Last year’s 2013 Spring Musical was called “Our School Song”. Miss Pitt conceptualized the show around the idea that Richland Academy was looking for a new school song and the Grade 6 graduating class was on a mission to find it! Every class worked hard and had a great time contributing to and performing in the original production. The finale number of “Our School Song” the Musical was a new school song that Miss Pitt wrote, together with the Grade 6 Graduating Class of 2013.Our school community responded so warmly to our song, and has found it rather inspiring.

“It’s a cool song. It makes me happy to know that we help others and we are deeper thinking and confident.”-L.D

Here we are in this place

glowing spirits

be dreams we chase

-excerpt from Our School Song Mrs. Oliveira reported her delight last term when she walked into the Art Studio to find the Grade ¾ class belting the song out while they worked alongside each other on their drawings.  You may have seen the video she captured of this on Facebook.Students and staff have asked about recording the school song and expressed interest in singing it at morning gathering on Mondays. So, in December the Performing Arts class was transformed into a recording studio for the day with help from our friend James at Audio Operations Ltd. We successfully recorded “Our School Song”  as well as 7 other backing tracks to support students’ performances at the Holiday Concert “The Power of You and I: An Evening in Celebration of the Winter Olympics”.We were excited to provide students with this opportunity. Their involvement in the studio offered them a unique and exciting experience and knowledge about the recording industry.

“It was fun recording the songs because I’ve never been in a recording studio before.” -C.B

Students gained an appreciation for performing under pressure for recording purposes, which is very different from performing on the stage in front of an audience.

“Well I felt like when we were recording we were actually like famous because most recording artists that record songs are famous.” -X.MSome students developed their passion for and knowledge about the technical side of recording and production, and others further developed their mic technique.

Miss Pitt’s hope is that the experience in the recording studio will have lasting effects for students because they will be able to listen back to their recordings for critique to improve their performance going forward.Ultimately, we persevered our song, honoring our work last year to inspire others going forward. The students learned that recording is hard work, and had a great time in the studio. We are so happy to know now have “Our School Song” recorded and mixed.  It feels good to have it documented in this way. What are the next steps are for our song…I think I might feel a music video coming on!