Music

This term has seen a flurry of fabulous musical activities in the Junior School. Wonderful singing, composing, and recorder playing in weekly classroom lessons, the joyful sound of instrumental lessons ringing through the music department and an array of extracurricular clubs has ensured that our young musicians remain inspired and musically nourished.

Concert Time

Congratulations to Devina, Sophie, Jasamaar, Sachi, and Summer who were selected to perform in the Wolverhampton Music Service’s Recital Evening at the end of March representing WGS. Many parents, directors, staff and students joined us for our Spring Concert which focused on Chamber music this year and showcased our Upper Sixth Music Scholars. We also invited a professional quartet to accompany our concerto and aria performances.

In February, Years 3 and 4 were treated to a trip to The Symphony Hall where they were dazzled by the 80 strong City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. The programme of music, specifically designed for KS2 children, included pieces composed by Brahms, Silvestri, Shostakovich and Elgar.

The termly Teatime Concert played host to over 30 fabulous solo and ensemble performances. Rock classics, TV theme tunes, songs from musicals and classical music blended gloriously to provide a joyous and eclectic musical afternoon.

At the end of term children were visited by the immensely talented Toscana Strings Quintet. Through music, dance and storytelling, children were captivated and inspired by the beautiful presentation of the The Monkey Puzzle a book by Julia Donaldson.

Young Voices

A group of students from Years 5 to 8 recently took part in one of the largest children’s choir concerts in the world on Tuesday 10th January. They joined the Young Voices choir of over 6,000 children at the Resorts World Arena for a day and evening of song.

and his band and witnessed incredible performers such as vocalist Heather Small, the Beatbox Collective and violinist Anna Phoebe. Here at WGS we have thoroughly enjoyed practising plenty of songs and dance moves and as always it was in an incredible experience to take part in this vocal spectacle.

Music Workshops

Y9 and GCSE music students were treated to a DJ workshop with a professional disc jockey 2NV. Following a careers talk, students then had lots of fun trying out his decks and mixing their own tunes. Mrs Cuthbert has purchased some decks for school and looks forward to running a DJ club in the near future!

Catherine’s Winning Vocal

During the show the children sang with professional conductor David Lawrence

We also welcomed Jonathan Badyal (OW 2007) from Universal Music to talk to students about his incredibly inspiring career journey. Jonathan’s musical career began in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport where he campaigned to protect the Grime industry. He currently works as Director of Communications at Universal Music UK.

Congratulations to Lower Sixth student, Catherine, who won the Vocal category of the Wolverhampton City Rotary Young Musicians’ Competition. The event took place on Sunday 5th February at the Wolverhampton Music School. 13 of Wolverhampton’s most talented young musicians were selected to perform on a variety of instruments from Drum Kit to French Horn. Catherine was joined by fellow WGS students: flautist Charlotte (Year 10), and violinists Jasamar (Year 10) and Sophie (Year 11) who also delivered splendid performances. Catherine went on to compete in the District Finals in March where she performed extremely well against a highly talented field.

We are so proud of our young musicians; to be selected to perform at this standard is an exceptional achievement. This is the first time we have entered this competition. The quality of music-making was exceptionally high.

Mrs Cuthbert, Director of Music

Senior Houses

Due to the bad weather at the end of last term, both the House Netball and Football were completed this term. The outcome of the netball went down to the final competition with Moreton finishing in top position. This year’s House Football winner was Nechells

The bleep test was once again a huge success with over 20 sixth formers and staff joining in to compete for their House and determine the overall average score. A special mention must go to Ryan Mehan in the Lower Sixth for the highest individual score of 13.8. This year’s results were both higher and closer than last year which means as a school we are getting fitter!

And this year winners, retaining their title with an average bleep test score of 7.5 was Moreton

Mixed hockey continues to be very popular and there was an excellent turnout for all year groups. Year 8 brought the competition to its conclusion on the penultimate day of term. Congratulations go to the winning House - Jenyns

Minecraft Competition

House competitions come in many guises and the Minecraft competition hosted by Mr Jones had a royal theme and was hotly contested by around 40 students. Congratulations to Nechells who were the overall winners and well done to our individual winners:

Cupcake Competition

House points were amassed as hundreds of students joined in a cupcake decorating competition in Big School to raise funds for Pancreatic Cancer UK. Charity Ambassador and OW Sabrina Gidda was overwhelmed by the support from WGS:

“I would like to say a huge thank you to the WGS charity team for helping plan this event and for volunteering their time to help deliver such a brilliant day. It is tremendously special to see students of all ages realise the difference they can make when they come together - and in this instance I am so honoured they chose to support Pancreatic Cancer UK. Thank you to everyone for helping raise such vital funds - and for creating such a memorable day.”

WGS has got talent! Junior House Music

Friday 17th February saw the return of the highly anticipated WGS House Talent Show. Each House put forward two acts to battle it out on the Big School stage. Hosts, Head Prefects, Vishwas and Ella, did a fantastic job hyping the audience and introducing each act. From a voice and piano duet to a tap-dancing ninja turtle - it was an action-packed show enjoyed by all. Well done to all our wonderfully talented performers.

Whilst our wonderful Old Wulfrunian judges, Dave Cant (OW 1963) and Andy Husselbee (OW 1979) deliberated over the winner, we were lucky to witness an exceptional rendition of “Boyish” by Japanese Breakfast, by last year’s winner, Tar (Lower Sixth).

Congratulations to Elianna Botchway (Year 9) who won this year’s competition for Offley with her elegant ballet dance.

We are proud to share that alongside a samosa sale on the same day, the show raised an incredible £822.22 for the Disasters Emergency Committee’s TurkeySyria Earthquake Appeal.

Junior Swimming

The theme of this year’s Junior House Music Competition was Eurovision! Congratulations to all our WGJS musicians for their individual and group performances. The winning House was Campbell, who won with an impressive performance of Puppet on a String by Sandie Shaw.

It was fantastic to see the return of the WGJS House Swimming Competition this term. Organised into width and length races, it was wonderful to witness all of the participants enjoying the competitive, yet friendly, inter-house competition. Congratulations to Barnes who won, earning their House 20 points. Well done to all involved and thank you to Miss Bassett for organising this major event (for the first time since 2019!). The House Swimming Competition will now return as an annual favourite.