Seasonal celebrations at Marshland High School

Soloists, bands, and choir singers came together to celebrate the season at the Marshland High School Christmas Concert, where they entertained friends, family, and members of the community with an evening of festive favourites.

Students from Years 7 to 11 took part in the event at the school, which is part of the West Norfolk Academies Trust, and students were also involved behind the scenes, assisting with technical support.

“The concert was flawless and definitely the best we’ve had in my time in terms of quality and efficiency,” said the school’s Head of Music, Aaron Hester, who organised this year’s performance with the help of music teacher Kevin Bell. “We had over 170 seats sold before door sales. We estimate there were closer to 200 on the evening itself.”

He continued: “Highlights were our Year 7 band, The Wispas, with their debut performance of ‘Yellow’ by Coldplay, our Year 7 choir who belted out ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham!, among other brilliant solo performers like Lola Hart and Jessica Eagling in Year 11, Willis Ruff in Year 10, Astrid Radanke in Year 9, and Maria Cullen in Year 7.

“Kiera Boxall (Year 10) also tackled the very difficult ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ by Mariah Carey, backed up by the school choir.”

Feedback from the audience was glowing, with one parent emailing: “We thought the Year 7 choir and band were brilliant. The Mariah Carey rendition with the backing choir was lovely. Well done all.”

Mr Hester added: “For some of our older pupils, these events are like a walk in the park – they’ve done plenty of concerts here at the school, and they have commented on how smooth this particular one was.

"Our Year 7s found the experience very exciting, and many of them have caught ‘the bug’ now and are already asking when the next concert is and what songs we will be performing.”

And the enthusiastic young performers won’t have too long to wait – Marshland’s next musical production will be an Easter Concert at the end of next term, and there will also be a Summer Concert in July.