After 18 years as a mainstream primary teacher in both Dublin and Nottingham, I retrained as a music specialist through British Kodaly Academy and many hours of research based study.

I built the curriculum you see across these pages for the wonderful students of Forest Fields Primary School in Nottingham City – a school with 46 different languages – where I have worked since 2014. I began to teach curriculum music and build the wider music department in 2021.

In 2024, we were awarded Lead School for Music in Nottingham City in partnership with Nottingham Music Hub.

At MEHEM Conference 2025, I presented a case study entitled: ‘Can innovative approaches to oracy, literacy, behaviour for learning and cognitive flexibility take centre stage in the inclusive primary school music classroom?‘

I am currently acting as community supervisor for a PhD student researching Music & Mental Health in partnership with Nottingham Trent University & University of Nottingham.

This website is a place to store course content links for ‘Listen & Appreciate’ and ‘History of Music’ parts of our music curriculum from Year 1 to Year 6; enables easy access for my student’s home learning and research; lists everything I found during research into what a good music education looks like for students aged 4 to 11 (Key Stages 1 & 2 in England).

I hope it helps to inspire the design of a bespoke curriculum for your school!

Caroline Cawley
Music Specialist & Curriculum Lead
Forest Fields Primary & Nursery School
Nottingham City