On Friday 16th October 2009 Surbiton High School held a choral competition in the assembly rooms just before the school broke up for its October half term. The performers consisted of 12 pieces from different houses that the pupils were put in when they entered the school. The schools houses are Austen , Curie , Fonteyn , Nightingale , Teresa and finally Pankhurst . The names of course are from very strong and respected women who are an inspiration to all the girls.

There was a special judge that was brought in and she was a professional opera singer in Australia so she definitely knew what to look for in a good performance. Firstly the girls belonging to the lower half of the school ( years 7 ,8 and 9) all had to perform the same song in their different houses and this song was “ Down by the riverside” which was a very upbeat and fun song to sing. After this it was then the turn of the upper school ( Years 10 ,11,12 and 13) to sing their own song choice in their houses.

Each house had been selected a leader who organised their houses pieces along with the help of the music teachers and the leader for Curie who was Rochelle Smith in year 11 received the best leader award as she lead the lower school Curie team into victory as they one the first section of the competition with their rendition of Down by the riverside.

The upper school performed their choral pieces and many were from musicals such as the Lion King and Hairspray which managed to get the whole school clapping and singing along! After all the performances the girls had to have an anticipated wait while they waited for the judges to pick who had one in each section and who had one of overall but most of all , which house had one the house cup! Whilst the judges deliberated the girls were all treated to one music teacher Mr Wigall to play a whole school rendition of Down by the riverside where every girl in the school was singing along and even managed to get some teachers to sing too!

As the results came in the atmosphere was extremely tense , all the girls had spent weeks practicing and were waiting to see if their efforts had been put to good use. Pankhurst managed to Win the second section with the upper school and putting together all their results came first overall and an extactic house leader went to go and collect her trophy. I asked one girl from year 10 in Nightingale what it was like to be there she said “ Although I didn’t actually perform , I could tell everyone that did had so much fun! I really enjoyed cheering on my house and so did the rest of my class . Everyone had their house coloured ribbons in their hair and it made it such a great event , I cant wait till next year when we do it again!”The event was obviously something enjoyed by all and a great end to the first half term.