Generous Donation Helps Young Musicians

Thanks to the generosity of the House Project, Longhill High School performing arts department were able to stage a bigger, better summer production last week with the popular stage version of School of Rock.

The House Project, which has charity sites in Saltdean and Peacehaven, raise money for local organisations and provide help and resources to people in the local community.  They were kind enough to offer a donation to the school, which was designated for use by the Music department to increase their stock of instruments.

Music teacher, Ms English, told us, “This fabulous donation enabled us to put on a bigger, better show like School of Rock, which we wouldn’t have been able to do before.  We had two bands, one on the stage and one on the floor.  It’s great for students to be able to play professional-standard instruments.”

She went on to explain, “It’s enhancing our instrumental stock; that means we can teach students how to play instruments, which is what is currently lacking.  Looking ahead to the future of our children and their children, music teachers need to play an instrument or sing in order to teach music.  Learning to play an instrument when you are a child is something that you can use and build on in later life if you want to.”

So what are the plans for the instruments provided by the House Project?  “Our aim is to promote instrumental learning in the school and to promote that for children who might not have previously had that opportunity.” said Ms English.  “It would also be beneficial if we could perhaps get a public address system for the Hall; this is something we are working towards.”

The irony of the situation is that almost all young people are interested in music of one kind or another; one only has to see the number of children everywhere wearing earphones.  The diversity of music available now is almost unlimited with so much choice available to download.  Also the live music industry, with concerts and festivals, is huge.  It would be extremely sad if our students missed out on the opportunity to become musicians themselves through something so fundamental as a lack of instruments.

Thanks to the generosity of the House Project, we have been able to purchase an acoustic and an electric drum kit,  lead guitars, bass guitars and a good quality amplifier, which were all used in our recent production of School of Rock.  Thank you so very much!

 

Return to previous page