The arrangements letter for our forthcoming Christmas Concerts* has all the information
you need about uniform and timings, etc.
Please order your tickets if you have not already done so.
Our Christmas Concerts are very popular and will put you in the spirit of the season
together with the falling white stuff if we get lucky again this year?!!

*emailed 3.12.11 and will also be posted in Letters Library on 5.12.11

The diary has been updated to reflect this and a copy of the letter is in the Library for reference

Welcome back to the start of another CYWO year and to our new parents we hope your children and you enjoy the experience that CYWO offers.

May I take this opportunity to remind/let you know that there is no parking for parents in the school car park at Cordwalles. All the cars there are staff cars – yes there are a lot of us!

Please drop your Orchestra Member off at the pedestrian gate and for reasons of safety please do not allow them to walk across the car park. We appreciate collection time with so many cars can be difficult, however we would ask for your co-operation in ensuring that you not only collect your children in safety but you park considerately with other roads users in mind. Thank you.

Please check the web site regularly for updates about the Orchestra Sections activities and particularly when we get into the Winter months when bad weather, particularly what appears to be an annual if not biannual appearance of snow, may cause us to cancel a rehearsal. Please do not hesitate to use the contact details on the CYWO Web Site if you need help or clarification of any of our activities. Liz

Liz Neaves  – Secretary to CYWO

So far, 73% of orchestra members parents have signed up to receive email communications, which means that 27% of our membership will likely be in the dark about orchestra activities from September, unless they do something about it!!

If you cannot be contacted by email, please let us know and we will continue to produce paper copies for you.

Junior Section parents have the highest percentage of sign-ups (83%), with the lowest being our Intermediate Section parents (57%).

We will be delighted if, over the next month, we see our sign-up numbers achieve our 100% email objective.

In the meantime, we hope that all members and parents have an enjoyable summer holiday break.

Looking forward to seeing you again on 10 September.

This new website is intended to be the source of information for all matters related to the orchestra.

The “Events” page will list all rehearsal dates plus all concerts and spring/summer playouts, with details of times and venues and links to Google maps to show the locations, which we hope will be a help in planning travel arrangements. Any last minute weather related decisions regarding outdoor playouts will also be displayed here.

With the launch of the new site, there are also some important new features we would like to bring to your attention:

- We are intending to phase out the production of paper letters shortly, and instead build an e-mail database of all parents. This will not only save costs but also make sure that you receive up to the minute news. No more searching the bottom of music cases to find letters three weeks old..! Please make sure that you register your e-mail address with us as soon as possible (see below)

- Past letters will also be displayed under the “Community” page

- We are also taking the opportunity to add some new features which we hope will be of benefit, especially to users.

- There is a new “Twitter” link that will be used to keep family and friends updated during overseas concert tours by the Senior orchestra. (Coming soon)

- We are adding a new “Marketplace” page to help parents buy and sell their musical instruments

- There is a link to the existing Facebook CYWO page to allow orchestra members to keep in touch with each other

We hope that you like the new site. Please feel free to feed back to the committee any comments that you may have.