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Music is a BIG DEAL at Churchill: You can literally find music everywhere throughout the school. In official music class, integrated into other classroom subjects, in multiple music-related clubs, and woven into other school activities as well.
Why is music a big part of Churchill? It's simple. There are many staff members who love playing music and are passionate about music education. It's common to see staff members with instruments during a school sharing and oftentimes staff come out at recess or the end of the day playing an instrument. It's pretty amazing how our Churchill adults model playing music as a part of everyday life.
What's the goal of the music program at Churchill? Here's what Owen Glossup (Churchill's music teacher for K-6) says: "It's about making kids enthusiastic about playing music with one another and for them to realize how accessible music is for them and with just a little bit of effort they can get to that next step."
The 'official' music classes at Churchill:
Each Churchill class visits Owen weekly for a 40 minute music period.
As part of the music program, Owen maintains CHUKULELES - an incredible website full of songs with lyrics, videos, and uke chords. Students can access the website at anytime. Song genres vary widely from the current hits to songs that parents remember from their youth to Canadian classics.
Fun side story - Owen attended Churchill Alternative as a student and has been back as a teacher for many years given his passion for and commitment to the alternative program.
Music is woven into other class activities!
Here's what Shellie had to say about incorporating music into French.
I love using music in French to teach vocabulary or simply engage the students. This year, all of the students in the school learned a couple of French songs which we were able to sing together at our school sharings. It was so wonderful to hear them all singing the same song and it was definitely a goosebump moment. One of the songs we learned was featured as part of Manie Musicale. This program exposes students to different artists and they learn about French culture and language while having a great time! This past spring, Yuri introduced in more depth, the songs featured in this program. The kids loved it! We are looking forward to getting the students more involved with this program next year. The fact that so many students at Churchill already love music makes it really fun to explore music in French as well.
In other instances, classes end up writing songs such as Andrew's grade 1 fox song or Ray's class rap about x-country skiing. Many years our Kinders also have their own choir.
Music clubs at Churchill:
There are a LOT of music clubs at Churchill. Many of the clubs start the first week of school and run all year as kids are just so keen to play. The clubs are open to all students and unless it's close to a public performance, kids can attend whenever they want which allows music participation to be very organic and inclusive.
The diversity and frequency of music clubs means that Churchill students can be playing music up to 3 hours a week at school ... far beyond what they get through the official Ontario Curriculum. And the impact can be seen in the kids.
Here's a quote from Owen: It's pretty remarkable to see how much the involvement in the primary clubs sets the kids up so by the time they are in junior they are just flying. I was working with Alena's class on Monday and those grade 2/3s already sound like they are in grade 5. It's wild. They're together, you can plop a kid on the piano, and a kid on a bass, and a bunch of kids on ukes, and a bunch jump in on the cajons. It's amazing to see what they're able to achieve.
Here are the music clubs:
Primary Ukulele Club (grades 1-3) meets first recess on Tuesdays & Junior Ukulele Club (grades 4-6) meets first recess on Wednesdays. Most weeks, the club is a BIG jam where kids are picking the songs they want to play and then going for it. When there is a performance coming up (e.g., coffee house; whole school sharing), the weekly gatherings morph into more focused practice for the songs the clubs will be presenting.
Churchill's Six String Students (grades 4-6) meets second recess on Tuesdays . This club focuses specifically on playing guitar. Staff show the students some chords and students have fun playing songs together. As part of this club, Ray maintains a fantastic website with lyrics, chords and videos of the songs. That way, not only are the songs easily accessible during official club practices but students can also learn/practice/play whenever they want. Because there is no "music class" time dedicated to learning guitar and the school only has a few guitars, this club does require students to have some access to a guitar at home so they can practice pieces they work on during club gatherings.
Singing club (grades 1-6) meets second recess on Thursdays. This club doesn't run every week but instead, gets together ahead of Churchill events to prepare songs for specific performances. Michelle does a fantastic job teaching students how to work in sections and build harmonies. While this club is open to all students, grades 4-6 students seem to have a bit more success with this club because they have a bit more control over their voices.
Churchill School of Rock (grades 4-6) meets every Wednesday afternoon. More on CSOR below!
Churchill School of Rock:
<-- Click on the image to the left to watch Churchill School of Rock singing an Arkells song.
Churchill School of Rock (CSOR) typically has two performances a year - one for Remembrance Day and the other at the end of the year. However, CSOR has also performed in many other contexts -- a principals conference, Rogers TV Christmas specials, and for CBC music events.
Interestingly CSOR started over a decade ago with parents playing the instruments with the kids singing. However, the kids slowly took over playing all the instruments (e.g., drum kits; bass; guitars; ukes) as skills built up within the school.
As described by Owen: Churchill School of Rock is such an accessible thing for any student to come and join. There are kids who are up there who know some of the songs and they also know that there are 55 other kids around them so if they're not singing, the song isn't going to fall flat. They're not suddenly going to be up there exposed and that things will grind to a halt. There are some kids who take on roles where there's a lot of vulnerability (e.g., drum kit; glokenspiel) but for most of the students involved, they don't have to worry about failing or that you've let people down.
CSOR does two performances in June - one in the daytime and the other in the evening. Parents are welcome at both and there's always cool merch - a new shirt every year as well as buttons, hats, etc.
All of the CSOR songs are available on their own website.
Here's a wonderful article about the CSOR and another one here from the Kitchissippi Times.
In spring 2024, CSOR was featured on CBC Radio. Click here to listen to the story.
In 2019 Owen, Tiiu, Ray, and Shellie worked with CSOR to put in a submission to the CBC Canadian Music Class Challenge. They chose the song Human by Twin Flames. Here's a few words from Owen about that project: The CBC initiative was so fun! The students in really pulled together to create something great. 2019 was the international year of Indigenous Languages so we were excited to jump into this song – Human – that was composed as the anthem for Indigenous Languages. Twin Flames recorded the YouTube video with phonetic instruction for how to pronounce the Inuktitut lines and we took some time really studying it. The song provided a great opportunity to incorporate a variety of the instruments from our music program from boom whackers, glockenspiel, guitars, bass and of course our trusty ukuleles. We were fortunate to have a very talented videographer in our school community, Jake Hanna, who generously offered up his time to film and edit our video.
Music is woven into other aspects of student life at Churchill:
Music weaves its way into many other experiences at Churchill Alternative. As Owen says: "It's pretty hard to escape music here. Once the kids are this enthusiastic, they want it wherever they can get it."
Andrew (one of our longtime Churchill teachers) wrote a fantastic song about our Tree Families that students know well. You can listen to it here.
Clubs regularly perform at whole-school sharings.
The school holds 1-2 coffee houses each year where students can sign up and perform in small groups in front of families. As Owen points out, this is a great opportunity for kids to be vulnerable and put themselves out there:
"As compared to Churchill School of Rock, there's a massive chance to fail with the coffee houses. And that's my favourite part about it. There's a chance to fall flat and that inspires kids to work that much harder and to pull together as a team and to get together on their own time home. They make sure they know how to sing the song - you really see the fire being lit."Starting in the fall of 2024, there will be a ukulele wagon that will be available most recesses where kids can grab a ukulele and some chord sheets and play outside.
We also have a Dancemania club and all Grade 1-6 students are involved in weekly dance sessions in the spring and fall.
Fun historical fact! As it turns out, Sam Gordon (teacher in Westboro over 150 yrs ago) also played music at the local school so it seems like Churchill teachers are continuing on a local tradition. As recounted by the Citizen:
When recess came the pupils ran helter-skelter into the yard ... Soon through the open door they heard what Mr. McIsaac describes as the most beautiful violin music. One by one the pupils crept back into the school and sat listening spellbound to the strains that came from the master's fiddle. "Well, children", Gordon said at the conclusion of his piece, "you evidently like music. I love it, so we will have plenty of it." And they did. From then on, every day at recess, Gordon would play his fiddle for the children.
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