Jersey music school seeks new leader as founder starts UK hotel venture

Thursday 02 February 2023

A 300-student-strong Jersey music school is looking for a new leader as its founder steps down after more than 20 years to take on a new adventure running a hotel in the UK.

The Progressive School of Music, which first appeared in Jersey in 1999, is a locally-run school teaching singing, piano, choral singing, music theory and musical theatre.

The school, whose students are aged anywhere from nine months old and up, frequently hosts shows, gigs and events for charity, having raised over £140,000 over the years. 

However, the founder of the school and the current musical theatre teacher, Leila Begg, has decided to step down, having been offered the opportunity to purchase a small hotel in Brighton, closer to her sons who currently live in the UK.

Pictured: Leila Begg with one of her students, Rebecca.

She said: "I feel like I've given my absolute all, I've given 100% of me... I was just teaching piano I could keep going until I was 104, but I'm definitely not 21 anymore!" 

For Leila, who is now 63, the first signs that it was time to pass the torch came four years ago. The Progressive School of Music teaches CCM, or Contemporary Commercial Music, and Leila soon found herself out of her depth.

She said: "I was getting too old to teach pop. I started to sound like my dad... 'No one writes a good tune anymore!'"

As such, she passed over the role of singing teacher to her colleague, Emily Andrews, who has also recently decided to take a step back from the school, looking to start a family.

Now, the school is looking for some local talent who would be willing to take up singing and musical theatre lessons.

Pictured: Singing lessons with Emily Andrews (Diane Morley-Ham) 

As well as teaching singing lessons for anyone from the age of six onwards, any new teacher will find a particular challenge in the schools musical theatre showcases.

The musical theatre classes at the school consist of 65 students split over 6 classes, meaning that each class contains only 10 to 15 pupils. The pupils are taught the accredited Rock School syllabus, and undertake their exams as a show for an audience which the teacher will have responsibility for writing and putting together. 

Leila said: "You need at least 10-15 people to be able to put on a production, but the small class sizes mean that each child gets 1-1 attention... Every single one has the same number of spoken lines, the same amount of singing, of dancing... Every single child shines equally, they all get their five minutes of fame."

Pictured: One of the school's fundraising efforts, 'Go Yellow Day'. 

Leila is keen that any future teachers share her fundamental ethos that the school should teach and encourage all students, and not just the talented few.

She said: "The child I'm always worried about is the child at the back of the stage who might be struggling, my concern isn't always about the shining star... I would love someone to take over who is concerned about the child who wouldn't necessarily shine anywhere else." 

Pictured: Progressive School of Music students performing a piece from Chicago. (Rebecca Le Brun)

In the decades since its launch, the Progressive School of Music has developed into much more than a school, but an entire community.

Leila added: "I've got children who have been there since they were 18 months old... I'm teaching the children of parents who I taught... It really is a family and it was the hardest week of my life when I announced I was leaving."

Taking on the role is demanding - Leila stated that she consistently works 10-hour days, but hugely rewarding for anyone who wants the opportunity to teach music and musical theatre and an increasingly busy market.

Leila said: "For somebody setting up from scratch, it's quite a difficult market in Jersey. But here It's all done, it's all set up, you just have to walk into it. To walk into a school where there's 300 students is a dream come true." 

She added: "I would love somebody who's young and has that same energy that I had 30 years ago." 

Any interested parties who would consider teaching musical theatre or singing, should contact Leila at music@psm.je.