On Tuesday 1 April, 40 students from Upper II and Lower III and five members of staff headed off to Cornwall for the Junior School’s Music Tour. Members of the Jubilate Tour Choir arrived at school bright and early laden with suitcases, which were loaded efficiently onto the coach and at 7:30am we were on our way. The sun was shining which was a first for our music tour and stayed with us for most of the tour too.
After a good journey with a stop for lunch, we arrived at the Seal Sanctuary in Gweek, where we found out about the important rescue and rehabilitation work that they do and of course the obligatory visit to the gift shop. We then returned to the coach for the final leg of our journey and arrived at our accommodation, the Cohort Hostel in St Ives, just in time for tea. The pupils quickly settled into their rooms and were excited about the excursions and concerts which lay ahead.
Everyone was up bright and early on Wednesday and we travelled to Land’s End where we had our photo taken by the famous sign post. This time there was bright blue sky rather than the rain and wind that had greeted us two years ago. We delighted a number of tourists who were up early like us by singing our tour signature song, ‘Fill the World with Music’. We walked along the coastal path and enjoyed our snack while looking out over the sea. There was more time for shopping to everyone’s delight before having lunch in the sunshine! We left Land’s End to travel to St Uny C of E Academy back in St Ives for our first concert. The whole school came to watch, this was our biggest audience of over 200 pupils and staff, who enjoyed many of our songs with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang being a favourite.
The sun was still shining and we made our way to the sea front to have a couple of hours playing on the beach. Of course we had to sing our song and a crowd gathered to watch and listen to our impromptu performance. We returned to the Hostel for tea and a movie night (complete with popcorn) before turning in for the night.
A more leisurely start on Thursday with time to play games after breakfast before travelling to Hayle Day Care Centre to give our second concert – the audience thoroughly enjoyed our performance and we have been invited back when we next return. After lunch, back at the hostel, we enjoyed a beautiful afternoon in St Ives taking in a tour of the Lifeboat Station and entertaining more tourists by singing in front of the lifeboat centre before enjoying an ice cream on the seafront.
An early tea gave us time to get to our final concert at St Elwyn’s Church in Hayle. We shared this concert with Truro Prep School Choir and had a large audience of parents from both schools as well as members of the congregation from the church who thoroughly enjoyed the programme which ended with both choirs coming together to sing I am a Small Part of the World. A fantastic concert to finish our tour before heading back to our hostel to pack to go home.
On Friday, it was time to head home via Boscastle. Here, we found out about the flood that occurred in 2004 and enjoyed our final chance to do some shopping. The choir positioned themselves across the bridge and gave a final performance of Fill the World with Music and as a result many people came out of many buildings and shops to listen to them. We then boarded the coach for one last time and finally arrived back at school an hour early, happy but certainly ready for a good night’s sleep and the Easter holiday.
Everyone involved agreed that the music tour was a great success. The students who took part were an absolute pleasure to spend time with – they were kind to each other, polite to everyone they met on our travels and sang beautifully too.