Songs of praise for Our Lady of the Wayside School choir

Pupils from Our Lady of the Wayside Catholic Primary School in Shirley have been rewarded £1,000 towards a school project of their choice after winning the Touchwood School Choir Competition 2016.

Throughout December, 21 local schools from across the region took centre stage in the shopping centre’s annual contest in a bid to win the coveted title and spread some festive cheer amongst guests.

Amidst strong competition, the singing stars from Our Lady of the Wayside Catholic Primary School were victorious after receiving more than 780 votes – and win the prestigious title of ‘Touchwood School Choir Competition Winners 2016’.

The choir were chosen as the overall winners after guests were blown away by their seasonal renditions of festive favourites including, ‘Silent Night’ and ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas’, which helped to inject some Christmas spirit into shoppers.

Lucy Burnett, Marketing Manager at Touchwood, comments: “Our annual Christmas school choir competition is something that our guests really look forward to and continue to support each year.

“The schools that take part always put on a beautiful show performing some choir classics.

“This year the standard was particularly high and we’d like to say a big congratulations to Our Lady of the Wayside Primary School on winning and also to everyone who took the time to come along to support all the schools.”

Mr Ben Taylor, Head Teacher at Our Lady of the Wayside Catholic Primary School, said: “We are delighted to have won Touchwood’s Christmas choir competition and the children are absolutely thrilled.

“We worked very hard on the day to deliver the best possible performance, and have decided that the money will go towards purchasing some new musical instruments for the school playground.”

(Photo: Pupils from Our Lady of the Wayside Catholic Primary School and Touchwood General Manager Andy Cole).