St Columba’s School in Kilmacolm opened its doors to the local community when it hosted an inter-generational concert, involving children from Early Years, pupils in Senior School and residents from Campbell Snowdon House in Quarriers Village.
The school children and residents were involved in three separate workshops in the lead up to the air, fire and water-themed concert, run by singing teacher Mrs Daniela Hathaway.
The workshops were engaging as pupils performed musical pieces whilst the Early Years children and care-home residents were taught games and lyrics to accompany the senior pupils as well as interact with each other.
The concert was funded by Create 18, a Year of Young People 2018 initiative, to help young people in Scotland get involved in their community through an activity, in this case music, to showcase their talents as well as being mentored for further development. This project was seeking to explore how music is the link to help communication and interaction between people of very varied ages.
On the afternoon of the concert, there was a wonderful turnout from Campbell Snowdon families and members of the School community, including former pupils and former staff. The audience was thrilled to hear a variety of musical items, from singers to cello duets and wood wind instruments.
Some favourites included Ava Maria played on the Bass Clarinet, Loch Lomond, I Love a Lassie, Westering Home and excerpts from Mary Poppins. It was a joyous conclusion to three great weeks of exploration with lots of audience participation!
Mrs Andrea Angus, Rector, said, “The concert was a powerful demonstration of the part that young people play in the community.
“Senior pupils directed and led the musical extravaganza while 3 year olds sang side-by-side with the older citizens.
“It was clear to all who attended the concert, that music has the power to transcend age barriers and communicates like no other language. I am truly proud of the part that the School played in such an important community project and we look forward to many more such opportunities to bring the generations closer together.”
Over the past year the children of Early Years have enjoyed many visits to Campbell Snowdon House and the residents have also visited the School.
At Easter the children enjoyed an Easter egg hunt at Campbell Snowdon House, there have been several musical afternoons, the releasing of butterflies and joint art and craft sessions, to name just a few! St Columba’s very much looks forward to welcoming the residents to the School in the not so distant future.
St Columba’s also looks forward to arranging a school talk about dementia from the Manager of Campbell Snowdon. This complements the sentiments of our Inter-generational concert and a talk delivered by our Public Speaking team on the Power of Music and the role it can play in dementia therapy, a talk that actually resulted in the team being crowned the UK’s National Champions of the Rotary’s Youth Speaks competition.
The event took place on Sunday 16th September 2018.