A magical moment…

It’s not a great time in schools at the moment. Teachers are tired – it’s the end of term, they’re having to write reports (that’s a lot of extra work for them), it’s cold, people are getting sick (both big people and little people) – it’s a bit of a drudge.

I am not immune to this either. One night I turned to Ben and said ‘I don’t want to go to school tomorrow. I’m tired. I’m tired of being energetic. My body is sore. My brain is tired.’ We both knew that of course I’d go to school. Of course I’d be happy and energetic. But I didn’t want to.

And then this thing happened, in an elective choir I run at a program. I see kids who do it tough. REALLY tough. When I see this particular group, it’s early in the day, so they’ve not really got into the swing of things yet for the week. And they are tired too. And cold. But they came in, sat down and looked at me, ready to go. I warmed them up and then we started to sing the song we’d been working on for a few weeks. It’s hard, this song. They have to sing in a language that is the Indigenous language from the Kimberley region (called Yawuru. It took me AGES to learn this verse.). They sing and sign in AUSLAN at one point. There are three verses in English.

These kids gave it their ALL. So I started, for the first time (this is a new group – just started this year), asking them to control their breathing, to think in musical phrases, to follow my cut-offs. And it got better. They all sat taller. Their smiles appeared and got bigger. I sat taller too. My grin was enormous. These kids were extraordinary in this moment.

They wanted to perform to someone, so we asked some teachers up who were meant to be planning (and were good enough to give up their time) to come and listen. (The teachers at this school are totally wonderful…). We got a younger class up too. Just as I was about to press play on the backing track, the bell went for recess.

“Oh.” I said. “It’s time to go.”

Stern looks from the front row of the choir. “No, Rachel. We are SINGING.”

So I pressed play. And they were incredible. They sang like angels. They followed my conducting. They sang proudly. They seemed to take up more space in the room, each one of them. It was a moment I will remember for a long time. They nurtured me with their music-making. They gave me everything I asked – and them some.

They were sensational. Completely and utterly marvellous.