On Saturday 8th March, three of St Mary's music groups performed at Basingstoke Music and Arts Festival at Queen Mary's College in Basingstoke. These groups were the brass band, string orchestra and orchestra. Each was awarded a trophy and high scores, as well as first place. Sadly, no other local schools entered this year so we had nobody else to compete against. However, it was a great opportunity to perform to family and friends and to support the music festival, which we have played in for decades now. 

The adjudicator, Paul Harris, was incredibly impressed with the children and said they were "outstanding" and had "good discipline" in how they played together and followed the conductor. He was impressed with our "brilliant huge orchestra".  He said that St Mary's was "extremely special" and he could not believe that the same three groups came from one school. 

Congratulations to all the children involved and many thanks to Mr Llewellyn and Mrs Kershaw who rehearsed and conducted the brass band and string orchestra and to Mrs Chittey for accompanying the string orchestra. Also thanks to Mrs Ludford, Mrs Morris and Mrs Baldwin for their weekly support with the school orchestra. Finally thanks to parents for supporting their children in coming to rehearsals and concerts.