Music Roud Up

Although we can’t meet in person this year and join in with carols over a festive mulled wine, the volume in the music department is nevertheless on irrepressible crescendo and staff across the school have been working hard to provide a memorable and festive experience for the students.

Mrs Jowett has once again seemed to have a direct link to Santa, creating a show for Pre-Prep that is both magical and inspired. The children and the team around them have worked so hard to share their work with you, and this virtual treat will no doubt be watched again and again thanks to the tech skills of Mr Smith and Miss Marshall.

Every child in Years 2-6 has had the opportunity to take part in our Junior and Senior Prep collaboration; they have been working so hard to develop their performance skills and I have no doubt that their enthusiasm, skill and progress will be evident when you watch them and will propel them straight to the top of Santa’s ‘nice’ list.

One thing that this unusual year has given us is time to practise and the opportunity to enjoy one another’s progress. Show-and-tell performances have been epic, a significant amount of our students are starting to sound almost professional, and the children have been so captivated by listening to one another that they have been up on their feet in lessons, too excited to sit down, hanging on every note and so incredibly supportive that it’s easy to forget how young they are.

Mia in Year Four breezed through her first face-to-face singing exam with true Norfolk House resilience. It was the middle of the second lockdown, I kept waiting for the event to be cancelled but it wasn’t, so we met at NLPAC and despite the exams running late, Mia’s mum not being allowed in the building, a hefty amount of sanitiser and screens involved, I was lucky enough to witness Mia’s note-perfect performance from the piano, and the sight of her bounding out of the exam centre, face lit up with adrenaline and excitement, will stay with me for a long time.

It may be a very different kind of Christmas this year but I am sure you will agree with me when you watch the performances that the distinctive Norfolk House ethos of engagement, collaboration, hard work and fun lives on, and as the staff busy away like elves, the children once again don’t fail to deliver performances that are spell-binding and will fill your virtual glass of Christmas spirit until we can clink cups at Dukes Avenue once again.

Sara Regan