Music

Walford Old Scholar Hayley Pearson returns to Walford to reflect on the important role the School played in shaping her confidence, creativity and future. Remembering Walford as a place where she felt seen, heard and encouraged to be herself, Hayley explores how the School continues to create opportunities for students to discover and pursue their individual passions.

During her visit, Hayley reconnects with the areas that meant so much to her as a student, including music, drama and visual arts. From choirs, ensembles and productions to student-led drama and a diverse arts program, Walford provides students with the freedom to explore their creativity, develop their skills and find a place where they belong. More than 130 years on, Walford continues to support young women to explore what inspires them, embrace new opportunities and work towards “her best, her way.”

Transcript:

High school seems like a lifetime ago, but it was such a massive part of my life. It's a massive part of anyone's lives and I'm so excited to be back here at Walford to see how much it's changed.

For more than 130 years, Walford Anglican School for Girls has been providing an outstanding education for young women.

For me, at Walford, I felt seen, I felt heard, I felt like I could be whatever I wanted to be, and all those years later, Walford is still carving out pathways for students to do their best, their way.

My first stop is the music department where the big band is busy rehearsing.

The music program at Walford starts in ELC, and students do a variety of activities. We have students singing in choirs in the junior school. The students take part in immersion programs for strings and brass, which then lead them into a number of ensembles here.

We also have students who have gone on to study music, become music teachers, play in the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. We have a student currently, um, who is studying in Paris, so it's very exciting.

I'm in a lot of choirs and ensembles and recently we've just wrapped our production, Strictly Ballroom The Musical, with St. Peter's Boys. The Walford music department has just been a big part of my life, and just, it's just such a happy and welcoming place and just I love how whether you’re starting music or whether you’re like advanced, just everyone's welcome and there's a spot for everyone here.

There's also an amazing drama program, which I love, and the year nine students are currently rehearsing for a school production.

We are rehearsing for our middle school production, which is called Big Fan. It's a devised work by students from Years 7 to 9. The thing that I love about drama at Walford is that it’s a community, so everyone works together to create this vision and put this story to life, and it's just a lot of fun performing with my friends.

Student agency is at the heart of everything we do. So, students in Year 11 and 12 will establish a vision statement, and then students all the way from Year 7 to Year 12 will use that to collaborate and decide what stories they want to tell.

Art played such a huge part in my education and is something I continue today. And the newly refurbished Upper Wait Building for art is sensational. This used to be my Year 12 centre, and now it's for art. I'm so inspired, I want to go back to school.

We have a really strong arts program at Walford. The girls are really lucky that they get to explore different media. We do ceramics, we do painting, drawing, we've got, uh, graphic design. We've also got a bit of architecture, a bit of photography, a bit of fashion, maybe a little bit of jewellery in there, so the girls get to explore all different things.

I love Art Walford because we're given so much creative freedom and opportunities to do sort of what we want to do and be as creative as we like. What we learn also is related to the outside world and the real world, and I find this really enjoyable.

If you don't know what you want to do yet, even if you are an adult, it doesn't matter. Things will always work out, but I have a beautiful memory because I'm standing right now exactly where I was the moment I realised I knew what I wanted to do.

I wanted to paint. I wanted to do theatre. I wanted to be on stage. I wanted to be a TV presenter, and now I am. I made those things happen because my time at Walford, I knew I was supported, and I knew that I could be anything that I wanted to be.

Walford holds so many memories for me. I feel like I thrived here, and many other women have too. Enrolments are now open, and there's scholarships available as well to apply or to book a school tour. Head to this website.

Senior Orchestra

Senior String Orchestra

Intermediate String Orchestra

Junior String Orchestra

Big Band 1

Big Band 2

Big Band 3

Senior Concert Band

Intermediate Concert Band

Concert Band

ChanterElle

Chica Vocé

Senior Choir

Middle School Choir

Bella Voce

Animato Voce

Poco Voce

Jazz Combo

Senior Handbell Choir

Handbell Ringers

Junior String