Great avert for the quality of Music at KEHS & Birmingham

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solimum
Posts: 1420
Joined: Wed May 09, 2007 3:09 pm
Location: Solihull, West Midlands

Re: Great avert for the quality of Music at KEHS & Birmingha

Post by solimum »

That's not entirely true - a school can support and celebrate its talented pupils (in music, sport, acting or whatever) by allowing them to take the necessary time off for competitions, or maybe even reduced timetables, or opportunities to play as soloists with the school orchestra - or they can make it difficult, by refusing time off for music exams/competitions or insisting on no concessions for homework despite Olympic swimming training.... Yes a school can also unfairly assume the credit for a child's talent, and can overuse its star pupils for publicity, but if the school is not understanding and supportive of what is in effect a "Special educational need" then the child's development - in their particular talent, and in wider life - will be damaged. Better a supportive school than obsessive helicopter home-schooling surely?

I had some experience of the Birmingham Music service when DS2 was at 6th form at Camp Hill, and yes there were some seriously talented pupils at many schools, playing together. I recall a joint KE schools concert where DS2 actually got to play the piano on stage at Symphony Hall ! His piano lessons had never been through the school (though he did take A level music) but the school gave him the opportunity to use that talent in ways we could not have provided left to our individual resources.
mike1880
Posts: 2563
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:51 pm

Re: Great avert for the quality of Music at KEHS & Birmingha

Post by mike1880 »

So far the school isn't attempting to take any credit at all - the web site has a message of congratulations and the BBC press release which itself only gives the school one sentence and nothing about musical education. (That's still an unacceptable level of bandwagoning according to daughter.)

The marketing temptation must be pretty hard to resist though with next years admissions round looming... :lol:
LolaD wrote:Mike1880 and crazycrofter - To be fair to Guest55, I don't think his 'mean spirited' post was aimed at the student.
No, it was entirely aimed at the student:
Guest55 wrote:Yes, she might be very talented but no more so than others who do not enter this sort of competition.
While this is simply not true, as anyone reading back through the thread can see:
Guest55 wrote:Mike1880 - I congratulated the student
RedPanda
Posts: 283
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2015 10:56 am

Re: Great avert for the quality of Music at KEHS & Birmingha

Post by RedPanda »

The twitter feed from our school seems to be a an almost constant stream of congratulatory posts for various pupils excelling in artistic/sporting national competitions. None of which, the school has entered them for or had any input into their development. I like to think they are celebrating the individual. :)
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