Forest Arts Music Hub

On March 20th 2025, seven children gathered at The New Art Gallery in Walsall for a musical celebration. These pupils are all Children in Care pupils who participate in a 30 minute, 1:1 weekly music lesson. The aim of this event was to bring these children together to make music, share their musical successes and enable them to enjoy being part of a musical ensemble.

The ensemble, which consisted of guitars, keyboards and a ukelele enjoyed the afternoon workshops learning two uplifting pieces of music: ‘Touch The Sky’ and ‘Classroom Blues’. The pupils worked brilliantly as a team and demonstrated resilience and determination to learn the pieces and did it all with big smiles on their faces. The atmosphere in the room was relaxed, fun and engaging and was inspirational to be a part of.

The afternoon culminated in a sharing session where carers, school staff, social workers, Virtual School staff and Walsall Music Education Service (WMES) staff came to watch the pupils perform their music. The pupils were extremely excited to show off their musical skills to the audience. Some pupils pushed themselves out of their comfort zone to do some improvisation as part of one of the pieces, while others chose to perform solo pieces. We had a fantastic performance of ‘Fresh’ on keyboard, played with great confidence and one student was incredibly brave and sang a wonderful rendition of ‘Stay’ by Rhianna. The guitar group then entertained the audience with their performance of ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’.

Staff from the Virtual School and WMES were with the children throughout the event and provided the pupils with a friendly face, encouragement, support and helped the children feel at ease to express themselves musically.

What struck everyone most about the event was the ‘can do’ attitude demonstrated by the children, and how well the group knitted together musically and socially. The pride the children felt from making music together was wonderful to see and an event such as this really drives home how music can be transformative for these pupils.

The event was a huge success and the children themselves had this to say about their afternoon:

‘I liked the rhythm in Touch the Sky’

‘I loved everything about it’

‘I enjoyed meeting new people and playing’

‘It was great to using our talents to make music’

‘I was proud of learning new songs’

‘I did a good job on the piano’

‘I liked getting to play a different instrument’

‘The biscuits were awesome!’

The success of the event was not only down to the fabulous work from the children, but also from the tri-partnership between Walsall Music Education Service, The New Art Gallery and Walsall Virtual School. Each organisation worked extremely hard to make this an afternoon that the children will remember, and we are all very excited for the next one!