Before I start waffling, here's some music for you to listen to. I've not heard this piece by the English Composer, Gustav Holst (he of the Planets!) before but I was delighted by the opening music between viola and flute.
The term has ended and the last week went well.
The school concert went really well without too many mishaps and most of the children and their parents turned up. We started 15minutes late so it overran but I was really proud of how well the children performed.
One delightful thing that occurred was that I applied for a scholarship for one of my year 5 boys who we have been partly funding for flute lessons this year. He has really taken to it and worked hard and I wanted to ensure that he would be able to carry on after he left me so I applied to the London Music Fund and to my delight, he was selected to receive funding for lessons for 4 years. Such an opportunity for him!
I bought the children involved in the concert choc-ices (the only ice-cream/lolly product which comes in no plastic packaging!) to say thank you for their hard work and I was delighted with the serendipity that I had bought just enough for everyone AND enough to give one also to the children who had helped out and done extra jobs like putting away my singing assembly things each week and for tidying up the music room.
At the weekend, CBC and I went to camp in Snowdonia for the weekend. I had a stinking cold but had a gorgeous time and will share some photos soon.
I bade a sad goodbye to CBC this evening as he drove off to Portsmouth to catch the overnight ferry to France. We are to be parted for 2 weeks as we do different things - he is a checkpoint monitor for the Transcontinental Cycling Race and I am to go to music camp.
Enough waffling, I found some photos from last Summer (on my lost camera which turned up- it was in the walking rucksack!!!) of when I styled the Madras check dress in yet another way.
Let's have a look:
I wore the dress with its V-beck crossover side which I rarely wear as I prefer the straight one but I wore it the other way round here.
I added my pink Peri top underneath with a matching pink rose in my hair and a pink belt.
I added my red polka dot skirt underneath to give an extra layer of pattern to the dress
I decided to hoik up the hem of the dress on one side to see if that gave another dimension to this.
I am not 100% sure I liked this outfit totally but certainly it was different from how I've worn it on other occasions!
Plus my George @Asda blue and gold velvet pumps!
I've been practicing for our flute recital on Friday
Very excited as we've practised lots! I HOPE people come to watch especially as my friend Tony is coming from Kent as we are performing his beautiful arrangement of Debussy Petite suite for two flutes and piano for the first time.
CBC was away at DoE Silver Expedition from Saturday to Monday. I was awoken around 5am by him frantically scouring the house for his belongings to pack and as he kissed me goodbye at 6.50am, I asked him if he'd made himself lunch. He hadn't so there I was at 6.51am, running downstairs in my nightie to make him sandwiches and salad.
I then spent the next few hours until 3pm tidying and cleaning our very messy house and doing washing. At 3pm, having quickly packed, I walked to the station and made my way to Kent to stay at my Dad's house. He picked me up from Ebbsfleet and I discovered my sister had sent him along with a cup of tea in an insulated cup to drink on the journey back to their home. What a nice surprise! Dad and I ate some crisps in the car and made our way over there. After some chat, we had a lovely Dine in Meal from the Three Sisters restaurant at Chart Farm which was amazing! After dinner, my sister and I played a game of Qwirkle. We got to a very exciting moment where we realised someone could score 31 points in one go and annoyingly, I had 2 of the three pieces needed for this when she got the piece I needed! Luckily, we both like a visually pleasing Qwirkle board so we agreed to a few movements to make it look pleasing!
We went off to bed and woke around 9am.
My little sister has a real way with describing garments. As in, she makes them sound hideous. I am always really sceptical when she describes a new item she has bought to me and when I finally see it, it's usually very nice! So, when I was describing to her what I was going to wear for the birthday barbecue, I asked her if I should try and describe it to her in her style. She was highly amused and told me to go ahead.
"Well, it's a jumpsuit that kind of has really baggy legs. It's coloured in bright coloured splotches all over it and it's also got weird eyes and suns on it."
Here's what I wore for the family barbecue. I have loved this jumpsuit from Emily and Fin for ages and when Emily and Fin recently stopped trading, I was really sad as I really like their clothes so when I saw this on Vinted for £14, I grabbed it whilst I could. My sister was wearing a cardigan that day that really matched it, so I stole it to wear!
This is the cardie I was really wearing!
My older sister, husband and my niece joined us around 12am and we ate lots of delicious food. Of course, we had a game of Qwirkle. It was a really pleasing game with everyone playing nicely and aiming for fat chunks of tiles! There were numerous Qwirkles. There was a hilarious moment where there were two positions to get double Qwirkles in one go. My younger sister got one and then, everyone was waiting for the Yellow cross tile to complete the other one.
It was hilarious because my sister's boyfriend placed his tile and got it to the utter frustration of my niece and older sister whose turns were next WHO HAD ALSO PICKED OUT A YELLOW CROSS! It was hilarious! I came second place by 4 points!
My sister drove me back and I ended up finishing the cleaning by washing the tiled floors!
Monday, I had a good day at school and had a lovely surprise when I went back to the music room with my Drumming Club as 3 of my old Sad Frog crew, T, T and A were waiting there to see me! Hilariously, A wrote a message on my board like she used to.
Today, school was also a good day teaching the Year 3's about Reggae.
After school, I came back to the Music room and there were my girls again. I had no club and they weren't in a hurry so they stayed for 20minutes for a chat before going home! It was so, so lovely to see them and they filled me in on all the gossip from Secondary School. I feel so honoured that they still want to come and see me this time of year. Usually, they become too school for school!
I had my hair cut in Hexham in the half term and the hairdresser had styled it really nicely and my younger sister kindly styled it for me again! She always used to love doing my hair from a young age and she still likes doing it!
Here's a picture of my Great, Great Grandfather which my dad discovered and showed me when I was over there! He's from the English side of the family. We had some interesting chats about my paternal family.
For instance, I may have mentioned that my Grandmother was Greek. What I now understand is that the family lived in Turkey in Istanbul when she was young but because of difficulties over Greek people being in Turkey at that time, essentially, they were sort of refugees who ended up in Egypt. My Great Grandfather was a very respected Civil Engineer in Turkey before he left so he got work very easily in Egypt as did the rest of the family who all were scientists of sorts. I need to talk to my dad more about his family past as I found it very interesting! Then lots of that side of the family moved to South America which I had no idea about!
I have an orchestra rehearsal tomorrow with Orchestra of the City who I haven't played with since last July (apart from covering a few rehearsals last October).
On VE day, we were invited to come to school dressed in either 1940's inspired outfits or the coluors of the Union flag.
I decided to go with the latter option
I started with the white blouse. It is one I charity shopped a year ago or so. I really like it but I don't know where it originally came from.
Next, I added the red skirt which is my Romana cosplay one- it was second hand.
Next was the blue Monsoon cardigan which I've had for a long time and my Clarks Funny Dream shoes from Vinted.
Add my red beret (Primark charity shopped) and this Collectif nautical necklace (which I ended up lending to our Assistant Head as she was wearing nautical trousers with star fish and lobsters on in these colours!) .
I loved the combo.
At playtime, I was on duty and ended up chatting to M, a lovely, quirky, individual. I looked at her outfit and admired it. I then looked at it again and said, "Actually, I HAVE this outfit at home! I could totally come to school tomorrow wearing this outfit!"
And so the next day, I came to school dressed in the outfit (the outfit above!). I walked past her classroom on my way to the Staff room and the door was open. I hissed her name as her teacher did the register. She looked at me quizzically and I pointed at my outfit. She looked puzzled at first and suddenly sheer delight and incredulity spread over her face. I waved and carried on with my journey.
At playtime later, I saw her and said, "What do you think!". She was so sweet and said, "I AM HONOURED!!!" Haha, it was funny to do this and I think it made her smile!
On the actual VE day, we had an all school, outdoor assembly with poetry reading and sang 3 songs I'd taught. Of course, despite all my best laid plans, technology failed us and the boombox stalled on the backing tracks I had prepared. Ah well, we persevered without them!
I woke up early, ahead of my alarm-clock (although on that subject, I MISS sleeping through the night- whhhy, can't I sleep?!?!) and managed to phone my Doctor's to get an appointment for today. I then left early and made it into Lidl before school to get some breakfast and also picked up a Good-to-Go £1.50 veg/fruit box which I haven't seen in a while. It wasn't hugely full but it had Broccoli (which alone is around £1 recently), lettuce, a few oranges, satsumas, plums and a few potatoes.
I got to school and took Singing assembly for Reception, Year 1 and 2 and then it was time for the rescheduled lesson which was being filmed by Anglia Ruskin university for their BEd in Primary Teaching course. I am pleased to say that the children were absolutely fantastic and they were really enthusiastic and worked really hard. I would be proud for people to watch that lesson. I was teaching the children about The Baroque Sonata and Domenico Scarlatti.
We started with a recap of their feedback from their Chiaccona performances last week and then I introduced them to Domenico Scarlatti. Fun facts for you: He was born in the same year as J.S Bach and G.F. Handel and was the son of a composer, Alessandro Scarlatti. He was born in Italy but moved to Spain with his patron later in life. He took part in a contest with Georg Handel to find out who was the better keyboard player. Whilst Handel was declared the master of the organ, Domenico was acclaimed as being as equally good at the Harpsichord as Handel. He was a real virtuoso!
I introduced them to the structure of the Sonata and then we listened to this one and answered some questions about it. After that, we composed a piece of music in Binary form as a class, which we performed and they did a superb performance which they were really proud of. M, the lecturer from AR was really impressed and couldn't believe what my Year 6's achieved in the lesson. I may also go to the University next year to teach a lesson to the undergraduate students which is exciting!
After that, I had my second class who also produced a great piece. This made me happy as the 3rd class, who I have on Thursday afternoons, were very apathetic and disengaged, though their performance was ok.
At lunch, orchestra had a good rehearsal and then I ate a delicious combination of Hummus and pomegranate seeds on toast (another staff member didn't want her large pot of seeds- I am the staff room dustbin) .
In the afternoon, after some PPA time, I collected my Guided Reading group who are always excited to see me and we had our session outside. We had a great session. Just one moment where I went into spasmodic coughing and the children were sitting there, saying, "Are you ok? Oooh, you're really red! You have tears running down your face!" I had to go and get water. As they said how worried they were, I made some macabre joke about how it wouldn't have been fun if their music teacher had died in front of them. One of them said, "Hmmmm, that would make a good story..." and later, another one said she was going to write said story! I am happy to be writing inspiration, no matter how dark!
After my group, I headed homeward for my appointment and came home.
Now had to do some work tidying my house as my younger sister and her boyfriend are coming over tomorrow. It's lovely because I saw my older sister last night as she came over because my niece goes to a trampolining session in my town!
I had some really exciting (for me!) news two days ago which I'm not allowed to share yet but I hope to soon!
Here to finish is my poem for the week. The brief word was 'Trumpet'. I actually used this word the other week but I came up with the standard use of the word. Not my favourite poem I've ever written but I suppose it will do!
I'm pleased to say that Tuesday was without Vomiting. Or any other accidents. The concert went well and the children enjoyed it. I was a bit stressed about timings and things but the parents and children had a great time. I have to say that the children behaved really well and they were really patient considering lots of things overran. We didn't get back to school until 11.10pm but we were incredibly lucky as we were one of the first schools to be called to go and we were really close to all the exits. I marched the kids straight out of the Albert Hall without any toilet trips (it was a bit of a gamble, I'll be honest! But it paid off) and our coach driver had found a prime position parking spot and we were off immediately. My friend's school's coach didn't get till 11.50pm. My assistant Head dropped me off at my interchange station and I JUST made the train at 00.08. I got home just before 1am!
The next day, my Head teacher kindly said I could come in for second lesson and I spent the rest of the day teaching year 4 which was probably the best day to have on such a late night as I felt like I had a hangover! Dehydration I think. Spent the day teaching year 4 Rocky Mountain.
We had to go to another school for our INSET training and as it is close to my Godmother's house, that's when I saw her after it.
Today was nearly all Year 5 composing sea shanties. I think I've finally perfected that lesson after 15 years of teaching it!
Here's my poem this week for the Toy Press' word of the week: Pet. I'm also writing another one which is more memories.
My Mum and older sister didn't like it or get it. My niece and old work colleague enjoyed it.
My different pets
My cat who always farts.
TRUMPET?
My budgie who eats messily.
CRUMPET?
My guinea-pig who loves journeys in the Porsche.
CARPET?
My dog who will never grow up.
PUPPET?
My bunny who has no energy.
LIMPET?
My hamster who enjoys sky-diving.
PARAPET?
This weekend, we have a 90th birthday party for a lovely friend from Music Camp! I've not been there this time of year before! I am looking forward to it!
I don't know if there is any one new out there reading this blog but in case you are new, I have a Christmas tradition that every year, I compose a new Christmas song for my school Christmas carol service. I made a list of all the songs I have written this year and there are 19! So next year will be my big 20th special! I need some new inspiration for lyrics and subject matter as I have got many aspects of the Christmas story covered but I'm not worried. Something always comes to mind!
This year, I decided I wanted to write a song for the younger children. Out of the carols/songs I have written, only 3 of them have been written for the younger children (FYI, these songs are: 5 little snowflakes for Foundation Stage, Christmas, Christmas for Year 1-2 and Caesar wants a census for Year 3-4. This year, I decided to pen a piece for Years 3-4 choir. Last year, we sang a very simple song called See the Star of Bethlehem which is a very simple round. I got the children to march from the back of the church to the front and they loved it. So, I decided I wanted a Marching song. Immediately, I decided that it would be called Marching into Christmas and would introduce all those who travelled to Bethlehem for the nativity- Mary and Joseph, Shepherds, Wise Men and also include the prophets who foretold Bethlehem. In the end, rather than doing anything particularly clever, noteworthy or interesting with the structure, it is a simple Verse-chorus structure with a very simple coda added. It needed to have a strong beat, be in simple 2/4 time and the children would march to the chorus.
I came up with the first 2 lines on holiday in Belgium
I then got stuck for a while and worked out the first verse the 2nd week back
The third week, I worked out the other lyrics and the piano part for the chorus and at the last minute, wrote the verses.
When we first taught it to the kids, they seemed to like the chorus but the words seemed a bit tricky for them.
However, they returned a week later full of enthusiasm and seemed to get it. The children who struggled with reading (I had 2 SEND 1:1 children in choir and a few who struggle with reading) and they really engaged with the chorus and marching so I was glad to have made the chorus the way it was.
Here they are singing it. It's a little bit rough and ready but I hope you can hear the enthusiasm!
Refrain: Marching into Christmas seeking Bethlehem,
Searching for the new King promised long ago,
Let us join them boldly, joyful in our hearts,
Anyone is welcome, evermore!
1. Prophecies were made first, they foresaw Bethlehem,
Teaching the Messiah was born in Bethlehem,
The birthplace of King David, the place where he'd be found,
Come along and seek him, come and seek that king!
Refrain: Marching into Christmas seeking Bethlehem,
2. Mary then and Joseph, seeking Bethlehem,
Made their way so humbly on from Nazareth,
Travelling for the census at the time of birth,
Everyone was searching, searching for that place!
Refrain: Marching into Christmas seeking Bethlehem,
3. Shepherds from the fields were sent by heavenly hosts
They obeyed the summons, to greet the new born King,
Bringing gifts of lambs, they hurried on their way.
Everyone was welcome, welcome in that place!
Refrain: Marching into Christmas seeking Bethlehem,
4. Wise men next they journeyed, following a star,
travelling from the East, they travelled from afar
First they sought King Herod, his scribes they told the way,
Everyone was welcome, welcome, come and see!
Marching into Christmas seeking Bethlehem,
Searching for the new King promised long ago,
Let us join them boldly, joyful in our hearts,
Anyone is welcome,
EVERYONE is welcome,
You are all most welcome,
Evermore!
Bonus for anyone who plays the piano or fancies a sing along, here's a little play along video of it
This year, we also resang 2 songs which have never appeared on blog before, From the East and Caesar wants a census so let me know if you fancy me sharing those?
On Friday, I ended up on afternoon playground duty with Year 1 and 2. One cheerful little boy came up to me and informed me he had done something most unusual.
In honour of this bizarre and hilarious moment, I wrote a triolet poem
One of the sweetest and loveliest elements of this year at school was the lovely rapport I had with some of my girls in one particular year 6 class. This class were really enthusiastic musically. They worked well in teams, were dedicated to achieving their best in music, practically all could sing in tune, at least half were part of music clubs and they were cohesive as a class. There were a few girls in particular, who were especially loyal. Many was the day where I'd be sitting at my computer at lunchtime when one of them would appear at the door saying, "THERE YOU ARE! Mrs P I've been looking for you everywhere!" On other occasions, I would walk into my room and find one of them standing on the step looking at my book collection in the dark (I have a personal library which certain kids borrow from- I say certain- there were about 30 of them borrowing...). She'd laugh as I jumped! I'd find notes on my desk asking me if I could be their walking partner on a school trip; at the end of my music lessons, they'd stay behind and hang out.
One thing they all loved is my little shelf of cute items. I had cow bells, music box mechanisms, A-Z of music instruments, toilet roll bunny and mostly importantly, Sad Frog.
Sad Frog was a birthday present from my friend Lara last year. Lara sells her crochet toys on Etsy and in order to be compliant with safety, legally, for selling to children, you need to do certain tests on certain products. This is called CE testing and you can read about it here. The main two tests are hanging weights, up to 10kg on eyes to ensure a child could not bite them off and setting fire to the wool. Lara posted Sad Frog on Insta after she'd tested him. I asked what would happen to him and she said, she couldn't sell him. I said I'd give him a home and he came to be on my Birthday with a bow round his neck. Her retail models have happy faces but Sad Frog, the first of his kind, has a sad face because of his mistreatment.
When I decided to take him to school to keep there, as I had my music room back, often children would pick him up and ask why he was sad. I would always explain about CE testing to them. They've all met Lara, as she came to school to play the piano for us last year, so they all liked the link.
When we started going on trips with choir/drumming, the girls asked if they could bring him on the trip and he could be our choir mascot. I thought this was sweet so I agreed and subsequently, he's been on every trip, watched every concert and performance. Three children in particular, always pick him up every time they are in the music room.
Around about 12 weeks ago, when I decided to retake the Drumming Club photo, I noticed a photo bomb....
As we've got nearer to the end of term, my girls kept fretting about leaving and not wanting to go.
In their DT lessons, they were asked to design and make an embroidery which would be an important memory of their time in school.
I delightedly found out, that Sad Frog made it into TWO embroideries:
How sweet are their write ups!!!
The next adorable thing was that one of them decided to write Sad Frog's story! I unfolded her book (I haven't copied the front cover as it has her name on it but it's very cute:
One point, I should mention is that the 7 girls who spent a lot of time with me, had been extremely helpful and loyal. 2 of them were orchestra managers- they organised the orchestra set up, chased missing children, took the register, filed the music, gave out music to those who had forgotten, kept me up to date on what needed more photocopying. In addition, they all, on quite a few occasions, helped me tidy and move things and also acted as TAs in my Year 1 and 2 music lessons during their lunch breaks on many occasions (one of them, the one who wrote the story book, stayed all afternoon with me last week to teach the same lesson 3 times. She genuinely acted as a teacher, giving feedback, explaining and the suchlike.) At this point, I knew that I had to give them something special as a thank you.
I contacted Lara and asked her if I could commission her to make me 7 miniature Sad Frogs. She was delighted to, having been kept abreast of Sad Frog's popularity.
Last Sunday, we met for lunch and I met Sad Frog's children:
Behold, the line of Misery!
I decided, as a tribute to N____, to write a story to accompany Sad Frog's children.
I printed it onto paper and folded it with a front cover and back cover featuring Sad Frog and then his children:
Sad Frog had had a hard start in life, in fact, some might say his early existence was veiled in trauma. This was due to his mistreatment for the cause of ensuring his progeny were safe for young children to handle. His luck changed, as chronicled in the book by esteemed author, N___ R_____, when he received a new and safer home in the hands of a music teacher, Mrs P_____. He observed day after day, week after week of music lessons with the children of ____ school and slowly his fear and post-traumatic stress subsided. It was, however, thanks to the tender care and friendship of some particular children, that he experienced the true joy of life and the euphoria of friendship. Some particular young girls seemed to spend more time than others in that room of sound and music and spent their time cheering up their teacher and helping younger children in their lessons. The tall and gentle T___; the generous and kindhearted T____ with the infectious laughter; the witty and efficient (but tiny!) I____, the loyal and dedicated S_____. But most of all, his bestest of friends were those who showered him with love and attention and encouraged him to see the world, to travel on trains to world famous orchestras, to party to samba music, to watch shows about sailors, ships and treasure, to take part in concerts and his rescuers from kidnap. They were the cheeky, charming and utterly hilarious D_____, the astute and bright-eyed A_____ and the gentle and imaginative N____. Sad Frog knew his days of friendship were drawing to a close as his closest confidants moved onto pastures new and great adventures. His heart grew full as he reflected on his halcyon days and his eyes gleamed with tears at the thought of their loss. And his heart overflowed with droplets of joy and those tiny droplets of joyous memories became something wondrous. For from those crystal droplets, grew several tiny new froglets. They bloomed and blossomed and became Sad Frog's children. Sad Frog's heart swelled with joy for he knew that part of his heart would travel with his friends and accompany them forever and show his gratitude for their help in bringing him happiness. He bade them farewell and told them to seek new adventures and to always protect their new owners and ensure that they always sang from their hearts and found the joy in life even when times were hard. Sad Frog and his children may have sad faces but their hearts are glad
I've been gleefully waiting for moment when I could give them.
On the last day, I called my girls to come to my room, sat them in a line and asked them to shut their eyes. I laid out a frog and book in front of each of them.
When they opened their eyes, they SCREAMED!!!! The comments of joy and glee were a delight to behold (I recorded them!) and when they sat and read the story and realised it was about them, their faces were utter joy!
They then decided to line up the frogs and sit them with Sad Frog. We then had a selfie with all the frogs!
One more lovely element was the two gifts I got from two of Sad Frog's biggest fans:
One of them got me an apple to be Sad Frog's friend and the other, got her mum to make me a crocheted duck to accompany Sad Frog.
The children, plus many more, spent their playtime AND part of their lunch in my room improvising music as I attempted to tidy up and there were many tears.
I don't think I've ever had such a group before and I will sorely miss them. But, we will ever forget each other because of Sad Frog.
I was waiting with our last pupil from our Treasure Island rehearsal on Tuesday night and we were standing on the slope outside the school office/main entrance. All of a sudden, I heard a clamour of tiny high-pitched tweets. I listened and tried to follow the direction of the sounds and noticed a small hole in the brickwork further up the wall. I realised that there was probably a nest there with babies being fed by a mother/father. I told the pupil what I suspected and suggested we watch the hole to see if a parent-bird came in our out. At that moment, a sparrow flew out and we looked delightedly at each other. The babies quieted down and I told the pupil they were probably doing that to stay safe whilst the parent wasn't there We watched and the parent returned and the noise increased again. She stared at me with wide eyes and said, "Birds are really clever!". It was a really special moment for both of us to see and hear the tiny family. I told her to look out as she came in each morning and she left smiling.
A tiny moment but a precious moment when you can be tired, melancholic and a little lost.
Look for the small moments in life. The small details, the tiny joys for they are the joyous moments that make your heart glad.
Often, in school, we like to find cross-curricular links in lessons we are teaching. I teach music but often I teach other things.
Today, in Year 3, I was recapping what they had learnt last week about Jazz music and scatting. We recapped a song and then they had a chance to imitate my scatting improvisation. I gave a few of them the opportunity to lead the class (which they did with great bravery, gusto and enthusiasm). We then had a go at improvising to a Jazz backing track on the recorder. We then moved onto listening to some Reggae music and learning about that genre of music. Through the course of the lesson covered history, geography, social issues, had a discussion about the Rastafarian religion, had a talk about what constituted racism (A Bangladeshi boy told me it was racist to refer to someone as 'Black' when we were reading a short biography of Bob Marley which mentioned his mother was black and his father was white ) and, with the help of some of the other children, made them understand that referring to someone's colour is not racist but a way of referring to something special about them and you would be racist if you said something nasty about somebody or said there was something about them that implies they are 'less' than someone else because of their skin colour/race/family background/origin. It felt like we had covered so much in that one lesson! Similarly, in the afternoon, in year 2, we have been learning about communication and this lesson was on recognising and imitating bird song with our voices and instruments- it felt fun to teach them some general and nature knowledge of birds! We ended up counting the different pitches in bird song and I showed them how to represent these graphically in symbols
Music can cover maths, English, science, Geography, RE, history, social issues and in other lessons: art, DT, PHSE. But of course, it is also very much itself!*
*Also met a lovely parent today! What a kind and pleasant man who was so proud of his two lovely girls, one of whom is performing in our recorder festival next week.
Well, we didn't win the choir competition on Tuesday but we had a great, exciting day!
We had an epic journey of walking around 3/4 of a mile to the station, getting a train and then tube and then a 3/4 mile walk up a hill. The rehearsal went ok- we had a moment where we realised that one of children had not brought her dinner with her (or water bottle), despite being asked twice if she had her dinner! The children were very noisy when they weren't performing which did get a little tiresome after a while and I discovered at school, that one of the boys had hidden another girl's lunchbox...luckily, I managed to find where it had been hidden but I did have to start our journey with a stern word. Other than that, they behaved mostly and there was, Ann, you will be glad to learn, NO VOMIT GATE!
The standard of the other schools was really high. The winning school chose a really great pair of songs that really showed off the children's voices beautifully and I had them as the winners in my mind almost immediately. The second song, an environmental song called Breathe, was really evocative. The other schools gave great performances and a really interesting set of choices of repertoire. The school who got second place had a hilarious version of 'This old man' which made me really giggle and they sang a song with hatography (they did lots of movements with hats)- wasn't so keen on their first song but they were really polished and brilliant! We didn't get to hear the choir that came 3rd as we were back stage waiting to go onto stage.
Our first song went quite well, a song called Dreamer, and then our second song, Water Come o' me eye, had a hairy moment in the middle.. After singing the 2 verses beautifully in unison, the children go into 4 parts where 3 groups sing different riffs/ostinati (repeated patterns), at this point, the 2nd group, rushed off out of time with the others. I had to conduct really hard to try and get them to realise they were out of time, and eventually, managed to get them back together, but it was quite obvious. I was glad they were able to get back in time though. The third song, Can you feel the love tonight, was pretty good although we could have done some more dynamic changes.
I was asked by the teacher of the next school after us to turn pages for her at the piano which was scary! I am always scared of messing up. Luckily, I didn't but it was a bit nerve-wracking!
When they announced the judge's comments, A, star pupil, was sitting next to me, and as soon as we had been given our feedback, she leaned over and said, "We definitely haven't won, we got WAAAY more feedback than the others!).
The kids were disappointed, but most were pragmatic about not winning. The chair of our governors also came to watch as well as my headteacher. The chair and one parent told me well done and another parent messaged me to say thank you and well done but I didn't get anything from any other parents really.
Luckily, all parents turned up to pick up their children, two were a bit late but I managed to get home by about 10.15pm!
The next day, I was super tired but luckily had Year 5 doing a lesson I know and love well, creating their opening to Vltava in groups. The year 6 class I had last lesson were a bit tiresome though- they were very lethargic although seemed to enjoy watching the BBC Ten Pieces version of Winter from the Four Seasons. I was sent home 10mins early from staff meeting after school as I was falling asleep in it (apparently, so was everyone else though!).
Thursday was quite a good day for the year 3 recorder lessons. The year 2's were ok starting their first lesson on Communication. In choir, I started two new songs, one I wrote about 15 years ago called 'Peter Piper' which is a tongue twister song and its the first time I have taught it since then!!! A requested a vocal score as she prefers to follow the notes.
Friday, my year 6 lessons were quite enjoyable and I started a Greek Persephone theme for their Singing Assembly- I found a book in the cupboard which I've never used and I decided to give it a go! I'm going to do a Peter Pan theme with the Year 3-4's and a Dinosaurs and all that rubbish theme with Year 1-2. I might get them to perform to each other in the playground in July!
After school, I had to rush off to the hospital for yet another scan. It was a bigger one and I had to lie there on my tummy for 20minutes (needing the loo!) as they did a contrast dye scan etc. I read my book as they did it and Yomi, my lovely scanning operator commented how relaxed I looked!
I cycled home from the hospital (despite being told to wait an hour) and then watched Dr Who all evening after picking lots of kale and chard in the garden to eat with sausages from the freezer.
CBC is in Majorca/Mallorca this weekend for the Malloca 312 (km!) race/ride so I was a bit lonely.
I've been doing some cleaning and tidying today and I'm glad I managed to get some sorting done though not as much as I wanted to. Ah well.
Tomorrow morning, I've got to play piano/lead worship at church- bit nervous as some of the songs are not so familiar to me as last week.
Then, I need to carry on with the cleaning and get some school work done.Not ideal for a Sunday...
My last two weeks have been quite successful on the whole.
School has been busy but positive.
Monday, I started Year 4 recorder club for the first time since March 2020!
Because of Covid, bubbles and then having no hall, I've not been able to do this for 4 years. Finally, after getting sorted with school and my room and getting our hall decorated (the floor was ruined by the flooring and construction they had to do to turn it into 4 classrooms- the projector also had to be used to replace the one in the dining room which was on its last legs so it took almost a term to get it back.
I have a good number- about 24 in total including two children in year 1-2 who I would NEVER have thought would do this (will still reserve judgement on their longevity of enthusiasm and good behaviour! :-) )
The first session went quite well. They were a bit rough and ready (and blew their recorders far too hard!) but it was nice to get started and they were super excited!
In all my year 4 lessons this week, they were learning to write out their melodies they had been composing up onto the stave. I sold it to them as they were going to write up and 'publish' their work in a book for the class book corner (after asking one of recorder club to fetch their lovely new shiny books I had given them). I was mostly pleasantly surprised with their work...mostly!
One lovely thing has been that some the year 6 children who seem to want to spend all their play and lunchtimes in my room asked last Wednesday if they could come and sit in my room whilst I taught year 2 (they have 45 mins of lunchbreak when year 2 come in). I agreed as I realised they could earn their keep. We were doing group work and the 3 children brilliantly led groups with great results until they had to leave to go back to class. They asked if they could come next week and help again. Since I was doing group work again, but more complicated, I agreed. This week, I arranged it so they could go into lunch immediately. 6 of them turned up at my door so they all had a group each. The year 2 children ADORED having them there and the kids really loved the challenge of having to be 'teachers' for their groups. They said it was hard work but they enjoyed it and I said to them, "Imagine what it's like doing that without any help!" and they agreed it sounded so hard! The class I had after break (without any helpers) was SO much more difficult.
They came back the next day and helped me with the final year 2 class! They loved challenging themselves and as they'd already taught the activity the previous day, they were able to hone their teaching skills. My deputy head thought it was brilliant to allow them to do this as it was a chance for them to apply their own learning.
Did I mention that I appointed 2 orchestral managers for our school orchestra. Two very efficient girls (from the above group) wanted to be involved in orchestra but not to play. I appointed them managers and they are superb- they act as librarians, register takers, they chase people who don't turn up, they help set up and it's so nice to have a way of involving them and giving them 'work experience'. Today, we had an audience who wanted to come along and see what happened in orchestra!
Our local education authority are holding the first 'regional primary choir of the year competition' which is exciting as it's so nice to have a experience and trip to offer the children for the club though a bit scary! It was the first choir of the year and I had 30 children including quite a few new ones (as well as loyal returnees). If I can just tackle the noisiness of some of the back row, it should be good! One of my old university friends is in charge of the festival so it will be really nice to see her again!
Last Thursday was a brilliant day! I had a course at the London Symphony Orchestra's education building, St Luke's, entitled Opera in a Day. It was enormous fun and great to see Rachel Leach again, the leader of their education programme (she ran my music training in classroom music with the LSO). I had a lovely lunch of Paella from Whitecross Street market and afterwards I went to swim at the Ironmonger row baths. After some dinner at Wagamamas, I headed off to my Gamelan rehearsal in the city, only a short walk away.
I had 2 orchestra rehearsals this week with an orchestra I've not played with for over a year. It was nice to be back though the music was not as thrilling as I might have hoped!
Oh, I thought I'd share an outfit from today!
I've put together quite a few pleasing outfits this week (well, new combinations I haven't tried...that worked!) and I quite liked this one.
It features:
Charity-shopped WhiteStuff shirt,
Lovely glittery, striped skirt I bought in Antwerp or Bruges' Think Twice 3 Euro day
Very old F&F at Tescos cashmere cardie.
Navy leggings from Aldi.
Men's purple Clarks Brogue boots
Purple Accessorize beret and Lovarzi Doctor Who fairisle scarf
Esoteric London sample sale moon earrings
ASOS purple dangly bead necklace.
I had a discussion with one of my year 6 girls at play as she wanted to know where the items of my outfit were from and she asked why I bought clothes in charity shops and I gave her the usual spiel of
More eco-friendly to buy used
You get nicer clothes than you might be able to afford new
You can look different and unique compared to everyone else
Find your own style
She liked that so hopefully, if she had a previously negative view of buying in charity shops, she knows her favourite educational style icon buys from them, and might consider it in her future!
I have very little coat variation at the moment as my Seasalt Janelle coat is perfect for this cold weather!
There's a younger work colleague, who I've recently become closer to. She was really kind to me last year when I was suffering from 2 years of no room and at the end of the year, she included me in team celebrations, let me leave things in her room, constantly let me walk through her classroom with instruments, listened in sympathy. She was still quite reserved when it came to talking about things as I know she doesn't trust lots of people and is very professional at keeping things to herself. I sent her a card telling her how much I appreciated her friendship at the end of the year. This academic year, we've been sounding boards for each other a few times and there has felt a genuine warmth and trust there which I've been grateful for.
Unexpectedly, this morning, when I did my usual cut through her room, she said she had something for me. When I came back, she said she saw it and had to buy it for me! I was so touched. I asked if I could open it on Christmas day to which she acquiesced.
When I got back to my room, I looked at the labels.
What a lovely label and the back was so thoughtful. She knows I am very much hot on the eco thing!
What a thoughtful message, one which gave me a lovely cosy shine throughout the remainder of the day! I'm grateful for her friendship!
Today for TARDIS Tuesday, I am referring to one of the Spin offs and that is The Sarah Jane Adventures. Out of all Who companions, Sarah Jane Smith, the reporter, was one of the most iconic. She enjoyed great success in this modern Who series for children but ALSO had a Classic Who spin off called K9 and Company!
She had an almost 'uniform' in this spin off series that usually consisted of:
Collared top (shirt or jersey top with collar), waistcoat, jeans, knee-high boots and often a leather jacket over the top.
The outfit I am featuring today was featured in a later episode called Goodbye Sarah Jane Smith and is a softer take on her classic look
She wears a pale blue jersey top with a collar from Joseph, a soft knitted Cornflower blue waistcoat from Whistles and her reading glasses. Presumably wearing her jeans and boots.
I decided, since this is almost a perfect outfit for school, to adapt it so it would work for a school dress code.
I was lucky, thanks to the magic of Vinted to find both the SA top and waistcoat for less than a fiver each and they are incredibly comfortable as well as, I hope,looking smart.
I decided to team them with my Seasalt Asphodel black corduroy trousers and Clarks lace up black shoes. Probably skinnier trousers and knee high boots would have looked more accurate and stylish but this look for me, is about comfort!
Attempted to take a photo in pose from the photo above though I do look rather miserable!
Hope you are well! I had a nice surprise this weekend. I didn't attend my usual church service as I had a headache and woke up late. CBC gave me a lift to the linked church a few miles away who have an 11 o'clock service (same service that is done at my church). It was a really lovely service and a great sermon from David, a retired South African vicar. After the service, Sue, who plays piano, suggested I ask this man for a lift as he doesn't live too far from me. When we were chatting in the car, he remembered me from a previous service and he is a musician too, a viola-player. As we were chatting, it turns out he will be playing for a concert that I am page-turning for my friend for, in a couple of weeks so we were pleased that we'd had the chance to chat. I did feel a little sad in the service that I hadn't gone to this church (well, the linked church) when I first moved to the area around 5 years ago, it was only because of lockdown and discovering them on Youtube, that I realised this church had a weekly service. For some reason, I thought it only had one once a month. I wonder what life would have been like if I had joined then? Ah, well, I will never know.
By the way, on the subject of horrid things going on in the world, I would love to talk about them and comment, but we have been told/advised at work that we should not be talking about things online as we have to be seen as neutral. Rest assured, I am praying, caring and learning
One week to go till half term. This first half term has flown by, at the same as not!
I wish I were able to craft well-written blog posts at the moment. Sadly, my mind is really fatigued and I am lacking the focus to do that. I think that's the effect of the new term- I hope !
This week has been a busy one.
Monday night, CBC and I went to see 'Peter Grimes', Benjamin Britten's opera about a beleaguered fisherman from Aldeburgh at ENO, English National Opera.
Benjamin Britten, if you haven't heard of him, is one of England's greatest composers. We had a reputation in the 'classical music' world as being a bit rubbish as composers. Or at least, none of the great names, like Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn, Ravel, Verdi, et al, were English. Our finest composer was Henry Purcell, beloved composer of the Baroque era and then, very little was thought of English composers for another couple of hundred years or so.
Then, Benjamin Britten, born in 1913 and died in 1976, came along. He is also well known as being the partner of renowned Tenor, Peter Peers. Together, they set up the Britten-Peers school and foundation. He founded the Aldeburgh festival with peers and is responsible for the creation of the Snape Maltings concert hall. He wrote with great imagination and skill and some of his best works are his operas.
Peter Grimes is the opera which brought him to great international acclaim. It has a theme in it with notably recurs in quite a few of Britten's operas- the struggle of an outsider against a hostile society. In this opera, we begin with a scene where an inquest is being made as to whether the death of Peter Grimes' young apprentice fisherman was an accident or something more sinister. Grimes is an outsider and is constantly the subject of whisperings by those in the town, known as the Borough. The verdict is left open but Grimes is advised not to get another apprentice. Grimes is despairing as to whether he will ever be away from the gossip and mutterings but doesn't help himself by how he responds to the villagers and also how he is seen to treat his apprentices. Ellen Orford, the school teacher, who is fond of Grimes, vows to help him if he gets a new apprentice and makes it clear she would like to marry him but he vows he can only marry once he's proved everyone wrong and has made his fortune in fishing.
He is constantly ostracized by the Borough and they refuse to help him, except for 2 men, one of whom has found him a new apprentice from the Workhouse. The child arrives the night of a storm when a drunk and rowdy pub unites in their dislike of him. In next scene, it is Sunday morning and Ellen, the school teacher sees a bruise on the new apprentice's neck and his worried. Later, when a suspicious village go to Grimes' hut to find out whether he is up to no good, in Grime's haste to get away from the villagers, he and the apprentice go down the cliff to the boat. Despite, Grime's earlier warning for the boy to be careful, alas, things go wrong and the apprentice dies as he falls down the cliff. Grimes is in despair.
The village notice Grimes' absence after a couple of days and when he returns and Ellen has found the boy's washed up sweater which she made, she and Balstrode, the Captain and fear the worst and tell Grimes he must scuttle his boat as the only way to escape the judgement of the Borough. Grimes sails out to sea, his boat is seen sinking and life continues in the Borough.
It is an incredibly bleak opera but it is beautifully evocative in its music, particularly the 6 interludes which are between scene changes where the orchestra sets the scene musically what what is occurring.
Britten later put four of these into a concert piece called "Four Sea interludes"
The first is called Dawn, then there is The Storm, Sunday Morning and Moonlight.
They really do depict what their name suggests and I really recommend you listen to them.
It was a wonderful performance and we really enjoyed it, despite my being in floods of tears at the end. Poor Peter Grimes!
Tuesday, I was very tired for school but it was an ok today, all in all. I was pleased that past me had bought some fish and sausages and put them in the school freezer so I had something to go with dinner for the next 2 evenings.
Wednesday, I had agreed to lead a teacher's INSET on music. Well, for half the session. I've not actually ever done this at my school before, in 16 years. Mainly, because I teach the music and no one else does so it hasn't come up as a need. However, my colleague, M, a young teacher, a brilliant teacher, told me he'd love it if I led an INSET so I suggested to our Assistant Head that I lead one, just for fun and to give staff experience of some musical concepts etc which she thought was a great idea.
So, on Wednesday, at 4.30pm, I told all the teachers to come to my room where I taught them almost 2 hours worth of Year 4 music lessons in 30mins. I taught them about Pentatonic music, transposition, octaves and I got them to sing in 4 part harmony and learn to play a piece. The lovely thing was, they were all really enthusiastic and sang beautifully! Everyone was so nice about it and told me how much they'd enjoyed it and how it was their favourite INSET. It made me really happy to see they'd appreciated it and not found it a waste of their time!
Thursday was a really positive day. My year 3 students worked really hard and behaved themselves (mostly) in their 4th recorder lesson.
Then, I had Year 4 for three lessons It was their first lesson on Drones and Melodies and it is the day I teach them about travelling ministrels. We then spend the rest of the lesson travelling around the school singing Tudor song, Hey Ho, Nobody at home whilst accompanying ourselves with drones and asking for money with a prepared speech. The kids always absolutely love this lesson and this year group was no exception. In fact, their behaviour was excellent, including the usually VERY disruptive class! It was one child's birthday and he told me it was the best birthday ever which was sweet.
After school, I had choir, who were hyper but I had a brain wave. We have been using kazoos for one of our songs and they are a pain to clean each time to disinfect them so I had all these plastic skinny long bags from the new recorders I'd bought for the Year 3's. I hadn't recycled them yet so I gave them all one to put their kazoos in so they could use the same one each week- I had some old sticky labels I'd saved from WOMOTM's desk which I'd recently brought home from Northumberland so I felt quite pleased to find a solution!
Friday, after my Year 6 lessons and orchestra, I grabbed the orchestra kids at 3.00pm to take their photo for the clubs wall. I told the children I wanted to take the photo in the school hall so that A could have her proper timpani in the photo. We aren't using the hall at the moment so I told the children we were going to have to sneak up there secretly to take the photo so they couldn't make a SOUND whilst we went there or on the way there or I'd get into trouble. Not sure if this is true or not, but they ADORED the whole stealth operation and we managed to get there and back in total silence and we had such a laugh about it when we got back!
Thai on Friday night.
Saturday was our orchestra concert in London. We had a rehearsal and wen to Miznom, a Lebanese street food restaurant on Elgin Road which was lovely. It was quite sad as it was our principal Clarinet player, Drew's last concert before he moves to Lincolnshire. The concert went really well but we got home super late.
This morning, I woke up at 9am and managed to get to church for 9.20am but was very tired!!
We ended up travelling to another town to see if we could find CBC's missing bank card (to no avail) and ended up having some lunch in John Lewis.
This week, hopefully, won't be super busy....I hope!
Oh, and here's an outfit from before the weather turned!
Fabindia skirt, charity-shopped Newlook top and some Asda shoes plus a charity-shopped belt. Comfy but cool. Nuff said!
