Young singers from across the UK coming to Shropshire for choral masterclasses and concert

Some of the 30,000 children at five Woodard Schools across the UK will sing at Shrewsbury Abbey and St Oswald’s Chapel at Ellesmere College.

The group will be based at Ellesmere College for rehearsals from October 6 before performing over the weekend.

The idea is to gather singers from across the country to learn choral repertoire, perform in a liturgical context and take lessons back to their respective schools.

Tony Coupe, director of music at Ellesmere College, said: “We are very excited to be able to put on the Voices of Woodard event for children from five Woodard schools in the UK.

“It is the first time we have hosted this event and we are sure it is going to be an educational and engaging weekend.

“The group will be fused together in a limited amount of rehearsal time before putting on performances to friends, family and the public in historic locations which offer a great opportunity to enhance acoustics and benefit the choir’s sound.

“We are sure they are going to achieve a lot in the short time they will be together and we know the performances will be of a very high standard.

“It will be a great lesson in learning together and then repeating that in a performance before taking lessons back to their prospective schools.”

Children will travel to Ellesmere College from Sir Robert Woodard Academy in West Sussex, Worksop College in Nottinghamshire, Crompton House C of E School in Oldham, Queen Mary’s School in North Yorkshire and The Peterborough School.

The Voices of Woodard event will include performances of Evensong at Shrewsbury Abbey from 4.30pm on October 7 and Eucharist at St Oswald’s Chapel, Ellesmere College at 11am on October 8.

The choir will sing songs including Mozart's Ave Verum, The Heavens are Telling, Hail Holy Queen and the Stanford in Bb.

Those children visiting the county will also enjoy an evening of entertainment at Quinta Conference and Retreat Centre in Oswestry including a ceilidh put on by the Tern Valley Tinkers and a fiendish quiz night by the Woodard Senior Provost.

Tony added: “It is set to be an exciting weekend where we hope the children will also get to know each other and share experiences at their different schools, as well as develop their choral abilities.”

There are 37 Woodard schools across the UK and Sri Lanka and Kenya. They are a combination of academies, independent and state-maintained schools.

The Woodard Corporation is a charity which aims to provide "high quality education in an actively Christian school environment for all".