JCG Year 7 Choir learn and perform wartime song

Wednesday, 11 November 2026 at 14:40

By Harry Booth

Year 7 students at JCG have performed a wartime song as part of wider learning about the role of music during times of conflict.

They sang 'White Cliffs of Dover' this week in a special school assembly to mark Remembrance Day.

This year's Year 7 cohort is the first to benefit from a new initiative launched in September to give them a dedicated hour of singing in their timetable, alongside their weekly music lesson.

The performance formed part of their learning of how musicians played an important role during times of conflict - including how it boosted morale, provided comfort, and brought communities together.

Katie Morel-Orchard, Director of Music at JCG, said:

"We've been doing a lot of context in our lessons to make sure that they do understand why we're doing this song and the broader context, not just musically of how music has fit into history, but of the para-social and personal relationship that people can have to music and how it carried people through hard times.

"They do have a bigger understanding now and I could see it and hear it when they were singing.

"I'm lucky that the school really invests in singing and in its young people having voices, so this can come in terms of their oracy and speaking, but it also comes in terms of them singing and finding their voice that way.

"They're just starting their secondary school journey and it's a moment where, coming up from primary school, they can feel a bit displaced, so it's important to the school that they can find that sense of belonging in singing as a communal year group."