Top of Term 3! Welcome back to school and I hope everyone had an enjoyable winter break. It’s finally happened, so now it feels real: our After School Choir, led by Emily Hayes, had it’s first rehearsal last week and we’ve already done our first performance! The choir was very excited to sing for Hannah, Sia and Anna-Maria at a special Farewell Afternoon Tea. In the Instrumental Music program, we are sad to say ‘goodbye’ to our lovely guitar teacher Rose, and we welcome Marcos to our school for the next few weeks to teach Rose’s students. We have also been preparing for the NAIDOC Week Assembly by adding our voices to the petitions in Yothu Yindi’s impactful song ’Djäpana: Sunset Dreaming’.
What better way for a new choir to focus their enthusiasm and harness their budding skills than to sing a song which celebrates our wonderful Hannah, Sia and Anna-Maria: three very special teachers who have given so much to our community. As we often do, we borrowed a tune from one of our all time favourite songs which happens to be a song Sia has loved hearing the children sing: ’The Annual Thing’. It was a delight to adapt the song with our own lyrics which thanked and honoured, with affection, Hannah, Sia and Anna-Maria. The choir sang beautifully, and had learnt and memorised the song on just two short rehearsals. Bravo to you singers, and from Emily and me, thank you for the special gift of your singing. We are definitely in for an enriching choir adventure… but before we veer off into our next song in Japanese, we need to think of a name for our choir.
It is with sadness that PHPS thanks and acknowledges the wonderful teaching of our IM guitar teacher Rose Gonzales. Rose joined our Instrumental Music program five years ago and with gentle patience and winning smile :), she has nurtured her guitar students’ learning with the Suzuki Method. Her senior students have enjoyed Rose’s teaching since they were in Yr 2, and it was wonderful to celebrate their achievements, and the progress of all her students at the IM Concert and Assembly last month. Rose has been a fabulous part of our IM team and we will miss her. We wish her all the best as she moves forward in her life of music as a classroom music teacher, guitar teacher, and specialist performer of Brazilian Guitar repertoire.
During the school holidays our nation celebrated NAIDOC Week. At this Week’s NAIDOC Week Assembly we are proud to share with our community our version of the powerful song ’Djäpana: Sunset Dreaming’ by Yothu Yindi. Although it is a song of worry and sorrow, it is also a song of hope inviting non indigenous people to try ‘sunset dreaming’ as a way of understanding the indigenous relationship to Country. By expressing their Yolngu culture through western music styles of Rock and Pop music, Yothu Yindi sought to bring two cultures together with a fresh and positive approach to Reconciliation. The year 1s have worked hard during this past week to learn ‘Djapana’ so that they can lead the whole school singing. Thank you Yr 1 for inspiring us to ’Get up, Stand up, Show up’ for NAIDOC Week.
And… there was one other exciting thing that happened this week: the Federation Handbells for our Percussion Workshops have been delivered. Stand by for lots of news about ‘Galaxies and Bells’ as we explore the frontiers of space and sound😁. Thank you everyone for an energetic and positive vibe as we begin Term 3. Cheerio Deb.