Our MCPS elementary school in Bethesda has a winter sing along concert right before break. MS and HS bands have a winter concert too.

Yes. My daughter's elementary school had and has every year a winter concert at the end of the year. There's also a spring concert toward the end of the school year.

Anonymous wrote:Our Bethesda elementary school does a holiday sing-along where the all the kids perform grade-by-grade. The school chorus also does a few songs. I'm surprised that this is not more common. They perform Hannukah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas songs but none with heavy religious themes. Its cute.

That sounds cute and is similar to what my elem school did in the 90s. I don't know why MoCo can't figure out how to be inclusive without eliminating everything fun.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We recently moved to Silver Spring from out of state so this is my son's first year in MoCo schools. I was surprised there was no holiday concert or play put on by the kids. Is this typical?

Yes MCPS doesn’t like to celebrate anything.

nothing religious, anyway. that pesky first amendment thing.

Anonymous wrote:We recently moved to Silver Spring from out of state so this is my son's first year in MoCo schools. I was surprised there was no holiday concert or play put on by the kids. Is this typical?

Yes MCPS doesn’t like to celebrate anything.

Our Bethesda elementary school does a holiday sing-along where the all the kids perform grade-by-grade. The school chorus also does a few songs. I'm surprised that this is not more common. They perform Hannukah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas songs but none with heavy religious themes. Its cute.

We are at a Bethesda MCPS and same here. I was also bummed.

Concerts really vary from school to school. Some elementary schools have a chorus, geared towards performance, while others do not. Some do a holiday program, some do a concert in January, some do something in the spring. Some schools involve all the grade levels, others just the older kids. Some schools do a play. Sometimes the chorus and instrumental music kids perform together, sometimes not. It's up to the staff and admin at each school to decide what to do.

Middle school and school instrumental music teacher stipends include winter and spring concerts at one school. Elementary instrumental music teacher stipends don’t cover 2 concerts per year at each school. Most elem instrumental teachers are assigned to 3 schools, but some are assigned to 1 or 2. So there is a huge discrepancy even within the same cluster as to which elem schools have 2 instrumental concerts per year and which only have one.

Anonymous wrote:Yes it is typical. Band and orchestra usually has a Dec performance but it’s not a holiday event, which tbh, sounds impossible to do without being actually about Christmas which isn’t appropriate or legal in a public school.

👆This.

Both our ES and MS have band/orchestra/chorus performances in December.

Also in MoCo and mine does not have any sort of end of semester or year performance. Which I'm glad for.

They do once they start band/orchestra/choir in 4th grade though.

Sorry, I meant band or orchestra in middle school not elementary.

Yes it is typical. Band and orchestra usually has a Dec performance but it’s not a holiday event, which tbh, sounds impossible to do without being actually about Christmas which isn’t appropriate or legal in a public school.

We recently moved to Silver Spring from out of state so this is my son's first year in MoCo schools. I was surprised there was no holiday concert or play put on by the kids. Is this typical?