Pupils from Forms I-III once again enthralled parents and friends with their contributions to the annual tea-time concert. The appreciative audience was impressed with the great variety of styles and instruments represented from classical to folk ballads and contemporary pop.

Two third form girls, Jessica and Sarah, performed their own compositions. Particularly pleasing was the number of trumpet items and very promising young vocalists. It takes tremendous courage to stand up and perform in front of an audience. Well done girls!

It was lovely for preparatory school parents and children to start July by gathering and enjoying together a delightful concert given in the Marian Hall on Tuesday afternoon by our young instrumentalists. The sun was shining and mums, dads, grandparents and siblings chatted informally over a cup of tea with some of Mrs Kennedy’s excellent home made cakes before the performance began. The audience were then entertained by an impressive group of young musicians playing a variety of piano, flute, harp, violin, and guitar pieces. There were many enchanting and memorable performances. The afternoon’s concert concluded with two delightful ensemble pieces from our clarinet band under the direction of Mrs Banks. All the performers are to be congratulated for their hard work and we look forward to another enjoyable concert next term.

On Saturday 7 June, 34 members of the Prep and Senior Choirs gathered in Alton Public gardens for the launch of the Alton Greening campaign. It was a perfect sunny day and the audience were treated to songs with an environmental message, including the entertaining ‘Environment Round’ – the message conveyed even clearer with the aid of some props! Hannah, Amy, Rebecca and Evie also provided solo numbers in between useful advice from the MC on how we can all save energy by doing a few simple th

Variety is the spice of life - this was certainly the case at the Chamber Music Concert presented by the Senior School pupils. From the serene sound of Debussy's Syrinx on solo flute played by Hannah to the Gorilla Rock, composed and performed with panache by Katie. Hannah also gave an accomplished performance on recorder and piano of her A2 examination recital.

Chamber groups also featured - the year 9 flute quartet delighted the audience with their Ragtime piece whilst the wind quartet brought back nostalgic feelings with an arrangement of The House of the Rising Sun.

St Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Farnham was the setting for a glorious concert last Thursday evening. Almost 180 girls and boys from the school filled the church with a wonderful mixture of modern, traditional and classical music which thrilled a packed audience.

Full choirs from the prep and senior schools were in magnificent voice for a number of items and the smaller Chamber Choir of the senior school and Chanteurs group of the prep school enchanted St Joan's parishioners with some quieter songs. There were splendid duets featuring Olivia with Kate and Eleanor and musical pieces from Hannah on recorder and a violin quartet from teacher Pam Edwards with Erin, Kate and Elisabeth. Georgia, Imogen and Allison stepped from the choir to perform beautiful solo pieces.

On Sunday 9 March two girls in the Vth Form, Hannah and Jenny, had the unique opportunity to participate in the annual performance by the Bach Choir of the St Matthew Passion in the Royal Festival Hall. This is the second year that our girls have been invited to participate in this event and offers some of our more advanced singers the chance to sing with a truly outstanding choir.

On 30th January, Year 4 set off on their trip to Petersfield to attend a concert. We got in he minibuses with Mr Hoffman driving one and Mrs Whicher the other. The journey was about half an hour, but we kept ourselves entertained. When we got there, we sat on the bus for a bit and ate our snacks. Then we had a very short but pleasant walk to the theatre. When we went in it was astonishing to see all the instruments; there were violins, flutes, cellos, trumpets and much, much more. We sat near the top and I think we had the best seats there.

After our museum visits, the time came to sit back in our seats and enjoy the show, which fitted well into our history topic as it depicted the turmoil of the 1930s and 40s. As the curtains went back and we saw the wonderful set, we were all on the edges of our seats with excitement. As the first song was sung, we were all clapping so loudly that you could hear it a mile away! Aoife as Maria was brilliant, and we were really impressed by how well the Von Trapp children acted, sang and danced. The Nazis were particularly scary in the Salzburg festival and the cemetery. As it came to an end and the actors took their bows we all jumped up and cheered. On the journey back to school, we could not stop talking about it!

Everything went stupendously well as packed halls were treated to scintillating performances of Cole Porter’s musical “Anything Goes” at the end of November. Under Louise Dilloway’s direction, and with choreography by Alison Titchmarsh, the huge cast shone, sang, danced and acted their way through the show, set on board the SS American on her voyage from New York to England in 1934. The musical director was Louise Douglas.

Imogen had the audience captivated as she played the part of Reno, with great stage presence and poise. Katie as Crocker displayed fine acting skills despite losing her singing voice on the first night (she mimed the songs with extraordinary skillfulness and they were performed, also with great skill and at short notice, by off-stage understudies.) Tara played Lord Evelyn Oakley, with a great sense of fun and exactly the right mixture of toffishness and foppery. Only the limitations of space prevent the naming of more of these remarkable young players.

The term's Christmas celebrations were brought to a fitting conclusion with our two whole school candle lit carol services. In weeks of frenetic preparations for all the various end of term events, the carol services offered a serene alternative.

For the first time we had two carol services, which proved really successful, as every member of the congregation could be accommodated.

A selection of seasonal music, ranging in style from calypso to the baroque was performed by choirs from the prep and senior schools, interspersed by carefully chosen readings to reflect on the Christmas story from the annunciation to the visit of the magi. Allison Riddell in the Upper Sixth gave a moving rendition of Schubert's Ave Maria, and the prep Chanteurs and Senior Choir combined to perform a lively Gaudeamus.