Last weekend saw the Regional Festival for Music for Youth take place at Hemsworth Arts and Community College. In previous years, Wakefield groups have been very successful in progressing to the National Festival, held in Birmingham and two years ago, Manygates Big Band were selected to perform at the Schools' Prom in the Royal Albert Hall.
This year six Wakefield schools took part in the Festival including three that had been involved in the Wider Opportunities programme run by Wakefield Music Services. Wider Opportunities groups from Southdale School, St Peter’s Horbury and Horbury Bridge School all took part in the Regional Festival and are keeping fingers crossed for an invite to perform in Birmingham in July. Southdale School and St Peter’s school in Horbury have been working with Geraldine Gaunt, School Improvement Officer for Music Services in developing and nurturing singing within the school. St Peter’s choir performed four pieces and were a huge success with the audience. On Sunday morning, the 60-strong Southdale school choir and dancers performed two songs, "Alien" and "Freedom" to a full hall. Geraldine Gaunt comments," Both school choirs gave superb performances and received really positive feedback from the adjudicators. All the hard work really paid off! The children enjoyed the experience of performing to a large audience and listening to all the other groups that performed. ‘’
The other Wider Opportunities group to perform were a mixed Year 5/6 group from Horbury Bridge School, under the name "Sambastic!" Since September, they have received tuition on Samba drums from Lee Muncaster and were delighted at the opportunity to perform as part of the festival. Head Teacher, Janette Skinner welcomed the judges' feedback, "The judges' comment of 'inclusive, engaging and enjoyable' sums up perfectly what the Wider Opportunities programme has meant for our school music." Recordings of the group from an early rehearsal can be downloaded here as mp3 files and demonstrate what can be achieved after just one term of percussion tuition.
Singing and Samba percussion are just two of the many available options for Wider Opportunities programmes in Wakefield Schools. Further information about how to apply for a Wider Opportunities programme will be published on I-point next month.
