Oaklands primary make album after death of pupil

The sudden death last year of a young pupil from Oaklands Primary in Hanwell left the school commmunity heartbroken.

Shanade Sharma, a year 6 student, had been ill over the Christmas holidays with an unusual pneumonia type infection and died on Boxing Day.

Head teacher Sash Hamidi said:

'' Shanade was a girl known by so many at Oaklands for her warmth, her smile and her bubbly personality. Her death affected us all and it was hard to see how to move forwards.''

However their grief was soon to be channelled.

Moved by the deeply sad news and overwhelmed by efforts to support Shanade’s family and help the children understand the tragedy, one of the parents came forward with a suggestion.

That parent was Michele Stodart from internationally known Hanwell band The Magic Numbers. Her idea was to make an album with the children, all 517 of them, in honour of their friend

She said: '' "I remembered hearing the Langley Schools Music Project [a cult record from the ’70s] and thinking how great that was: a bunch of school kids singing classic pop songs. I wanted to recreate something similar that would give every child in Oaklands School the opportunity to record their efforts and create something physical, a CD, that they could hold and cherish for a lifetime."

All the school has been involved in the recording - which consists of old and new songs and Michele says the children have written and recorded a very special one - just for for Shanade.

'' I started by asking them what they'd want to write a song about: it could be about anything in the whole world, whatever they wanted. The children said, 'let's write about something real, let's write a song for our friend Shanade'."

The song is called ''Forever Young.''

The project has gained widespread support and the children have been featured in Music Week and the Dermot O'Leary show.

The Oaklands Sessions album is officially released on itunes on July 6th which coincides with their school fair where CD's can be bought.

Proceeds from album sales will go towards equipment for the school and a donation will be made to Shanade's favourite charity the Dogs Trust.

4th July 2013