Whole School Music Teacher

Living the 4Cs Through Music

• Curious (Inquiry & Musical Exploration): Guide students in exploring how music communicates ideas, emotions, identities, and cultural perspectives. Encourage active listening, musical investigation, experimentation, and inquiry into the relationships between music, history, society, and the wider world.
• Creative (Composition & Performance): Inspire students to compose, improvise, arrange, interpret, and perform music using their voices, instruments, and digital music technologies. Develop students’ musical independence, creative problem-solving, and confidence through experimentation, rehearsal, feedback, and reflection.
• Caring (Collaboration & Cultural Understanding): Foster empathy, respect, and inclusion through ensemble work, collaborative music-making, and exploration of diverse musical traditions. Create a psychologically safe learning environment where every student feels valued, supported, and confident to participate, regardless of prior musical experience or ability.
• Changemakers (Community & Musical Impact): Empower students to use music as a means of communication, connection, and positive community engagement. Develop opportunities for students to contribute to school life through concerts, performances, community events, and interdisciplinary artistic projects that bring people together.

 

General Responsibilities

• Curriculum & Alignment: Collaborate regularly with PYP and MYP colleagues on curriculum planning, unit development, assessment, reporting, and interdisciplinary learning. Ensure progression and continuity in music education across the relevant grade levels.
• Teaching & Learning: Plan and deliver engaging, developmentally appropriate music lessons that develop students’ musical understanding, performance skills, creativity, critical listening, collaboration, and reflective thinking.
• Inquiry & Creative Expression: Design learning experiences that encourage students to explore musical concepts, investigate diverse traditions, experiment with sound, compose original work, perform collaboratively, and reflect on their learning.
• Concerts & Performance Programme: Develop and maintain an annual music performance calendar in collaboration with school leadership and relevant colleagues. Plan and coordinate concerts, recitals, seasonal performances, assemblies, celebrations, and other school events.
• Rehearsals & Ensemble Direction: Organize and lead rehearsals, select appropriate repertoire, prepare students for performances, and provide opportunities for individual and ensemble development. Establish realistic rehearsal schedules and communicate expectations clearly to students and families.
• Event Production & Logistics: Coordinate the practical and technical requirements of performances, including venues, stage arrangements, sound and music equipment, instruments, lighting where applicable, performance programmes, student participation, and communication with relevant stakeholders.
• Assessment & Communication: Maintain transparent and timely records of formative and summative assessment, providing clear, constructive, and actionable feedback to students and families. Use assessment to support musical progress, self-reflection, and individual goal-setting.
• Digital Learning & Resources: Integrate appropriate digital tools into music teaching and learning. Keep the music inventory up to date and maintain musical instruments, equipment, teaching resources, and digital learning materials responsibly.
• Pastoral Care & Advisory: Play an active and empathetic role in student wellbeing and pastoral care, promoting respectful collaboration, positive relationships, and a safe environment during lessons, rehearsals, and performances.
• Health, Safety & Resource Management: Maintain appropriate safety procedures for music classrooms, rehearsal spaces, performance venues, instruments, and audio equipment. Ensure that students are taught to use and care for musical resources responsibly.
• Community & Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Collaborate with colleagues to contribute musical performances and creative projects to school-wide events, interdisciplinary units, celebrations, and community initiatives.
• Co-Curricular Contribution: Contribute actively to the school’s co-curricular programme through activities such as choir, instrumental ensembles, bands, songwriting, music production, or other musical clubs, according to student interests and school needs.
• Professional Culture: Participate constructively in faculty meetings, departmental planning, supervisory duties, professional learning, and school events. Support a collaborative, inclusive, and reflective professional culture.

 

Qualifications, Experience & Dispositions

• Current teaching certification appropriate to primary and middle school music education.
• A relevant degree in Music Education, Music Performance, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience teaching music across primary and middle school age groups, preferably in an international school setting.
• Strong knowledge of the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) and Middle Years Programme (MYP) frameworks, with the ability to develop engaging, inquiry-based music learning experiences.
• Demonstrated experience in curriculum planning, differentiated instruction, and assessment of practical and creative musical learning.
• Experience organizing and coordinating school concerts, recitals, performances, and other musical events.
• Experience directing or supporting choirs, instrumental ensembles, bands, or other co-curricular music groups, appropriate to the candidate’s expertise.
• Recent international teaching experience within an inquiry-driven or IB continuum context.
• Recent, relevant professional learning, including official IB PYP and/or MYP workshop training.

 

Preferred Skills and Dispositions

• Continuum Curriculum Design: Ability to develop a coherent music curriculum across the PYP and MYP, ensuring progression in musical knowledge, practical skills, creativity, conceptual understanding, and independent learning.
• IB Pedagogy & Assessment: Strong understanding of inquiry-based learning, the PYP transdisciplinary approach, and MYP Arts objectives and assessment criteria. Ability to design meaningful learning experiences that integrate creating, performing, responding, and reflecting.
• Musicianship & Creative Practice: Strong practical musicianship and the ability to teach singing, instrumental performance, music theory, composition, improvisation, active listening, and music appreciation across a range of age groups and ability levels.
• Concert & Event Leadership: Demonstrated ability to plan, organize, and deliver school concerts and musical events from initial concept to final performance, including repertoire selection, rehearsals, scheduling, venue preparation, technical coordination, communication, and post-event evaluation.
• Ensemble Direction: Ability to establish and develop student choirs, bands, instrumental ensembles, and other musical groups, according to the school’s needs and the teacher’s areas of expertise.
• Digital Music & Innovation: Ability to integrate digital audio workstations, music notation software, recording technology, and other digital tools into composition, performance, collaboration, and assessment.
• Universal Access & Differentiation: Expertise in adapting musical activities to support diverse learning styles, language learners (EAL), neurodivergent profiles, and students with varying levels of prior musical experience.
• Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Ability to build authentic interdisciplinary connections with classroom teachers and colleagues
• Community Engagement: Ability to develop meaningful performance opportunities that connect students with the wider school community and, where appropriate, local musicians, arts organizations, and cultural institutions.
• Professional Standards & Dispositions: Ability to operate within the guidelines of the ISD Professional Standards, demonstrating self-awareness, emotional intelligence, flexibility, collaborative leadership, and a commitment to continuous professional growth.