Schools spread some festive cheer at community carol service

Young musicians and singers came together to celebrate the season at the West Norfolk Academies Trust Community Carol Service.Featuring musical talents from the Trust’s member schools, the free event took place in St Nicholas’ Chapel in King’s Lynn in front of a congregation of around 600.The four participating secondary schools included Marshland High School in West Walton, St Clement’s High School in Terrington St Clement, Smithdon High School in Hunstanton, and Springwood High School in Lynn, while the other Trust schools taking part were Clenchwarton and Gaywood primaries, Heacham Infant, Heacham Junior, Snettisham, Walpole Cross Keys and West Lynn primary schools.

“Each cluster of schools performed songs on their own,” said Robin Norman, director of music at WNAT and event organiser. “These included ‘Away in a Manger’, ‘O Christmas Tree’, and ‘Rudolph’ from the primaries, whilst the secondaries performed ‘Winter Wonderland’ and ‘All I Want for Christmas’.

“In addition to this, there were seven congregational carols accompanied by a cross-trust orchestra and Thomas Burt on the St Nicholas organ.”

The carol service has become a regular fixture in the Trust calendar and was taking place for the third year running. Headteachers and music leads from all the schools were involved in the event, which was also attended by Canon Mark Dimond from Lynn Minster, who spoke as part of the service.

“As a trust, we realise that each school is part of a much larger community,” said Mr Norman. “Events such as this give us the opportunity to share music within our trust community, where everyone performs together, but they also give a chance for the general, wider community to come along and share in the gift of music, and also to get into the Christmas spirit. If you can’t do it at Christmas, when can you?”

Other musical events have also been taking place this month, with each of the WNAT secondary schools staging its own Christmas Concert.

“Early in the New Year, both Springwood and Marshland have their annual productions to look forward to,” added Mr Norman.

“Here at WNAT, music never stops!”