Music Education

This week I attended a ‘Breakfast Chat’ which I attend monthly with fellow educators to discuss topical educational issues surrounding partnerships with other schools and external providers. This ‘Breakfast Chat’ network has been invaluable in hearing about what other schools around the UK are doing to enhance educational opportunities for children in both independent and maintained schools.

On this occasion we had over fifty participants online all from a musical background to discuss ‘Music education and how partnerships are essential to develop music.’ The first question which was raised was how we define music education. I am delighted that we have such a strong focus on music education here at St. Helen’s College, both in the curriculum and in our co-curricular provision, and that we recognise that music education is part of pupil wellbeing. It was quite pertinent that we used music as the key driver behind our ‘One World Day’ last term.  

Your children are exposed to music on a daily basis whether that is in their curriculum lessons, in peripatetic lessons, or through our various choirs, musical groups, assemblies and performances in school. We are lucky to have an incredibly talented group of music teachers. However, it is every teacher’s responsibility to ensure that we are appreciating music as part of pupil wellbeing throughout the day and this is also most definitely the case at St. Helen’s College.  

Partnerships with other schools and external agencies are also important and we would love to continue building these relationships. This month our orchestra is joining together with several other schools for a day of musicality at John Lyon School. Our pupils visit local care homes to entertain them with their musicality and this is mutually beneficial for wellbeing.  Our peripatetic teachers share information about what else they are involved in and many of us have booked our tickets to see Cinderella at the Royal Albert Hall where Mrs. Nash (one of our peripatetic teachers and a parent of three Old Helenians) is playing as a violinist in the orchestra.

I was presenting ABRSM certificates to our students earlier this week and many of them had just passed their ‘cello exams.  I introduced the children to the music of Sheku Kanneh-Mason. We listened to him play and I read the children an extract from this book ‘Rise Up - Ordinary Kids with Extraordinary Stories.’ I was delighted that many of our pupils knew of him already. Through his hard work and dedication as a young school boy from Northampton he is now a world class musician. 

One of my ex students from Japan, Eva Kestner, has just shared the news with me that Harper Collins UK is publishing a book about her and her music and they are developing an online platform where children and parents can download her music and educational videos. Eva is a professional taiko drummer and she was delighted when I showed her photographs of our pupils at Upper School taking part in the taiko drumming workshops during One World Day. I hope that we can welcome Eva to St. Helen’s College if she has the opportunity to visit London in the near future. 

Our own pupils are incredibly inspiring and I am very much looking forward to our Singing Competition later this month which will be closely followed by the Singers’ Concert in All Saints and our Musicians’ Concert, which are always two of my school calendar highlights.  

Keep enjoying music at home too - we are so fortunate to have such a diverse community and that our pupils are exposed to so many genres and styles of music and song. 

I will leave you with these words from Plato: 

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.”

Ms Drummond