Guildford County School

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Voices for Learning Concert

Hundreds of Guildford youngsters who have caught the singing bug celebrated the power of the voice at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, on 21 October.

The concert, called Voices for Learning, was a highlight of the National Singing Programme, Sing Up, which is led by the composer and broadcaster Howard Goodall.

Guildford County School’s musical director, Caroline Gale, spent six months visiting Guildford junior schools and showing teachers how to inspire their classes through singing, musical games and by creating song banks of the children’s favourite tunes.

Last week the primary schools, Wyke, Ash Grange, Queen Eleanor’s Holy Trinity, Worplesdon and Tillingbourne, showcased what they had learned with students from the specialist music college at the concert, which was supported by Surrey Arts.

Mr Goodall, who presents shows on Radio 2 and Classic FM, said “Almost everything I say in my speeches, meetings and conferences around the country in my role as National Singing Ambassador is summed up by what happened in Queen Elizabeth Hall – the enormous difference singing can make to the lives and the development of young people, the way it can boost memory, accelerate learning across the curriculum, foster better behaviour and concentration and self esteem, bring people from different backgrounds together and give great enjoyment to everyone – these things are what Voices for Learning is all about.”

The concert, which involved 500 performers, included items by GCS’s award-winning Boys’ Choir, Schola Cantorum, the Gospel Choir, and the GCS Big Band. A capacity audience of 900 watched short films of Mrs Gale’s work with the year five pupils before each school performed something they had learned. The show closed with a performance by the massed choirs and primary schools of Believe, featuring soloist Christian Drew, and Thank You for the Music, featuring Catrin Wayland.

Mr Goodall said: “Visiting Guildford County School last spring to see all the outstanding music going on there, left a deep impression on me and has helped my give inspiration and ideas to others along the way.”

Philip Trumble, the senior manager for Surrey Arts, said: “The Voices for Learning concert was a great example of collaborative working to share good practice and the joy of music through singing. Surrey Arts want to use this as an example to other schools in order to help achieve our shared vision that that every child in every school in Surrey should have the opportunity to sing together and that this should be embedded in their everyday learning experience.”

Head teacher, Peter Costello, added: “Schools do not normally hire out a venue such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank, fill it to capacity, and make it seem like another part of what we do as a Music College. I felt enormously privileged to be in the audience while our students and staff together produced a show of such outstanding professionalism and emotional power.”

Press Release that appeared in the Surrey Advertiser on Friday 28 November 2008:

Guildford County seeks to become beacon of maths teaching

A Guildford school has achieved such success as a specialist music college that it is being considered for status as a “high performing” specialist school, which will enable it to share its expertise with even more schools in Surrey.

Guildford County School has been invited by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust to apply for a second specialism in mathematics and computing.

While continuing to be a music college, this would allow Guildford County to develop its mathematics department, both for the benefit of its own students and to spread good practice to other schools in the area. Worth £250,000 over three to four years, the programme would help the school to recruit and retain good teachers in a “shortage subject”, and to work with neighbouring schools to develop a strong mathematics curriculum.

The school already achieves impressive results in mathematics at GCSE, with 76% of students gaining grade C or above, and at A Level, where 22 students out of 25 gained A and B grades.

Mark Cheesman, director of the school’s mathematics department said:

“This is an exciting opportunity for our school to take a lead in developing the teaching of mathematics. The mathematics department has already re-written schemes of work for the new national curriculum. We are keen to develop our expertise further and to share it as a resource for other schools.

“We have a strong team teaching mathematics at County, but it has not been easy to recruit and retain good mathematics teachers in recent years. This opportunity will help us to persuade new and existing teachers that teaching young people mathematics is a great occupation. I myself have a background in industry, but I’ve never had a more rewarding job than this one in which I get the chance to help kids get to grips with such an important subject.

Peter Costello, head teacher said:

“Guildford County will continue to have music as its main specialism, but adding this second specialism will really help us move forward as a school. Mathematics is already one of our strongest departments, and there are also interesting relationships between maths and music which we will be able to explore.”