900 more signatures needed in a week, please HELP save the Junior Department at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama!

[GreenTeaWhite]

First of all, thank you for clicking through to read more and help. 💐

https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/246232

Part way through the summer term, the Senior Management Team at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) made a shocking announcement - they were proposing to close the Junior Department at the end of this term. Over three hundred children are struggling to come to terms with this decision.

My DC are musicians and they face an end to all the relationships they have built with their instrumental music teachers and their peers. They will lose the opportunity to make music with others in the form of chamber groups and symphony orchestra. Music for them is everything, they love spending their Saturdays at the Junior Conservatoire with likeminded children.

In order just to have the issue discussed by the Welsh Parliament, the Senedd, the petition needs 10,000 signatures. They've just announced that the petition will close on 19th June, so we have just a week to gain another 900 signatures or so.

I have recently posted this on another thread, where some Mumsnetters kindly supported the petition, but with just a week to go until the petition deadline, I'm posting in AIBU to gain traffic.

Please support the next generation of musicians, actors and actresses in Wales and the the surrounding areas:
https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/246232

Thank you so much!

Signed

Signed/email verified.
My son attends a Junior Conservatoire and we would be devastated if it closed!
Good luck!

I’ve signed (I’m not in Wales but hopefully it still counts!). Terrible decision, I wish you success with your petition.

Signed and shared. Let's hope it at least warrants a discussion in the Senedd!

Signed previously. As a Welsh musician I can't tell you how upset it makes me. As a musical child growing up in Wales I already felt at a disadvantage to those living near London or the northern conservatoires.
I find it astonishing that our leaders want to hold up Wales as a nation in it's own right and something to be proud of and then don't help fund this or Welsh national opera (also making cuts to funding).

The irony is - everyone thinks music is elitist. But they are making it even more elitist by reducing these opportunities.

"To be born Welsh is not with a silver spoon in your mouth but with music in your heart and poetry in your soul"....not for our future generations!

Signed, good luck.

Signed, keep posting for traffic x

Signed 😊 Good luck with the petition.

Signed

You very welcome

Good luck .

Signed.
Pob lwc👍

Signed

@Winter2020 Yes, it is absolutely devastating for all of the children who get so much enjoyment and fulfilment doing the thing they love in the Junior Department. Thank your for your support with the petition!

@ClawdeenWolf Thank you so much for sharing this as well as signing it. It's much appreciated!

Signed, good luck!

Signed

Like other courses at higher education institutions, the junior music & drama courses attract fees. Many are on bursaries. At the moment, the Junior Department runs at a deficit of just under £190K per year, so it's subsidised by the rest of the college. The principal of the RWCMD alone earns more than that per annum. They've also managed to raise £3 million (out of £12 m) to restore an old library recently.

Signed

Signed
hemiola lovely post

Signed

Signed 🎵

Signed and so has my mum

Signed

@Cornishmaiden Thank you for getting your mum to sign as well. 😊

I'm in Scotland, but have signed. Good luck.