Music Newsletter - Issue 9, Autumn 2007

Issue 9, Autumn 2007

Dear Parent / Carer

Welcome to our ninth issue of the newsletter and as always at this time of year, I would like to extend a welcome to our year 7 musicians. Our instrumental and vocal tuition has again expanded to over one hundred students attending lessons each week. Some students have already involved themselves in extra curricular groups such as the string ensemble and Tollbar band.

Many of you will remember that we had to postpone the Christmas concert last year and it was held in January, following which I received many positive comments. Most parents preferred attending the concert in January; therefore this year we will be holding a New Year concert.

Since the last newsletter, we have given a concert in St. Augustine’s Church and completed a two day tour of the primary schools. Many students have taken external music examinations this year with great success.

Forthcoming Events.

The Inter-House Music Competition begins on Monday 15^th October and runs for four nights, 3.15 to 5pm. Parents are very welcome to come along to support the students.

Monday is for Strings, Woodwind, Brass and Piano/Keyboard solo.

Tuesday is for vocal solo.

Wednesday is for Acoustic Ensembles

Thursday is the ‘band’ class.

All classes take place in the Conference and Drama halls.

The choir and band will be performing at the Presentation Evening, to be held on 30^th November at Grimsby Town Hall. On Friday 14^th December the department will be presenting an evening of music and readings for Christmas. This is held each year at All Saints Church, Waltham. I would like to thank Canon Shelton and his team for making us very welcome each year. This event is always well attended and is a great start to Christmas. I hope to see many of you there.

The New Year Concert will take place in the conference hall on Tuesday January 15^th.

Tickets will be on sale as soon as we return after the Christmas holiday.

Music Tuition

Instrumental / vocal reports were sent out to parents in July and I would like to thank you for your feedback on the reply slips. This was very encouraging and useful. We shall again be holding a consultation evening near to the end of term, to enable you to meet your child’s instrumental/vocal teacher and discuss progress. However we like to keep open the lines of communication, therefore you can contact me via email or telephone if you wish to talk about your child’s progress at any time.

Our main aim is to provide a high standard of tuition for your child and would welcome your support in the following ways:

• The timetable of lessons is produced as quickly as possible at the beginning of each term and is published on the music website and music notice board, with individual copies for students. Please make sure your child knows the time of the lesson and if necessary write it in his/her planner to remind them.

• Each child is issued with a practice diary. This has some music information pages, the names of the teachers as well as the pages for students to fill in the practice they have done each week. There is also space for communication between yourselves and the teacher. Please check this, so that you know what your child has to practise during the week.

• It is important that the instrument is taken home after the lesson. Students should set aside a small amount of time each day to practise.

• It would be very helpful if you would make sure that your child’s name is on the inside of the instrumental case as many are the same make and model and can be easily mixed up.

As always, if you have any comments regarding the newsletter or any questions relating to events and other music matters, please do not hesitate to call me. We would particularly welcome feedback on the instrumental / vocal provision we are offering and any improvements that you think we could make. Also, we try to keep the music web pages on the college web site up to date and fresh looking. If you have any ideas of musical items you think people would like to read or know about, please let me know. You can contact me by email at BoothroydS@TollbarBec.co.uk

I hope I shall see many of you at our future events.

Yours sincerely,