Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

[SteveHopwood]

A quick update about the new admin bod who tried to take Megan off my timetable because her parents had not been paying for her piano lessons, even though the evidence that they had was clearly available.

My guess is this was not the only balls-up she managed. She was sacked.

Wish us luck for her replacement in January. It would be good if the school could appoint administrators capable of administrating stuff.

[SteveHopwood]

School 2 and the final few days of term before breaking up for Christmas. We had the Christmas concert.

Granted, there were a few carols at the end but this was not a carol concert - it was a concert in the truest sense of the word.

I accompanied the choir in a couple of songs that brought the house down. Not that this is a huge achievement as the parents at this school do not muck around when encouraging their kids to perform live. We are talking whoops and cheers that could be heard 10 miles away.

I also accompanied two solo singers. You first met Ellen last summer: viewtopic.php?p=174806#p174806

This time she was singing When I Look at You - the sort of sentimental pap that goes right to my heart when sung by a child.

She came to me at the end of the previous choir practise to ask me to accompany her in the concert. I replied, "Darling, there is no power on this earth that would make me refuse you." It turned out that the song she wanted me to accompany was one that she gained 90 out of 100 marks for her grade 8 musical theatre exam - a huge achievement.

Ellen and Scarlett are great friends. They are both in their final year at a school that does not boast a 6th form. They are outrageously talented. Scarlett composes her own songs and accompanies them on the guitar that she plays. She is the glorious young lady I watched jigging up and down to, "Drunken Sailor" last July.

Miss 2 asked of me accompanied by a smiling Scarlett, "And would you accompany Scarlett as well." Then she added darkly whilst glaring at a supremely confident of all our love Scarlett, "She says you are less likely to muck up the accompaniment than me." I knew I could have teased about the, "Less likely" bit but decided not to - I knew what she meant and she was showing considerable faith in me, after all.

I had a rehearsal with the two girls, with Ellen first. I was at incandescent white at the end of Ellen's first run through. The girls were concerned so I explained about me being an emotional basket case and the Blubometer. They enjoyed that.

Come the concert and the girls were singing one after the other, with Ellen first. I just about managed to avoid incandescent white following Ellen and had enough time to dab my eyes and make sure I could see the score for Scarlett.

Scarlett sang, "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Mis. Having accompanied hundreds of cuties singing this over the years, I am immune, so the Blubometer was at green throughout.

Suddenly, the stuff Scarlett was singing bore no resemblance to what I was seeing on the score. It took me a few seconds to work out that she had skipped an entire page. It took me a few seconds more to turn to the required page but we finished together. The audience did their usual wild-with-applause but it seemed to me that Scarlett fled from the stage faster than she should, so I was worried that she might be upset.

I need not have worried. The reason she rushed off stage was so she could get help from our guitar teacher in tuning up her guitar for a performance of one of her own songs. She giggled and said, "I went a bit wrong at the end, didn't I?"

I kneeled down in front of her, took her hand gently and said, "Yep. You missed out a whole page. Not to worry. It happens."

Scarlett giggled again, said, "Oops, sorry," giggled again and went back to tuning her guitar.

That is the correct way for a child to approach live performance.

[SteveHopwood]

Unimpressed though I am by the whole Christmas thingy, I am still capable of being touched/tickled by the thoughts that some of the kids put into the cards they give me.

This one from Ellen touched me:
"To Mr Hopwood

Thank you for playing for me. You are so talented.

Merry Christmas

Love Ellen xx"

Remember how I give Masie a tissue at the start of each senior choir rehearsal, so she can mop up the tears of mirth that will inevitably accompany at least one of her more outrageously comical episodes? I have been giggling about this since I read it:

"To Mr Hopwood

Merry Christmas.

Thank you so much for all the tissues you have given me

Love from Masie. x"

Sweet, or what?

[SteveHopwood]

A follow up to Masie and the tissues.

I had missed the final two choir practices at school 1 in order to accompany events at school 2 and so had not seen Masie for a month.

I met her yesterday for the first time after the Christmas break and told her how much her card had made me giggle.

Masie gave her usual glorious laugh and replied, "I wanted to include a tissue with the card but was in a rush and could not find one. Please stop missing choir. I need your tissues."

I will give her double next time.

[SteveHopwood]

I gave Masie a double dose of tissues yesterday.

That apart, this is not a happy post.

Even if I wanted to, and I do not, I could not forget the war in Ukraine. You have already met Evalina, a total bonkers nut job that we in school all adore. Another refugee Sacha is a piano pupil of mine. 14 years old. Quiet. Shy. Sweet.

I am reminded of the war every time I meet these two kids. I have to fight back the tears every time I think of what might have been done to them had they not escaped, every time I meet them.

We are all familiar at the time of me writing this, that the Russian forces are trying to destroy Ukrainian's energy infrastructure and bring the country to submission by causing untold misery to the civilian population.

This doctrine will fail, of course, as it always has done. In modern'ish times, it failed both in Britain (London blitz) and Russia (siege of Stalingrad) during the second world war. History teaches us that the only way to conquer an entire country is to occupy the entire country and the Nazis discovered how difficult it is to hold onto power once the occupation is complete. Conquering/destroying piecemeal bits merely strengthens the resolve of those under attack.

Putin will fail and I hope it costs him his life. In the meantime he is inflicting unbelievable misery on innocent people - many of whom are children. I got a mercifully brief dose of what they must be enduring.

We are enduring a 'cold snap' here in the UK, courtesy of a blast of air from the Arctic. 'Cold' means: sub zero temperatures at night; 3 to 8% during the day. Chilly but far from unbearable so long as the premises we occupy are heated and we are not stood for an hour on a bus stop.

The heating broke down at school 2 this week. The music room is an annexe and so has no upper floor; it is exposed to the elements. It was way too cold for piano lessons; kids cannot learn when shivering from cold and their fingers are seizing up.

My first victim did not turn up. I did my usual and gave her five minutes before putting out a call for her but there was no showing. She had probably done the sensible thing and gone home. On reflection, I was glad.

20 minutes in and I was frozen. My fingers were stopping working. Calling children into that environment for piano lessons would have been cruel. I cancelled all lessons and came home. I am astonished that the school stayed open.

My home is wonderfully insulated. I leave the heating on permanently at this time of year; the boiler rarely fires and there is minimal cost to me. I am lucky.

I sat on the sofa and reflected on what it must be like to endure the temperatures I put up with for 20 minutes, for hours, days and possibly weeks. Even worse in Ukraine, where they have truly cold winters not like the apologies we have here in the UK. Try an experiment folks. Turn the heating off and see how long you last.

Not sure why I have poured my heart out like this - probably because I gave Sacha a piano lesson today.

[SteveHopwood]

I fell victim to a horrible bug last week and so had to call of both schools.

This led me to reflect on how few senior choir rehearsals I had accompanied at school 1. There were two because: I was busy with school 2 for the last two weeks before Christmas; Miss 1 had to cancel a practise; we had a teachers' strike that effectively closed the school and so the practise was cancelled that week; my bug.

I was worried that the kids might think I was losing interest in them. I worship these impossibly sweet children and asked Miss to reassure them that I had not lost interest in them. This reply came back:

I passed your message to senior choir yesterday and they were all very emotional, they wanted me to pass on how much they love you and Maisie says she needs a tissue.

They are very much looking forward to having you back after HT

Awwwwwe. Maisie gets a whole pack of tissues next week.

--------------------------------

I have written many times that Jas is one of the cutest kids we have had in our school 1 performing arts department for a long time. It turns out that she has a magnificent 'death glare'.

Gwenny stays behind after school on Monday for an extra piano lesson. Jas stays behind to practise the piano. The two girls are cousins and very close. Jas invariably appears in 146 before Gwenny and I have finished. She occupies herself by playing with the electronic board behind where we sit - drawing imaginative masterpieces etc. She is no trouble at all.

Jas is growing. Growth spurts in early teens leave them tired as their bodies are channelling all of their energies into growing. Jas appeared into 146 two weeks ago, sat down in a chair, slumped forward and put her head onto her arms.

I muttered to Gwenny in a 'stage whisper' that could have been heard in the next room, "The poor love must be exhausted. She is not being a nuisance." Always ready for a laugh, Gwenny settled in to await the entertainment.

Jas looked up and muttered with impressive ferocity for such a cute little dab, "I am never a nuisance."

True, but this was me so how could I resist the tease? "Yes you are darling. All the time."

Jas responded with one of the most impressive death glares I have ever seen coming from such a cute child.

Jas knows how much I love her but I made sure to reinforce this before we all went home.

[SteveHopwood]

First day back after half term today at school 1. It was the first time I had seen my wonderful Motley Crew of Y10 Musicians in a month. They were on work experience, then my bug then half term. OK, so that is only three weeks but a month since the last time I actually taught any of them.

They were in occupation of 146 when I pitched up to ecstatic cries along the lines of, "Hi Sir", "Ehup Sir", and "Hi Mr Hopwood."

Our performing arts department are a sort of a family. Not mums and dads, grandparents, aunts and uncles etc but we do care for each other, deeply. I taught several of them this afternoon and they all said how worried they had been about me when I missed a week of teaching because they know how rare it is for me to go off sick. Thinking about it, I do not think that any of them have experienced this before.

Sweet and loving, or what?

----------------------------------

Several of them had spent the half term break on a skiing holiday in Austria. They all had a wonderful time. Even better, they all arrived back with their limbs intact.

---------------------------------

Meet Cade, a ferociously bright Y7 child who started piano lessons with me just a few weeks ago - say 8 or so. I have two beginners' books: one for Y7/8 (11 - 13 years of age) that I describe in my head as, "The Babies' Book' and one for Y9 (14+) and above. They both cover the same ground but with the one for older kids moving much more quickly.

I started Cade on the babies' book and it became obvious within two lessons that this was not appropriate for her, so I moved her on to the more advanced one; she is thriving.

This is just to give some background to what happened next. Cade is quite tall for her age. I passed her and a diminutive little dab sitting in the foyer as I made my way out of the buildings whilst they waited for a lift home. "Ehup Cade," I intoned in my usual breezy style. "Ehup Sir," came the response.

Then DLD chimed in with, "Will you be my new bestie?" For those of you unfamiliar with the term here in England, 'bestie' means 'best friend'.

I kneeled down in front of the girls and replied, "Of course I will darling. I will be anyone's bestie." Then I asked, "But what about Cade?"

The girls enthusiastically explained that people can have any number of 'besties'. Not sure how that works, but these are kids we are dealing with, so who cares? We chatted for a while, then I made my escape.

We peri teachers are happy to give freebie 'taster' lessons to kids considering taking lessons with us. It turned out that DLD's name is Chloe and that she wanted one with me. I promised with admin and Miss that we would arrange one asap.

Then we had the Junior Musicians' concert. It just so happened that I saw Chloe coming into the audience and grabbed her by the hands whilst promising her a taster the following week. We gazed into each others' eyes and it was love. Miss and our head of performing arts also saw this, so the 'taster' was arranged for the following week, without question.

Taster went swimmingly and Chloe appeared on my timetable today and came for her lesson.

Chloe is petite. Just because a child aged 11 is petite does not mean they will not grow - and they always do. Nor does it mean that they are idiots. Look into a child's eyes and you will know how clever said child is.

Chloe's eyes shine like the moon. I described the two books I use with beginners. I described how I started with one with Cade and quickly moved on to the faster moving one when she showed how clever she is. I gave Chloe the choice of which one to start with.

She did not hesitate in picking the more advanced book. Understandably hedging her bets she intoned doubtfully, "But what it is too hard?"

I reassured her that moving back to plan A would not be a failure. Chloe trotted off happily at the end of the lesson.

-------------------

Wonderful start to the run up to the Easter break.

Now we are in full school musical mode, with performances coming up at the end of March. Shrek jnr this time.

[SteveHopwood]

The Motley Crew pitched up at its usual time of 12.30 for five minutes of entertainment before starting classes for the afternoon. I never mind if I am teaching as they are great kids who keep the din they make down to a dull roar.

Besides, my first of the afternoon was Lilli at 12.30, a leading member of the group. We settled in for the lesson.

5 minutes passed and the rest of the group started to leave. We called our goodbyes and expected nothing further to happen. Lilli and I became aware that there was still movement in the room, so we looked up.

We were treated to the extraordinary site of Julia running her hands over Erica's trousered rear end. Obviously there was nothing inappropriate going on but the sight still left us boggling. Julia looked up, coloured slightly, then giggled and announced, "This is not how it looks."

It transpired that Julia had spotted that Erica had sat on something that had smeared her rump - chocolate, the girls thought. Julia was trying to clean up the smear. I am not sure what would be the most humiliating thingy for a teen to endure for an entire afternoon in school, but walking around looking like she had endured an 'accident' must rank very, very highly.

I always carry tissues and anti-bacterial wipes with me, so I was able to give Julia wipes to finish off the job. She pronounced herself happy with her efforts a couple of minutes later and the girls trotted off happily.

---------------------------

The day at school 1 ends at 3.10, Evalina is picked up by her sponsor, a teacher at the school, at 4.00 to take her and her mum home. No doubt that E finds thingies to do to fill the gap but it occurred to me finally to offer her piano lessons to help.

We had finished senior choir this afternoon so I took Evalina off to one side and offered her free piano lessons after school and after Gwenny's session on Monday. She can use the school's instruments for a bit of prep in between lessons.

This glorious child threw herself into my arms with a cry of, "Yes please. I would love to have piano lessons."

Truth to tell, I feel guilty about not doing this earlier. The past is behind us and there is nothing I can do about it. At least I have done it now.

[SteveHopwood]

Come senior choir and I went to Masie and said, "Darling, with me having missed so many rehearsals of late I am conscious that you have gone dramatically short of tissues," and handed her one of those small packs designed for being used whilst traveling - they come in packets of 8. She dissolved into helpless laughter.

Masie was in a particularly bonkers mood that day, so the pack took a beating.

--------------------------

Meet 11 year old James. Tall for his age; sweet; loving and from a very loving family; ferociously bright. Early days, but he could turn could turn out to be the most talented child I have ever taught. He is already playing material that 'average' kids can take four to five years to reach, after just 20 lessons.

He was out of school for his usual lesson on Friday on a trip, so mum asked if I could give him a lesson at home. I love doing this as it means there are no time constraints. James also plays the Tenor Horn and is preparing for a grade 4 exam which I shall accompany, so these occasions give us an extra rehearsal together.

I had taught him a piece last week that was a notch up in difficulty from the previous week, so we began the lesson with him playing it to me. Brilliantly. Faultlessly. Effortlessly. From memory.

I said, "Wonderful. Fantastic. Amazing. We can move on. Do you have the book handy?" Came the reply, "It is in my school bag. I never took it out," and lolloped off to get it. Mum and I boggled at each other.

James returned and I asked, "So you had it memorised last week as I was teaching it to you?" "Yes," came the complacent reply as though it is something that everyone should be able to do.

I had already planned teaching him a piece a notch further on in complexity than the piece he had just played - c. grade 4 standard for those of you who understand the UK graded music exam system.

This paragraph is for those of you who understand it. You will not understand if you are not familiar with the common structure of a Classical period minuet and trio. This one is in the usual ternary form. Section A is itself is in two sections, each of them repeated. I taught James to play each section as I would play them i.e. not ornamented first time around then decorated with turns and trill on the repeat. James took to turns and trills as though he had been playing them all his brief life.

Section B in ternary form goes into a different key (i.e. more black notes) and has a contrasting style. This section B is itself in two parts. I had taught James the first part then whipped the music off the stand and said, "Out of curiosity, and just for fun, see if you can play from memory what we have just done." He did, with barely a hesitation. That was the third time he had played it with both hands together. Extraordinary.

I taught him the rest of the piece. Section B is a page long and takes c. 30 seconds to play. I last taught this piece to a 16 year old for her GCSE music performance. It took her weeks to master this. James played each hand separately a couple of times, then hands together a couple of times. Then I whipped the music off the stand and intoned cheerfully, "Go on. See if you can play the page from memory already."

James muttered, "That is just you being cruel," to which I replied with a hug, "You know how much I enjoy torturing beautiful children."

He managed it. He needed to stop and think a couple of times but what he was doing was matching what he could hear in his head with the keys in front of him.

Incredible.

------------------------

It is show time at school 1 - Shrek jnr - so all hands to the schools musical pump. Expect even less sanity than usual from me until Easter. We have the incomparable Georgi (aka Miss Trunchbolt) as Fiona senior and the frankly staggering Masie (aka Matilda) as Donkey. The impact that Miss 1 has made at the school continues to manifest itself in terms of kids learning to play instruments and coming to the point where they are able to take part in the band, so said band is now quite large. We started rehearsing before Christmas and now are being joined by singers so we are already streets ahead of where we were in previous years. The performances are at the end of the month and we have several full day rehearsals to come. It is going to be a blast.

[SteveHopwood]

Wonderful stuff from today.

Take eensy, teensy, weensy Chloe. Stands about my chest height - and I am only about 5' 6" so imagine how small she is with a build to match.

I have a strip of coloured note names that I place on the keyboard to help the kids find the notes on the keyboard that they have read on the score. Chloe wanted one so I emailed mum with a link. The strip turned up but Chloe was not sure she had it positioned correctly so I promised to email mum to ask for a pic so I could confirm/correct its positioning. Pic has since arrived and the thingy is correctly placed.

It was clear during Chloe's lesson that she had not looked at the material from last week; she was clueless. She explained the week had been a busy one with her mixed martial arts classes. Not sure what mixed martial arts are, but we can all hazard a guess.

But Chloe? Sweet, cute, I am in love with, eensy little Chloe and martial arts? I would accuse a weight measure of lying if it accused her of weighing as much as four stones. Sorry to those of you who do not understand these measurements. I am old and do not do metric.

I explained that a very few minutes a day would do the trick - even only 5 at this stage. I mentioned this in my email to mum who came back with, amongst other thingies,

Chloe has been doing Marshall arts since she was 4 and has put a lot of effort into this and now she is a black belt.

To which I included in my repley:

Black belt? Eensy weensy teensy Chloe? Wow. One of the first promises I make to a child when we meet is, "You will never hear a harsh word from me." Good thing really. She could probably break me else.

--------------------------------

I was teaching Cade when Megan and Joey appeared pleading, "Can we hide with you please?"

I have described out performing arts department in school 1 as a kind of family. You have not heard a lot about Megan because she is sweet, quiet child. She is still a leading member of the family along with Joey. The girls explained that their RE 'cover' teacher was a 'shouty' one.

RE tends to be an unpopular subject. Given the Christian ethos of the school, RE is a compulsory subject. It is illegal in the UK for kids under the ages of 17 to be unsupervised, so a 'cover' teacher has to be brought in when a member of staff is off sick. Said cover teachers run the full gamut of brilliant to hopeless. The one covering RE today was both hopeless and shouty.

Joey and Megan are sensitive girls. They cannot stand shouting and would never deliberately do anything to get shouted at. Even were they to do something daft, then anyone shouting at them would deserve shooting. They can only just bear it in a class where their fellow inmates are shouty ones - teen boys mostly. I let them stay.

Trouble was, the end of Cade's lesson coincided with the start of the loathed 'silent reading' at the end of the day i.e. 'let's regress to being primary school kids even though some of you are 16'.

She instantly turned on the charm and fantastic smile and asked, "Can I stay as well."

I could have agreed easily but then next week would be our bestie Chloe. Then a few more. And more until half the school were hiding in 16. I replied, "No".

"Please."

"No. Go away."

"Please."

Just occasionally, teachers need rescuing from pupils by pupils. I could see Megan and Joey thinking, "Listen up Missy. We have spent over three years softening this guy up so he is putty in our hands. You are not getting there any more easily than we did." They frog marched Cade out of the room. Covid intervened or it would not have taken so long for them to gain the drop over me.

-----------------

Evalina. Oh boy.

I explained earlier that I finally got around to offering her free piano lessons. We had one booked for last Monday after Gwenny's lesson after school. She did not turn up - something that surprised and worried both myself and Miss 1. Then she missed senior choir although still being in school - something she never did before.

Miss and I were quietly frantic. The week before was one year since the Russian invasion and warefare is not lesstening.The fear was that something dreadful had happened to a member of her family.

No idea about senior choir but the explanation for missing Ev's piano lesson was much more simple and innocent. I thought she would come to the music rooms to find me. Ev thought I would come to the library where she spends much of her time waiting to be picked up by her 'sponsor' (a member of our staff) to go home. A simple misunderstanding that is easily understood given the experiences in school of both parties.

What a lesson. What a joy. This kid has talent. She picks up how a piece goes within a couple of times of hearing it. She is learning to read music in English and is teaching me how to read it in Ukranian - a rough equivalent of our doh rey me fa soh etc. We had a ball.

I am a loving man. Ev is a loving child. I am a huggy man. Ev is a huggy child. We loved and hugged. The love in the room must have floated down the corridor and enveloped all and sundry in its path. I hope so.

I had a deeply emotional moment. I suspect there will be more. I suddenly thought about how the child that I was enjoying so much was here because of what has happened to her homeland. Then I thought of what might have happened to her had she not escaped. I managed not to break down, just, but it was a close run thingy.

That previous para was a tad on the dark side but the moment was brief. It passed quickly. We had a blast. A real blast.

Folks, then next time you have the opportunity to do something lovely for a child you are not required to do so, take it. You will not be sorry.

----------------------

Then came Kiera. I have not seen blind Kiera for months - at one stage I was even asking if she was still at the school.

My limited understanding is that people who lose or are born without one of their sensed, develop others to a high level. Kiera has already shown this in her hearing.

I met her in the corridor on the way home today. I yelled, "Kiera. I have not seen you for months. It iw wonderful to see you again."

I had a beatific smile back along with her, "Hello." Kiera recognised my voice instantly.

There was no stopping me having spent the previous 30 minutes hugging Evalina so I asked, "I want to give you a hug. Am I allowed?"

Another beatific smile and a, "Yes please," so we hugged. Her minder, who I hope is trained to kill by the SAS, smiled on enthusiastically. We chatted for a few minutes and then parted via another enthusiastic hug. Wonderful child.

I love my jobs.