I want to share with you a very precious and inspiring musical story about what should happen at every school.
The school is an inner city Catholic School in Christchurch. For many years Catholic Cathedral College has been suffering from a declining roll due to the changing demographic of a spreading City that is seeing the centre of the town taken over by commercial business. Cathedral College, situated right beside the very grand and beautiful Catholic Cathedral, is already an amalgamation of Sacred Heart Girls College and Xavier Boys College but until recently the future of the school was very much in doubt.
Enter Bruce Henley, the new school principal, who came with a physics background. Bruce’s task was to perform the impossible, in other words save the school. He looked around and discovered in Auckland another inner city Catholic School which had been in exactly the same position but by making compulsory the learning of a musical instrument this school is now enjoying a total revival.
Bruce visited this school and was simply amazed at what was being achieved so, despite the lack of his own musical background he decided he would take Cathedral College down a similar path. His staff was not convinced but Bruce knew that it was do or die, so money was found for instruments as the bulk of his students were not able to buy their own. At the start of the next year all of the new students were issued with an instrument. The majority of Cathedral College’s students come from Pacific Island and Maori backgrounds and these students took to music with enthusiasm. A school orchestra was formed and for Bruce their first performance at the school assembly was a very proud moment. By the end of the first year, for the first time for many years, there was an increase in the school roll and each year this is now the trend.
At the start of 2008 Bruce Henley decided to bite the bullet and he too started to learn the clarinet. As soon as he could play a couple of notes he went and joined the junior school band. He was the worst one in the band and the children were very amused that their principal was allowing himself to be put in this embarrassing position. The conductor of the band was delighted to have the school principal there at every rehearsal as the behaviour of the band members improved enormously. Bruce learnt alongside his young students and for the first time he came to appreciate the complexities of learning music. He encouraged all of the students and they encouraged him. He even made himself take the internal practical exams where he had to play in front of all the other students. Often his performances turned to custard and his nerves were very evident but of course the students at Cathedral College think it is “so cool” to have a principal who isn’t afraid of stepping out of his traditional role and at times making himself look a bit foolish.
I do have to say that Bruce who until this year has never played a musical instrument or read a note of music has made remarkable progress with his clarinet playing and is an absolute joy to teach. Not only does he want to get as good as he can at playing the clarinet he also modestly knows what an incredibly positive impact and influence he is having on his school.
At the end-of-year Prize Giving Bruce played in the school orchestra – he said he “didn’t contribute much to the performance”, however everyone in the school hall knew differently!
Music at Cathedral College is flourishing, the school roll has gone berserk and Bruce is passionate about his new hobby.
Long live music.