A New Style of Education

by Karen Page

Part 59

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Part 59

Wednesday 15th February 2006

"We're going to be on the road for just over three hours, so please try to get some rest," announced Mr Hobson as we boarded the two coaches. The cold blast of air had woken me up a bit, but five was far too early to be leaving the school.

You would have thought that Mr Hobson would have learnt that children never like to relax, especially when going somewhere on a coach. There was much joking, laughing and singing. There was no way anybody could continue their sleep even if they wanted to. I was a bit surprised to see Stacy looking totally different from her usual self. She'd dyed her hair, and must have been wearing some subtle makeup which made her face look different. It reminded me of the time Jill had been made-up to look different when we went shopping in Milton Keynes.

The noise of the other traffic died down as we moved from the motorway onto a dual carriage and mostly petered out as we entered the edge of the town. Eventually, we tuned into a school. The area we'd been driving through hadn't looked the nicest area and we'd passed at least two burnt out cars. The school looked like it had received some half-hearted attempt at modernisation, but they'd given up half way through.

I'd been shocked at the quality of Hayfield when I'd first arrived there, and my old school had been pretty nice. If someone went from here to Hayfield I wondered how they would cope with such a drastic change. As we came to a halt in front of the school, a woman came bustling out of the doors and made a beeline for the front coach.

After conferring with her, Mr Hobson came back on and announced, "Again, thanks to the wonderful driving of Graham and Sally, we've arrived in perfect time. The students here are in registration, so what better time for us to get warmed up in their hall. Your instruments should be waiting for you on or by your seat. Please be on your best behaviour, as you are representing the school. Mrs Hampson will show us the way."

None of us wanted to leave the warmth of the coach and venture into the cooler air, however we knew we really didn't have a choice. I just hoped their school hall was warm. As we got off the coach, Sally, the driver of the coach we'd been on, continually wished us luck.

"And good luck keeping the coach safe," Lewis answered back.

"Thanks," Sally laughed. "Looking at this area, I might just need it."

The school hall was nice and warm and there was a raised area which had been set up for the orchestra. As I got near my seat I spied a mini-cannon just behind it. "Andy, that better not stay there!"

"I didn't put it there," he said defending himself. "I'll move it immediately."

When we'd practiced the 1812 Overture, we'd always used an improvised cannon. The only time we'd used a proper cannon was while we were in France. This one looked smaller and was probably an indoor concert cannon, more appropriate for this size of hall. We didn't have long to get warmed up before the first children started to enter, and we fell silent. We were playing for the first two years of the school, which appeared to be over 200 children.

When everyone was seated, Mrs Russell came to the front of us. "My name is Mrs Russell. I'm the music teacher for this orchestra. We're here to play some music and for you to ask some questions. After the first few pieces I'm told we will break into some workshops. Finally, some will get to help and play with us for the last piece."

There was some murmuring of excitement from the audience. Some were obviously looking forward to that special bit at the end.

"Now one of special things about this orchestra is that it only contains pupils at the school. That includes the conductor." Lewis waved. "The leader of the orchestra." Stacy waved. "And even the rebellious members of the percussion." Instead of waving, they played a five second ditty. This got the audience laughing. "So, let me hand over to Lewis, for the first piece."

We played the main Harry Potter theme, which seemed to go down well. After we'd finished, and the applause died down, Mrs Russell said, "There are two instruments that aren't in most pieces. First we have Dan over there on what looks like a piano. Dan, can you play a few bars?" Dan did some from the Harry Potter theme. "Any ideas what this is called?"

A few hands shot up.

"Jessica," called Mrs Clarkston, their school's music teacher.

"A harpsichord?"

"They are very similar, but not quite." A few hands shot up again. There was a girl three rows from the front that looked like she was almost lifting herself off the floor to be noticed. However, Mrs Clarkson chose someone else. "Luke."

"A celesta?"

"Yes, a celesta." She went on to explain the differences.

Mrs Russell took over again. "The other player who played an unusual instrument was Jill. Do you mind coming to the front so the children can see it?"

Jill made her way to the front of the audience and showed her instrument. She even went along the sides so those at the back could get a better look as Mrs Russell described the difference. "Has anybody got an idea what this instrument is called?"

There were no takers. "It is a bit unusual. It is called often referred to by its French name, Cor Anglais. This translates as English Horn. Yet it wasn't created in England and it isn't a horn. It is like a bigger brother to the oboe. Thank you Jill. We will play another two pieces, which are then going to be discussed in your class tomorrow. One word of warning, the next piece gets very loud towards the end. So if you don't like loud noise, then be warned. In fact, we need a volunteer to help with a very special instrument. Are there any takers?"

A few raised their hands. When Andy wheeled the cannon to the side of the stage, the number of hands greatly increased.

"Okay, we'll have Peter Hodgkins," said Mrs Clarkston, choosing a lad from towards the back.

"Andy, please make sure the volume is set low," requested Mrs Russell. "We don't want the police getting called because someone thinks a bomb has gone off."

Peter came up. "Do you read music?" asked Andy.

"No."

"Okay, you see that guy there," said Andy pointing to Dan from year-two. "You fire the cannon only when he indicates you should. Do you want to try now?"

Peter didn't need to be asked twice, and fired the cannon. Someone must have disabled the smoke effects so the smoke detectors didn't cause the sprinklers to go off. The look on Peter's face was so funny. I don't think he was expecting such a realistic sound. His friends, sitting at the back, got a big laugh.

We'd forgotten we were playing in a much smaller room, and therefore we should have reduced the volume. When Peter fired the cannon during the piece, I saw some poor children jump. As we moved into the finale of the 1812, the noise was too much for some at the front, and they covered their ears. In the last few bars I felt the stage vibrating.

Just before we got started with the last piece that we were going to be playing before the break, a man came in. He didn't look too happy. It seems he was the headmaster and he requested we kept the noise down. It had been heard throughout the school. Oops.

We played the theme from The Pirates of the Caribbean without the same volume we used in rehearsal.

"Just before we have a break, Mrs Russell will pull out the names of five lucky people who will play with the orchestra."

A cardboard box appeared and Stacy pulled out five folder pieces of paper, which she past to Lewis to announce.

"Liam Dunston - percussion, Jessica James - flute, Sarah Smith - violin, Luke Poop - French Horn and Sarah French - violin."

Mrs Clarkston then carried on. "If those five can stay behind for a few minutes. After the break, everyone else should go to their classes as per normal, and these talented children will rotate between the classes. You'll have a chance to try the instruments yourselves and get some experience of them close up."

The children scrammed.

Mrs Russell then said to us. "You can leave your instruments here while you too go and get some fresh air. I'd like Andy, Trevor, Stacy, Jayne and Yvonne to meet those you will be helping."

I went forward to hear Luke complaining. "But I didn't put my name down for this."

Internally I cringed. Was this the person who the school had their eye on?

"I didn't either," said one of the girls.

Perhaps mine wasn't the target.

"I wonder if some people put others names in," frowned Mrs Clarkston. "If you two don't want to take part, then I can draw two more."

"I'll take part," said the girl.

Luke looked torn, and sounded reluctant, but decided to go ahead. Mrs Clarkston then introduced each person. The girl who hadn't put in her name was Sarah Smith who was paired with Stacy.

"Now you know who you'll be sitting next to, go and have your break. Meet back here and we will have a mini practice."

I saw Helen hovering by the door and joined her outside. I was surprised she hadn't joined the others from our year, or wasn't chatting with Andy. The pupils from Hayfield were mostly gathered together. We didn't know their school, and to be honest, didn't want to. We were here to give a concert. For some, it was a reminder of a time we wanted to forget.

In some respects the school was just like my old one. There were different categories of children who tended not to mix. Over by the school wall, I spied a few openly smoking. I spotted Luke, talking with some boys that were hanging about near the school entrance, in obvious view of any teacher looking out of the staff room window. I hope that lunch is better than my old school.

I spotted Stacy and Andy on their own and guided Helen towards them. They looked like they were watching Luke.

"Is Luke the target?" I asked when we joined them.

"No. I put his name in, as well as Sarah's, so it wouldn't look suspicious."

I was about to respond, but Mr Hobson came up and said firmly. "Stacy, please come with me, now!"

It wasn't often that I saw Mr Hobson angry, but today he was fuming. I would hate to see how he would have been if we'd been in the privacy of the school.

"What did she do?" I gasped, as Stacy rushed after Mr Hobson.

"You really don't want to know," warned Andy, making no attempt to follow Stacy.

When the break finished, we wandered into the hall. Stacy came in a few minutes later. She wore her normal cheerful smile, but I was unsure how much of that was a mask.

As we practiced Sousa's Liberty Bell March, I got to chat a bit with Luke.

"How long have you been playing the French horn?" I asked, during a few minutes rest.

"A few years. I wanted to play the violin, like my brother used to, but there weren't any spare spaces."

"You're very good," I praised him. "I bet you practice quite often at home."

"Yes, though it's hard. The walls in our house are paper thin. I bet you practice a lot more."

"Probably. Though it helps that we have soundproof bedrooms, quite a few practice rooms, and we have orchestra practice four times a week."

"Four times?" he repeated as big smile appeared on his face.

"Apart from when we have a big concert coming up, then we sometime have daily practice."

"I don't think I could cope with that much. My mouth would drop off."

I laughed. "Yeah, I suppose you get used to it. So is it really bad here? At my old school some kids used to be really badly bullied."

"It was worse the other year before the school got put into special measures*. The CCTV camera's that got put around the school stopped a lot of it. You don't have any bullying at your school?"

"No, not really. Now and again we might get upset with each other, but generally we get on. I think the music brings us together."

"Sounds perfect."

I thought about some of the bad things about the school, such as the no contact rule. I shook my head sadly. "No, it's not perfect." I decided that it would be a better to change the subject. "So, what's lunch like?"

"Awful. Most of us go down the chippy."

"I doubt I'll have that choice," I said sadly, as we both picked up our instruments as our rehearsal continued.

Unfortunately Luke was right. The food was awful. I'd secretly hoped they might have put on a buffet for us, but we'd been told to queue at the refectory. When I got there, the choices weren't brilliant; sausage and chips, pie and chips, pizza and chips. We could have beans with it if we wanted, but when I saw the quality of the beans, it brought back too many memories of the congealed mess my parents attempted to make.

"Didn't you tell Rachel that you sometimes wanted ordinary food?" teased Andy, when he saw my face.

"Yes, but I did mean something edible."

I was surprised when we were joined at by Liam, Luke and Sarah.

"I didn't think you ate at the school," I teased Luke.

"Mrs Clarkston thought it would be nice if we ate with you. She said we might pick up some tips."

"A big tip," Andy started. "Don't explode the cannon near Jayne. She gets a teeny bit upset."

"Too right she did," said Helen. "If she hadn't slapped you, I would have." Luke looked a bit surprised.

"And you're all still talking?"

"Of course," I responded. After all, Luke was playing my instrument, so I thought I should answer. "Andy apologised and we moved on. It's a small school, and the staff tend to encourage us to confront conflicts and sort them out."

"So what music do you play?" enquired Sarah.

"It depends on the concert. We've played modern classical music, and some older ones. We did the 1812 at a concert in Paris, and did Beethoven's ninth as well as The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins in Moscow."

"I've never heard of Karl Jenkins," said Liam.

"He's a living British composer."

"You go abroad?" queried Luke, his eyes opening wide. We nodded. "My parents would never be able to afford that."

"We're playing concerts for the school. The school pays."

"I wish my brother had known about that school," sighed Luke, getting a bit sad. "He was such a great violin player. He would have loved it."

"You make it sound like he's dead," I commented.

"Nah, he was assaulted and a bit later he moved to live with a distant Aunt and Uncle. We all get emails from him now and again, but I've not seen him in five years. I recon he's better off where he is. At least he's living somewhere where gangs don't roam around, stealing cars and burning them just because they've nothing better to do."

"I've got to go," Stacy suddenly said, getting up.

"I'll show you where the girls is," said Sarah.

"I'll come too," I said after seeking Andy's pleading eyes glance in my direction.

Stacy and I followed Sarah. I was glad that when she showed us where the toilets were, she didn't follow us in. Stacy did go into a cubical, and I waited. Nobody came in, and Stacy was ages in the toilet that I started to worry.

"Stacy, you don't have to tell me what's going on. I just want to know you're okay in there."

"I'm fine," she quickly responded.

I pondered on what was going on with Stacy. It wasn't like her to be like this. The jigsaw started to piece together. The disguise, Mr Hobson not being happy after the names were called. What had been said at lunch. It all started to make sense. I'm sure if this had been a cartoon, there would be a light bulb flashing above my head.

"Look, you didn't choose to visit this school, did you?"

"No."

"Then you can't blame yourself. Heck, I don't think anybody has recognised you. Not even Luke."

The toilet flushed and Stacy came out. "You know?"

"A lucky guess. What I want to know though is why did Mr Hobson choose to come here, knowing what happened?"

"He didn't organise this. Mr Hobson wanted me to be ill today. I was the one who insisted on coming."

"Do you regret coming?"

"Perhaps a bit. I thought I'd have coped better than I did. I wanted to kill a few demons I still have about this place. Anyway, we better get back."

I wanted to talk more, but it was obvious that Stacy didn't want to discuss it further.

When we got back to the table, Liam, Luke and Sarah had gone. Stacy seemed to relax a bit more and was able to eat. After we finished consuming all we could of what the kitchen staff referred to as food, Stacy got up. "I'm going for a walk."

"Don't do it," pleaded Andy, standing and trying to stop Stacy by blocking her path. "I know it's tempting, but it might make things worse."

"Well, come with me then."

Helen looked puzzled about what was being said. I might have known that Stacy used to come here, but had no idea about what Stacy and Andy were now talking about.

"Look, you know what Rachel said on the subject. If you really want to, I'll come with you after the concert."

"You aren't going to leave the school grounds, are you?" I asked, not liking the sound of what was being talked about.

"Don't worry, Stacy doesn't have that much of a death wish," reassured Andy.

"Okay, I'll wait, but I'm not leaving the school until we've visited," said Stacy with determination.

We'd all finished so took our trays and placed them on a moving belt which I presumed took the dirty plates to be washed. Helen and I went outside, while Stacy and Andy went into the hall.

"What's going on?" Helen asked.

"Stacy used to come to this school. Luke is her brother."

"Oh. What's Luke like?"

"He seems a nice lad, he-" I stopped. Suddenly something Luke had said earlier made an awful sense.

"What?"

I shook my head. I didn't know for sure, and I didn't want let Helen know my guess, just in case I was wrong.

"Jayne," Helen whined.

"I don't want to say, just in case I'm wrong."

"I won't say anything."

I screwed up my nose and eventually gave a reluctant sigh. "Luke said his brother was assaulted at the school and Stacy said she wanted to kill a few demons. Do you think this is where she was raped?"

"Oh God!"

I nodded. This school was the type of school that finished education at sixteen. If anybody was lucky enough to get good enough grades to continue until they were eighteen then they would study at college, rather than continue at the school. Therefore if it was someone in Stacy's year that raped her, then they would have long been gone.

"I might be wrong, but you did ask."

"I won't say anything," she promised.

When we went into the hall though, neither of us was able to look at Stacy. I thought we got away with it, but Andy squeezed between the percussion and came to see me. "You've worked it out, haven't you?"

"A guess. I might be wrong and we are talking cross purposes."

"Knowing you, I doubt it."

Just behind the percussion I spied a network point. I dug into my handbag and pulled out a small network stick. "Andy, there is a network point just behind you, can you stick this in?"

"What are you doing?" he asked. I just shook my head. He shrugged and did as I asked. The range of the wireless signal it gave off was small, but it was enough for me to get onto the school network on my PDA. It took a bit of finding, but I was soon online with the school CCTV. It looked like all the cameras downloaded the images to a Windows box. I suppose that this was only a school system, but whoever put it in hadn't any idea about basic security.

Mrs Russell appeared and called us all to order, which was just in time because our audience started filtering in. I thought it would have been the same people as earlier, but as the pupils streamed in there seemed to be a lot more. The head teacher appeared and approached Mrs Russell. They didn't chat for long, before our Music teacher turned to us. "It seems our playing has been very popular, so a slight change of plan. We will be playing to the whole school. Since it would be logistically hard, we will do the last piece without the planned break."

We'd played to thousands, so playing to a whole school didn't really intimidate us. We were going to be playing anyway, so it didn't really matter if there were two hundred or a thousand. One thing that was obvious was that the pupils were squashed in. I hope it didn't affect their enjoyment.

The headmaster came to the front and quietened the school down, though there were still mutterings in the background. "As you all heard this morning, we have an orchestra visiting us for the day. They are here to demonstrate to the youngest years, but I thought it was an opportunity for the rest of the years to hear a school orchestra and may be you can all learn something from it. I'll now hand things over to Mrs Russell, who is head of their music department."

Mrs Russell reintroduced the school orchestra, mentioning that we were all pupils at the school, even the conductor.

"I know that the upper years are just here to listen to us play, but please bear with us as we need to cover certain things with the lower two years. First, the next piece of music has two soloists. First we have Susan. Any takers for what instrument she is playing?"

Susan stood up and raised her instrument a bit. Quite a few hands went up and the person selected guessed it right.

"Well done," smiled Mrs Russell. "Next we have Jill on her special instrument. Since some of the upper years might not have seen it, can you go down the side of the room?"

Jill did as asked, but most of the upper years didn't seem to care.

"Does anybody remember what that instrument was called?" Mrs Russell asked, as Jill made her way back to the orchestra.

A few hands shot up. The girl that got picked gave the right answer. I was surprised that any had actually paid attention.

"We are going to play The William Tell Overture. The beginning of this piece is very slow and sedate. Please keep quiet so the people at the back can hear. As it progresses, the tune changes slightly and might be something some may recognise."

Lewis came up to the podium and gently started us off. The sound of Susan's cello filtered through the hall. I sat there with my French horn on Luke's seat next to me. I wasn't needed for quite a while yet, but when I was, I knew it was going to be a lip killer. I was quite surprised that the pupils were quiet, but when the famous bit started there was a slight perk up from some who probably had found it a bit dreary. I'm sure most of them would have preferred to be in a pop concert than classical.

The next two pieces were shorter and more popular. I'm not sure if that's why they seemed to get more applause than the William Tell. I would have thought that the Lone Ranger music would have got them going. There had been a bit of disruption from a group of lads at one stage, but that was quickly dealt with. Even though we'd toned down the type of music we normally played, it was still too alien for some.

At last it was time for the final tune. This was where the five people picked out earlier were going to join us. The original plan was to have a break at this point, but this would have been hard with so many in the hall. The five guest players hadn't had long to practice the piece, but it was hoped that playing with us would encourage them.

"Are you ready?" I murmured to Luke, as I turned my French horn to drain excess fluid.

"No."

I smiled as I recalled my first Hayfield concert. "I remember the first time I played in front of an audience with this orchestra. Just try and enjoy it and go with the flow."

"Yeah, but did you get to see your audience the next day?"

I saw what he meant and gently shook my head. With my instrument ready, I sat up straight and looked at Lewis. Luke cottoned on quickly and followed my example.

Lewis looked around and when he saw that everybody was ready he lifted his baton. The music wasn't difficult for me and knowing the melody helped some of the guest players. It didn't help Luke much as we didn't have the main tune.

As Lewis dropped his baton at the end the applause was deafening. I looked across at Luke and saw the look in his eyes and knew he would strive to play again.

"Wow," escaped his lips. I just smiled.

Lewis turned to the audience and asked, "Please, will you all stand?"

The teachers at the school we were visiting seemed surprised, but gradually everyone complied. Mrs Russell had a knowing smile on her face and seemed to be nodding slightly with approval. Lewis turned back to us and pointed to Andy who started the drum roll.

Luke hissed, "Where's the music?"

"This is one piece we all know off by heart," I quietly explained.

The drum roll faded and Lewis brought the rest of us in for the national anthem. Luke obviously didn't know the music, so just sat there trying his best not to be seen.

We only did the one verse, and there was no singing. When we finished there was a stunned silence.

The headmaster made his way to the front and got everyone to sit down. "I'd like to thank our guests for not only helping us with our educational requirements, but also entertaining us. Can we please again show our appreciation."

There was a healthy applause which brought a smile to my face. For some reason I'd expected a half-hearted applause, but we got more than expected. Perhaps they appreciated that they weren't in normal lessons.

The headmaster said some final words and sent his pupils back to lessons. The orchestra stayed where we were until they had left.

"That was really great," said Luke.

"You played very well. Why didn't you put your name forward?"

"Because I don't want what happened to my brother to happen to me."

There wasn't much I could say about that. What was obvious was that he might pretend not to like playing, but he must practice in order to have played as well as he had.

Mrs Russell turned to the five guests and told them they had played well and Mrs Clarkston nodded and told them to get to their class. I watched as Luke, hunched slightly, walked out of the hall. I glanced at Stacy who also was watching Luke.

Mr Hobson came to the front. "If everyone can put their instruments away and leave them on or by your chair then they will be collected. The coach will be leaving in twenty minutes, so you all have chance to use the toilets before we set off."

Things didn't take long to put away and I noticed that Stacy slipped out of the back door behind the stage, with Andy in tow. I thought about following, but realised that it might not be advisable. Andy was there and in some ways it would be like intruding. I hooked into the CCTV and instigated a reboot with a disk check. It was crude, but it meant there would be no recording while Stacy and Andy would be in an area they shouldn't have been. I sent a message to Andy's PDA telling him that CCTV was down and collected my discreet wireless network point.

The queue for the toilet wasn't too long and we were all soon boarding the coaches which amazingly seemed to be fully intact and hadn't been burnt out or had their tyres stolen. Andy and Stacey were the last to get on the coach and it didn't look like either had been crying, but they were both good at not showing their emotions.

I'd hoped we might get chance to talk to Stacy if needed, but they sat with the rest of their year. Andy must have seen the look of concern on my face because it wasn't long after they had sat down that I got a message. Stacy was going to see Rachel as soon as they got back to school.

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* Special Measures — If the school inspectors, Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education), find the school is not providing an acceptable level of education and they don't think the current school leadership can turn the school around the school is placed in "Special Measures". The head and the senior leadership team can, and often are, replaced. Instead of the school being inspected every three years, they will be inspected several times a year to make sure they are improving. If the school doesn't improve it can be closed.

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