Music is alive and well in School District No. 83 (North Okanagan-Shuswap)! Elementary school students receive specialist music instruction two to three times a week all year long. These classes provide students with a wide variety of experiences and activities that develop an equally wide variety of skills, abilities and attributes. The music teachers work regularly on including the latest research in their daily activities. By the time students head to middle school or to their school’s grade 7 band they’ll have played a variety of instruments like xylophones, recorders, percussion, Orff instruments, handbells and ukulele. They’ll also have sung hundreds of songs, learned dances from around the world (that go with many of those songs) and experienced the joy that comes from participating in group music-making! At grade 7, virtually all students in the district will play in a beginning concert band class on a wind instrument (such as a flute, a clarinet, a trumpet or a trombone). This experience will bring together much of their previous learning and prepare them for the choices ahead of them. At grade 8, music courses become optional, and, depending on the school, choices are varied. Many students will choose to carry on with their concert band selection. In some schools they will also have some of the options available to secondary students like jazz band, choir, musical theatre, guitar, keyboard and other groups formed around students with specific interests. All of our secondary schools offer concert band and jazz band courses. Some have choir, vocal jazz, musical theatre, music composition & technology, blues band, jazz combo and our music teachers are always on the lookout for new music courses that students want and which would complement their schools’ programs.
Contact Us
There are many fine teachers on the Music Staff of School District No. 83. The best way to reach them is through the schools at which they teach. Our office is located at the District Education Support Centre:
School District No. 83
Attn: Michelle Reed, Vice-Principal District Music
Box 129, 341 Shuswap St. S.W
Salmon Arm, B.C
V1E 4N2, Canada
Phone: (250) 832-2157
We are out in schools most of the time so please phone ahead if you need to see us!
For further information check out these pages!
Elementary Music
Band Instruments
District Instrument Rental
Instrument Repairs
Practice or Practise
Donating to Music Program