MUSIC

Music has been a tradition at Trinity Gardens School right from the early days, when students would march to class in the mornings to the beat of the school Fife and Drum Band. The school has been represented for many years in what was originally the Thousand Voice Choir, now known as the Primary Schools Festival of Music.

A specialist Music teacher is employed at Trinity Gardens School. Each week classes have music lessons and explore rhythm, dance and sound. They experiment with many orchestral instruments available in the music room.

Steiner Music

Music is an integral component of Steiner Education and part of the everyday environment of beauty. Through music the students find ways to experience and express themselves. In the Reception year music is a vital tool used to create a mood, herald a transition in activities and introduce new concepts to be learnt or movement skills acquired. In subsequent years, through music, the child’s inner character is developed and nourished. Engaging in musical performance, sound organisation and listening also trains the will senses (touch, life, movement and balance), the feeling senses (hearing, speech, experience of another’s thoughts and ideas and experience of another’s individuality). From Year 1 students learn to play the recorder with a stringed instrument introduced in Year 3/4. In later years children will form an ensemble or orchestra.

Choir

Trinity Gardens School has two choirs which students are invited to participate in. The Senior Choir, which consists of students from years 5, 6 and 7, performs throughout the year at various functions such as assemblies and Open night. The Festival Choir, which is chosen from the students in the Senior Choir, performs as part of the Primary Schools Festival of Music, held at the Festival Theatre in September each year.

Extra-Curricular Music

Private musical tuition is also available as an option at the school for several instruments in addition to the general school music lessons. Students are offered the opportunity to learn piano, violin or guitar with private specialist teachers who come to the school each week for this. These lessons take place during class time at school. Lessons are timetabled on a rotating basis to ensure children do not consistently miss the same curriculum lesson. Lesson days, times and fees are set by the specialist tutor in consultation with the Assistant Principal.

INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

ICT is a school priority at Trinity Gardens School and this priority is supported by a coordinator leadership position. All classes from reception through to year 7 have regular specialist ICT lessons which utilise modern facilities and develop the children’s knowledge and ability in using information technology tools to assist learning in all areas of the curriculum.

ITALIAN

The specialist language for all students at Trinity Gardens School is Italian. A specialist teacher teaches all classes to listen and respond to the language and to communicate in written and oral language.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Health and fitness are very important at Trinity Gardens School. A specialist Physical Education teacher is employed each week for the students to learn a variety of sporting and fitness skills. Students develop and refine coordinated movement through game play and explore a range of skills for team sports.

ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (ESL)

Trinity Gardens School offers a special program for students whose first language is not English. Each term, written work is collected as part of the ongoing Scaling Assessment. The scale for each student is then updated on the EDSAS database early each term, which in turn is used by the Department to allocate ESL funding. This funding is used to support ESL students in their classroom learning.