This afternoon, Class 3 went to the Braunton Learning Community’s Singing Festival in Braunton Academy’s Isaac Hall.

There are six schools in the Braunton Learning Community – Braunton Academy are the only secondary school, and there was Caen, ourselves, Kingsacre, Marwood and Southmead primaries too.  There was also a mix of ages with Caen Primary bringing some of the youngest children from year 1 -it looked like everyone else was from Years 3 and 4.

Debbie Kent is one of the Music Leaders for Devon Music Service and she started us off with Hey Ho! a canon which we did in 6 parts too – brilliant! …and then we all sang  Sweet Child of Mine as a collaborative number.  It sounded like the Braunton Academy children / choir / singing group had learned this in a three part harmony – soprano, alto and tenor.

Caen‘s Year 1 children sand Bruno Mars’ song  Amazing and mashed it up with I’ll Be There.  It was great!

Kingsacre did their own song, written by the children about Hippos! They had percussion, 2-part harmony and children on guitars and the piano too!  In fact, the keyboard couldn’t get plugged in so the two girls jumped on the baby grand piano instead!  (It was also a great song!)

Marwood children sang I Feel Peace Like A River which was a beautiful piece – they really did the school proud.

Paul Painter is also from Devon’s Music Service and composed Marching Men as part of the work they’re doing with the Centennial Service of The Great War.  It was excellent!

Southmead most probably stole the show for me.  They also did a mash-up but with Labi Siffre’s Something Inside so Strong and Bill Withers’ Lean on Me.  For me, it was down to the performance and confidence – the long line of children leaving them exposed to the audience and not hiding behind each other.  It was also the amazing soloists at different points in the songs.  I suppose, finally, it was the lyrics – little children singing that you can rely on them, lean on them because they are strong!  Sorry, the video couldn’t be uploaded – it just isn’t a good enough quality to do it justice. 🙁

Then it was our turn – Georgeham children singing a Swaziland number, Thula.  They were brilliant and I liked the way it got louder towards the end.  I’m sure the song was supposed to do that, not that the children got louder with confidence but it built up before a lovely finish.  Well done Georgeham!

Braunton Academy did four songs in total in their mash-up of Swing Low.  It was so good, we all stood up at the end and took on different parts.

Our final collaboration was Cyndi Lauper’s True Colours.  Again, Braunton had this organised in their group with sopranos, altos and tenors and with the whole hall singing, it sounded excellent.

Well done to all the music coordinators from the Learning Community and also to Debbie and Paul for helping the event to come together.  Mrs Patterson has worked a lot over the past term or two with different gatherings of our own singing group and she’s provided many children with some excellent experiences – well done to you too Mrs P!

More photos to come… and some text from the children too maybe?!