We’re on our way to Wembley

PUPILS will follow in the footsteps of music legends when they take to the stage in front of more than 10,000 spectators at Wembley Arena next week.

Choir members at Southfield Junior School in Highworth will perform at the Voice in a Million charity concert along with 5,000 other young singers from across the UK to raise awareness of the thousands of children living in care and waiting to be adopted nationwide.

The 37 singers, aged between seven and 11, have been hard at work rehearsing at school, at home and even practising in public parks, to master a busy programme of pop tunes, including Firework by Kate Perry and Pharrell Williams’ Happy, ready for the musical extravaganza on Wednesday, March 12.

Year 5 teacher Clare Walshe, who runs the choir, said the pupils had thrown themselves into rehearsals.

“We have been rehearsing since before Christ-mas and some of the choir are also doing the Swindon Music Festival in two weeks so we have been busy,” she said.

“The children are very excited. As soon as we told them they would be singing at Wembley, they went mad.

“They are all doing very well and they are putting a lot of effort into it. They have been practising at home as well. They have been humming the songs in the corridor.”

 

Swindon Advertiser Mar 6 2014

X Factor winner Matt Cardle will join the children on stage at the annual concert.

Sophie Packford, nine, has practised in front of a live audience already, in the form of passers-by in a public park.

“I have been singing since I was four years old so I’m very excited,” she said. “I have been working quite hard for it. Every day I come home and practice in my bedroom. I’ve also sung the songs in public.

“I went to the park to practice there.”

Her schoolmate Louisa Hadgkiss, 11, added: “I am feeling excited and nervous at the same time. It’s the first time we will get to experience such a big audience.”