The Orchestra Of Everything Foundation

As an amateur musician who enjoys playing saxophone and keyboard, Jon has always been aware of the need for opportunities for musicians to play together – at any age. He put a small ad for fellow musicians in his children’s primary school newsletter, and was overwhelmed by the response –rather than the small band he was expecting, it was an

orchestra of 20, which has since grown to 60! With such a high level of interest from fellow parents, Jon approached the school – Widcombe Junior – to run their school orchestra, and they were very interested. A band soon formed and Jon encouraged them to work on a wide variety of pieces, including music by Bon Jovi and some of Grieg’s Hall of the Mountain King. This has been a huge success, and the children involved were keen to continue with their music once they moved to their secondary schools. But the next problem was how to reach other primary schools and expand the activity. This was solved by having family days, to spread the word through the age groups, and also more directly, by touring other primary schools to entertain but also to recruit more members. As a result of all this, Jon found himself leading an orchestra of 194 players! He, and they, learnt a lot – including that performing in public is a lot less scary if everyone dresses up.

So the orchestra was a success beyond anyone’s expectations – but it was still very middle class. Jon was convinced that the only way to involve children from disadvantaged backgrounds was to ask them what they wanted. He assumed that if some of them said they would like to learn to play an instrument, somehow that instrument and its tuition would have to be funded – and so a charity would have to be founded. And it would have to be done quickly – it would be disastrous to create demand which could not be filled – particularly as this was happening at the tale end of the pandemic, when children were particularly vulnerable. Many people would have been daunted at the idea of creating a charity, but Jon’s day job is as a management consultant so he already had boundless enthusiasm and can be very persuasive!

The first school he approached, St Michael’s in Twerton, already has a relationship with Bathavon Rotary through the school reading project. It also has measurable need – 70% of the children are on Free School Meals (a useful proxy for deprivation used by government departments and Ofsted), and nearly half have special educational needs identified. Six teachers go in to teach eleven different instruments and for the last 12 months 80 % of the children have been learning.

The next school to be involved, Roundhill in Whiteway, was going through a period of change with new leadership. But nearly all of the children were interested and wanted to start learning. After only a few weeks, the head teacher was so impressed that she quantified the improvements she had noticed in an impact report. Striking among the findings was that 86% of the children had a more positive attitude to learning and in general, they were developing greater resilience.

Outside bodies have also shown interest and become involved. Bath Spa University recognises the project as a model of best practice. The Police Early Intervention Team value its role in reducing gang membership and knife crime. The local council is promoting the scheme to its NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) group of young people, encouraging to take up the volunteering opportunities the project offers.

Aims for the future include widening the volunteer base (volunteers are needed to encourage the children to practise). Both universities send volunteers, and Jon expects both the local Rotary groups to do so. The contribution from Bathavon and its twinned clubs in Europe will enable more pupils at Roundhill school to be supported. One of the bigger challenges is to support children in pockets of deprivation in otherwise middle-class catchment areas. There is no obvious way to do this – but anyone who has heard Jon will be in no doubt that he and his enthusiastic team will find a solution!