Barton Park Concert
Over 150 young singers came together in a massed choir for an inaugural event celebrating a return to singing.
Year 3 pupils from Headington Prep School, Windmill, St Andrew’s and Barton Park primaries joined their voices at a special event at Barton Park on Thursday 24th March as the culmination of the Primary Connect singing project.
Mrs Amy Evetts, Head of Music at Headington Prep, visited each of the schools in the run up to the event and taught them three songs each, which they then practised within their schools before coming together for a joint rehearsal before the performance. Each school performed one solo number and two songs were performed by the four-school choir en masse.
As well as being a joyful celebration of singing – banned for a significant period of time during the pandemic – it also acted as a way for host school Barton Park headteacher Bryony McCraw to welcome everyone to Oxford’s newest school. In all, around 160 children took part in the event to an audience of around 120 parents.
Among those singing were Avangeline and Katie from Windmill.
They said: “Our favourite song was ‘Baningati’ as it is such a happy, lively song. We’ve loved it – we can’t normally sing in the choir until Year 4 and we would love the chance to take part in more events and choirs.”
Millie, from St Andrew’s School, said: “I loved it. I like singing a lot! I liked singing Mrs Fizzy keeps so busy.”
There was no particular theme to the songs chosen, they were selected as fun songs aimed at inspiring the children to start singing.
Mrs Evetts said: “My vision was to get the schools in the Headington community singing again and it was just so lovely to see and hear everyone singing together.
“I very much hope this will continue with other schools within Headington being involved and hosting the event yearly.”
