of composing in your school or within a group of children 

This toolkit is designed to help you discover and identify how composing teaching and learning can work best for you, your school, and the children you work with. 

In addition, the toolkit aims to advocate for more composing in schools and better understanding of how composing contributes and can be central to children’s overall musical learning and identity.