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 OP! I assume signing is ok if you live in England rather than Wales?

@orpmoa Yes, absolutely! Thanks for signing!

Signed and shared, hoping some professional musician friends in Scotland share it too!

Signed.

It is so exasperating that those with the purse strings fail to recognise that engagement in music is fundamental to education. Not only is it life-enhancing, but it is proven to improve exam results, which should appeal to the bean-counters, but they just ignore it.

Add in the fact that it helps children learn to cooperate together, gives great joy, increases confidence - what's not to like as they say?

The music I did in primary school sparked an interest that has been lifelong and that I have been able to share with members of my community, and in therapeutic settings.

Signed and confirmed. Very best of luck xx

Only 100 to go 😁

Nearly there OP!

We are very nearly there, 40 to go! Please keep supporting! Thank you to those who've signed already.

Thanks for raising it OP - I wasn't aware of this prior to your thread.

10,000! Well done and good luck, OP. I hope the decision can be overturned.

Well done!

Excellent stuff

Signed 10,005!

I know some older kids who have gone for 18+ at RW and they love it.

Signed - 10,026

So pleased the petition has now gained more than 10,000 signatures! Thank you again to all those who helped us reach this milestone!

Brilliant - well done OP 👍

Signed

It is so exasperating that those with the purse strings fail to recognise that engagement in music is fundamental to education. Not only is it life-enhancing, but it is proven to improve exam results, which should appeal to the bean-counters, but they just ignore it.

Completely agree with this. Music lessons were free when I started school. Then they were subsidised. Then they weren’t. Over 15 years you could see the standards slipping. When I was a young teenager the local youth orchestra was almost a professional standard, and you had to be really good to even get into the intermediate groups and orchestras. Many amazing musicians went to uni to study music. This wasn’t the case by the time I was in it (after many people couldn’t afford for their kids to spend many years having music lessons).

Great news !! 🤞🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🤞🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🤞🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

I saw the petition had it's debate:

Read the transcript: https://record.senedd.wales/Plenary/14106#A90377

The Senedd debated the petition you signed – “Protect the junior departments of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama from closure”

The petition was debated by the Senedd in Plenary on 18 September 2024. The Petitions Committee will consider the petition again in the future, in light of the discussion during the debate.