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A dream music carousel will be introduced into the scholarly life of children attending the British School of Bahrain (BSB) at the start of the next school year.
Begining September more than 500 pupils aged seven to 11 will experience a different module of musicianship every six weeks.
Lisa Atkins, the juniors’ head teacher, said: “The music carousel is an innovative initiative which will reveal the true musical and drama potential of every junior child in a way a traditional music lesson cannot.
“We believe every child has unique talents and our mission to ‘enthuse, inspire and celebrate’ is in-line with world-class educational practice to prepare our children for the needs of the 21st Century.”
On the agenda is tuition in:
*Singing and World Music
*Drama and Improvisation
*Brass
*Woodwind
* Cello
*Violin
The programme is the brainchild of Lydia Martin, director of the after-school Music and Performing Arts Academy.
The main objective is to ramp up the musicality within the school with the ultimate goal being to have a full BSB orchestra.
The school hopes to spot potential in each and every child. They will have the opportunity to experience two of the instruments and in turn the academy will communicate to parents if their child has a natural aptitude towards one of them.
Ms Atkins added: “This method of teaching music provides the expertise, instruments and creative diversity usually not possible in a junior school.
“To facilitate this programme we have doubled music provision in Year 3 and Year 4 to two lessons a week.
“I am very excited to be spearheading this world class initiative and uncovering the hidden talents the children will undoubtedly have. This provision will be within the usual class timetable allocation and no cost will be incurred by parents unless additional extra-curricular lessons are organised.”
The Friends of BSB have donated BD4,000 towards the cost of instruments.
Six musicians on the BSB Academies staff – Benjamin Perry, Sachi Kitabatake, Szabolcs Nigo, Julianna Nigo, Mary Vaillancourt and Joshua Coombridge – will harness their talent in order to ‘cascade their infectious passion for music’ to every junior student.
Ms Martin said: “There is creativity within all of us. We all have rhythm within us, as our hearts beat with joy so we can beat out the rhythm on a drum. We can sing out our joy. Music can actually make you smarter. It is a well known fact that learning an instrument can increase your capacity for learning as a whole.”
