Rookie Rockstars - West Lothian

The Rookie Rockstars Primary Schools Programme is an initiative that was created to give children the opportunity to work with professional musicians and singers to learn original songs, record a CD and perform in a concert. The hyper-enthusiastic and skilled Rookie Rockstars crew spend three days working with teachers and pupils in the school, providing a unique learning experience that aims to promote confidence, self-esteem, and positive friendships and encourages kids to take responsibility for learning as individuals and also as part of a group in areas such as Health & Wellbeing, Expressive Arts and Technology. It fits in well to augment the school curriculum.

The programme culminates in a big concert at the end with parents, grand-parents and other “special people” invited along to see the entire school perform on stage. The first thing to note is that this is a hell of a lot more fun than a nativity play! The programme has 5 original rock songs with great pre-recorded instrumentation and the school-children, all dressed in their own finest rock-star clothing, provide the vocals, choreography and stage moves which they deliver with massive enthusiasm and it’s very clear that they are all having an absolute blast – you can feel the energy coming off them.

The stand-out song for me was (I think) called ‘Don’t Give Up’ which featured the finest and most enthusiastic group head-banging I’ve ever seen outside of Wayne and Garth’s Mirth-mobile. The songs are actually really good and credible rock anthems with titles like ‘Hey, Hey, I’m OK’ and ‘Bullies Ain’t Big’ so there is a powerful message for the young people. It is an important message but this is anything but a dull wokefest and the kids really put heart and soul into it. They definitely get a lot out of it and it was an absolute joy to witness.

There was audience participation with a family member rap-off (someone’s Granny won) and there was also time for one last positive message i.e. “rock is way better than pop” and that was illustrated by a medley of cover versions featuring rocked up versions of pop songs alongside some rock classics like ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’. Hopefully most of the kids got it and we’ll be seeing them at gigs in the future. It was a slightly late night for the P1s but my wee rock star had a ball and was sleeping as soon as her head hit the pillow but she was chatting about how good it was all the way home.

The Rookie Rockstar programme was certainly a big hit at my grand-daughter’s school. It’s a registered charity and they provide a whole lot of other services too, such as child counselling and rock school. The programme is presented for free to the schools as a result of folks gladly paying a small fee per head for the gig, buying merch and entering the charity raffle. There are a few other ways that the public can support their important work and there are some details on their website.