Thank you for the Music
We are very grateful to the organisations who have supported the expansion of Music provision at Nightingale Community Academy. The Radcliffe Trust, HR Taylor Trust and the Tom AP Rhys Pryce Memorial Trust have all provided funding which has enabled us to purchase new instruments, music tuition and participation in drumming workshops and the prestigious Wandsworth Brighter Sounds Concert at the Royal Albert Hall in March this year.
Prior to 2021 the boys at our school had little access to curriculum music but in the last two years we have been able to provide opportunities for pupils to discover their love of music and pursue it through the greatly enhanced curriculum offer that has been put in place.
The drumming club was the first initiative at the school, followed by opportunities for singing and performances. The newly formed choir performed at the Summer Celebration event and at Christmas, the Primary pupils performed a musical and drama show for parents and carers. Pupils have also engaged well with Wandsworth Music Tuition and the Brighter Sounds Rehearsals were open to all pupils in Years 5 and 6.
We were also really fortunate to work with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a group of Year 7-8 boys performed a piece that had been composed with the RPO musicians and students from other local schools on the platform of the Royal Albert Hall on the 28th March 2023.
The funding from the Radcliffe Trust was accessed in the Spring term to pay for African drums and 5 weeks of tuition from Edubox. Their tutor Max ran a workshop on Wednesdays from the Primary library. We are aiming to re-establish a singing/karaoke club in the next academic year as singing is the real foundation of good instrumental musicianship and is what our pupils excel at.
The funding from the HR Taylor Trust was used to purchase some very badly needed instruments including the Yamaha keyboard, and synthetic plastic brass instruments- T-bone, P-Trumpet, P-Cornet – which are durable, light and easy to assemble, new drum sticks, a new cello, new violin strings and other equipment which will enable music to widen its appeal to a wider variety of instrumental disciplines.
We have also been able to purchase an upright piano of Japanese origin, handmade and of fine sound for special occasions, assemblies, mini-concerts and parent engagement events. We were also able to pay for transport for another excellent Victorian piano that the St. Vincent De Paul Society in Brixton kindly donated to the school. This is now the practice piano in Primary and is far superior to what was there before.
Many of our pupils are interested in music technology and so funds have been used to buy electronic equipment and a licence for school radio software. We hope to build up the school radio and upgrade some of the Mac software to enable pupils to compose and play their own pieces.
The staff and pupils are incredibly grateful for the injection of funds that have allowed us to improve what we can offer in the school’s music department.
