St Francis School Choir Journey so far

It seems to have been an interesting journey for the school choir this year so far.

To begin students were keen to be a part of this group at their new school and eager to sing pop songs. When the students first joined they were told about what the year would involve and asked to decide over a 4 week period if or if not they could commit to this choir. Once committing they were expected to stay and not let the team/ choir down. Not wanting to leave we seemed to have a keen choir who turned up, had fun singing and showed no signs of wavering.

We were fortunate enough as a senior choir to have an opportunity to sing as part of a flash mob and following this experience even more students want to join choir. Next we began practicing songs for the music festival and it soon appeared to become a tad of a chore for students to turn up each week! Excuses seemed to appear, some students were reluctant to give up their Wednesday lunch times and others found that giving up this time conflicted with their social time....some commented that they simply didn't have enough time to catch up with friends ( I guess the positive here is that many new friendships have developed and become an important part of school).

The down side of all this is that we are left with a choir dropping in numbers as some students even asked to quit! We had said earlier that this shouldn't have been an option, however, collectively decided that it wasn't worth putting pressure on students who really didn't want to be there. The children who that quit have hopefully learned a lesson in commitment and what it requires for future reference...and did actually seem to show grief/ remorse in the journey to establishing their final decision.

The positive is that we have a strong choir, although smaller in numbers than what we first had. Those who are left with us want to be there and reek the attributes of how happy singing can make someone feel. We can now focus on moving forward with a refined group. It is now our priority to ensure those students in the choir are happy with how their Wednesday sessions are carried out and to make any necessary changes if they aren't.