An award-winning musical combination

31st March 2023

On Wednesday 22nd of March, we held our Spring Concert where our students showcased what they have learnt in our music lessons and shared the fantastic musical talent in our school. On Friday 24 March, we went on to compete in the Wensleydale Tournament of Song. Year 9 students Jessica Arnott and Matthew Alderson, who performed a wonderful duet at the concert and took part in the tournament, have written about the two events.

Spring Concert

Over 60 students took part in the concert from Key Stage 3, which was attended by over 150 people.

There was a range of wonderful performances from Year 9 Samba to Year 7 Ukuleles, as well as many outstanding performances from soloists, duets and small groups, many of which were performing for the first time.

We also had The Wensleydale School Choir perform, which we are a part of. This was our last performance of Best Day of My Life and Shut Up and Dance before we competed at The Wensleydale Tournament of Song. This really helped us prepare and build confidence in preparation to compete.

The evening finished with a cheery singalong to Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now led by the school choir. The concert was a huge success and we can’t wait for our next performance opportunity. Thank you to Mr Hadfield for organising it.

Tournament of Song

Our choir restarted rehearsals for the tournament in September 2022 after COVID. We were competing in the Choral Singing Secondary School category against Teesdale School. As this was the first time all our members had competed in a competition as part of The Wensleydale School Choir, we all had mixed feelings of nerves and excitement. We were up first and performed Best Day of My Life and Shut Up and Dance, which we had been rehearsing since January with Mr Hadfield during our Thursday enrichment rehearsals.

Shortly after our performance, Teesdale School Choir performed and then we had the nervous wait for our feedback and the results. The feedback was really positive and highlighted how confident we were, how well rehearsed the pieces were, with a particular comment about how in tune our harmonies were and how accurately both pieces were performed.

After what seemed like a lifetime, the results were in – WE WERE AWARDED FIRST PLACE! The hard work was worth it and had paid off! We were all over the moon and just wanted to get up and perform again. We can’t wait to start our next challenge and continue improving and performing.