Budding Wandsworth musicians had the chance to play with a world-famous orchestra recently.

Youngsters aged eight to 18 spent a day with performers from the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, in an event at Burntwood School.

The session was for younger children who are helped by the council and those aged around 18 who are about to leave care.

Nine-year-old Rahim said: “I’ve had the best day ever, I really loved playing the trombone.”

Liah, aged 16, said it was a “really fun time working with professional musicians and learning how to play the cello”.

 

 

Following the event, many of the children expressed an interest in additional music lessons and learning how to play instruments and these will now be funded through their Pupil Premium Grant.

The event forms a part of the council’s £2m programme to help children and young people recover from impact of the pandemic.

The plan covers tutoring and mentoring; healthy minds; sports and arts; access to tech and employability.

Wandsworth’s spokesman on education and children’s services Cllr Will Sweet said: “Covid-19 has had an undeniable impact on the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. Lockdown has made it harder for children and young people to do the things they love outside the classroom.

“In partnership with our schools, Wandsworth has been working on an ambitious programme for local young people focused on making up for lost time, lost learning and meeting changing needs. The council has launched a five-point recovery plan to address this and one of the priority areas is arts and sports.

“This event has helped inspire these young people to explore new ways of making music and learning new artistic skills. It is definitely something we will be looking to build upon in the future and would like to thank the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for their help and support in making this such a successful initiative.”