Tomorrow’s Wind Band rehearsal will finish at the earlier time of 4.35pm. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Absolutely brilliant workshop with Andrea Vicari and the NYJO Ambassadors this morning. The Swing Band benefitted from it SO much and our visitors were extremely impressed – Andrea said that the students were ‘exceptional’, and they really blew away the Ambassadors, who have been into 2 other Cumbrian schools and 3 Lancashire schools this week.  Apparently, we’re the best school band they have ever worked with ……..

In the new year, NYJO will be establishing a ‘Cumbria Academy’ which will meet every 4 or 5 weeks on a Sunday in Penrith, and they have said that all the players today would be good enough to ‘walk it’ in terms of entry requirements!!!!!!

This is the letter that has gone out this week to the Wind Band, Junior Band, ensembles and Choirs (tomorrow).

It is the first Christmas Festival letter giving advance warning of ‘pre-sale’ tickets on 26th & 27th October.

Christmas pre-sale letter

We are really lucky to have secured a visit from the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Great Britain – one of the top youth jazz ensembles in the world. They are visiting 3 schools in Cumbria – ourselves, QKS and Trinity – but we are the only school where they are working with a single school band, the other two schools are having to open their session up to all their local secondary school musicians in order to get numbers.

The musical director and two ambassadors (as well as the head of Cumbria Music Service) will be coming into school on Thursday 11^th October to lead a workshop with our Big Band from 9am-midday – names are below. If there is a problem with any of the students doing the workshop please let me know so that I can sort out who can/cannot play.

SAX                                                    

Bella Kanjoo-Parsons  13

Iona Lee                      13

Patsy Gillam                11

Sophie Evans               11

Amber Cropley                        13

Eilidh Miller                13

Matthew Dawson        12

Mary Kyle                    13

Tabi Butler                  13

Dan Lister                    12

Hazel Kyle                    9

Jess Wood                   13

TPT                 

Abi Stanway                13

Jacob Egglestone        13

Nell Wedgwood                       13

Connor O’Hara                        12

Nicky Kitchingm          an        12

Harrison Carr              12

Oscar Butler                10

Heather Murray                      10

TBN

Emma Hood                13

Jack Spencer                12

Harry O’Donovan        11

Simone Clarke             13

Braden Jackson                       8

Francis Smith-Ward    13

RHYTHM

Harry Angel                 11

George Ball                 12

David Boardman         13

Pascal Borke                13

Alice Thomas               10

Sophie Tippins             12

Alex Nicklin                 13

The videos from the Paris tour have now been uploaded to YouTube – needless to say, I am a VERY proud music teacher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Dear All,

A Yamaha trumpet went missing from the store-room yesterday afternoon between lunchtime and Wind Band. It is in a modern black Yamaha case with red trim on the front (just like the alto sax cases, and the same size). If your child is a trumpeter or alto sax player please check their cases to see if they may have taken the wrong instrument home – we have a very worried student (and parents).

On this note, please could everyone either tag their own cases or put an identification note inside so that we always know which instrument belongs to which student  –  a lot of cases are the same!!

Also … due to delays in delivery, the scheduled pre-audition ‘HAIRSPRAY!’ rehearsal tomorrow is postponed until next Wednesday. Instead there will be a Percussion Ensemble rehearsal at lunchtime and and the usual Chamber Choir rehearsal at 1.25pm

OPEN EVENING (Thursday) – Senior Flute Choir & Sax Ensemble are playing from 5.50pm-6.40pm and Percussion Ensemble from 6.40pm-7.30pm.  All students in Wind Band uniform please (pink shirts, black bottoms & shoes).

The first meeting of The Friends will be next Tuesday (18th) at 6pm in the Meeting Room (A Block).  All parents are welcome to attend (you don’t have to have been before) – no commitment.  We usually meet about once every half term in order to assess and plan Performing Arts’ events and funding.

On the agenda will be

• Bank balance
• review of summer concert and swing band tour
• Christmas Festival ticketing
• Pantomime
• Royal Marines concerts
• School Musical – ‘Hairspray’
• Wind Band Italy tour

A reminder to the A Level Music class (12 to 13) of the listening homework they are to complete by Thursday period 1.

Enjoy!!!!

Year 12

The first Swing Band rehearsal will be on Friday 7th Sept in the Main Hall from 3.30-4.45pm. If anyone cannot attend please let me know. New pieces for this year include:

I Want You Back by The Jackson 5

Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing by Stevie Wonder

I Wish  by Stevie Wonder

If they get a chance, please could all players have a listen to the originals so that the head and hooks are not too much of a shock?

The first Wind Band rehearsal will be on Monday 10th September from 3.30-5.00pm – again, full attendance is expected. New pieces include:

Symphonic Animation arranged by the Royal Marines

The Greatest Showman arranged by Paul Murtha (grade 3)

Both of these can be found on youtube (there is a video of us playing Symph An with the Marines somewhere!)

Huge, huge congratulations to those students who have received their A Level and GCSE results in the last two weeks.

Year 13 came up with a 100% A-C pass-rate which is brilliant considering the demands of the new course and the lack of supporting resources from the exam board. They achieved:

A-B    83%    (nationally 47%)

A-C    100%  (nationally 83%)

Best of luck to all of them in their chosen pathways, but especially to David (performance @ Royal Birmingham Conservatoire of Music), Beth (film composition @ Leeds College of Music) and Leah (hopefully, 2019 entry to either the Royal Marines or the Army Corps of Music). Please keep in touch!

At GCSE, despite worries about the new course in terms of both breadth of content and overall demand, UVHS has maintained its superb record of achievement:

Grade 9      38% (nationally 8%)

Grade 9-7   88%  (nationally 32%)

Grade 9-5   100% (nationally 72%)

A huge WELL DONE to all of them and GOOD LUCK with A Levels/Apprenticeships/BTECs etc. Please keep us informed of your progress and good news!