It is first thing in the morning at Shireland CBSO academy in West Bromwich, and the school corridors are filled with music. Scattered throughout the classrooms are a steel pans class, a keyboard group, a guitar group, a wind band, a jazz orchestra, a percussion group, a string orchestra and a choir.
“My favourite time of day is when we open the gates in the mornings and you’ve got all these children carrying in various shapes and sizes of musical instruments, and it’s just completely the norm. It’s part of the culture here,” said the school principal, David Green.
