Our visit to Shireland CBSO Academy: a West Bromwich school with a unique orchestra partnership

3rd October 2024

We held our September meeting at Shireland CBSO Academy in West Bromwich. This is Britain’s first state school to be established in partnership with an orchestra: the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO). We were honoured to have a tour of the school, and see CBSO musicians in rehearsal.

Sandwell Business Ambassadors’ monthly meetings

Sandwell Business Ambassadors tend to meet on the second Thursday of each month. Thanks to our extended networks, we are sometimes able to hold our meetings in various venues around Sandwell. There, we get to know different organisations and the people who run them.

Recently, we’ve been to the Sandwell Start-Up Hub in Oldbury, Smethwick Council House, and CMT Engineering in Cradley Heath. We’ve also held meetings at the Enfinium decarbonisation hub in West Bromwich, and Warrens Hall Riding School in Tividale.

In September 2024, we accepted Shireland CBSO Academy’s invitation to hold our meeting at its site in West Bromwich. There, we heard about the unique partnership between the school and the CBSO – one of the UK’s most prestigious orchestras. We got to meet school principal David Green, and Claire Tilt, who is the CBSO’s Director of Development.

About Shireland CBSO Academy

The new Shireland CBSO Academy opened to Year 7 and 12 pupils in September 2023, in the former BT building in Providence Place, West Bromwich. It is part of Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust: a multi-academy education trust with schools across the Black Country.

This new school’s unique partnership with the CBSO means students from diverse backgrounds have the chance to achieve musically at an elite level. Every student has the opportunity to learn an instrument and be part of a group capable of performing.

When it comes to admissions, the school has nodal points in the six towns of Sandwell – Wednesbury, Oldbury, Smethwick, Tipton, West Bromwich and Rowley Regis. This means children across the borough stand a chance of gaining a place. While the school has a non-selective admissions policy, it reserves 15 places in each Year 7 cohort for students who are already showing exceptional talent in music.

During the school year, many CBSO musicians will visit the academy to perform, and to conduct masterclasses. Pupils also benefit from enrichment classes, and insight into the roles that support a professional orchestra – including sound engineering, orchestration, conducting, logistics and travel.

While the building did not start life as a school, its interiors are entirely restructured to support music education and performance, with careful consideration of acoustics. The facilities include specialist music classrooms, a recording studio and a three-storey performance hall / auditorium.

Good timing

It was in the auditorium that we realised the good timing of our September meeting, as fifteen CBSO musicians were present that day. When they played John Williams’ main theme from Star Wars, the sound was so exquisite that we could have been listening to the soundtrack from the original motion picture. And they represented only fifteen instruments from a 90-seat orchestra. It emphasised to us what a gift the Shireland CBSO Academy students have, in their close proximity to world-class musicians.

During our tour, several of the Sandwell Business Ambassadors commented on how polite and engaged the pupils were: a credit to their school.

Alan Taylor is chair of the Sandwell Business Ambassadors. He said afterwards: “It was the favourite part of my week! Thank you to David, Claire, the musicians and pupils – and we look forward to following the progress and undoubted success that you will all enjoy. This area is in need of aspirational examples to help to inspire and Shireland CBSO Academy is a great example”.

Private hire

Shireland CBSO Academy offers its facilities for private hire, including the performance hall and recording studio. You can find details at https://shirelandcbso.schoolhire.co.uk/.

If you would like the Sandwell Business Ambassadors to consider a visit to your Sandwell organisation, contact us.