Salfords singers take centre stage at Fairfield Hall concert

​The young singers of Salfords Primary School in Redhill made a bit of history recently when they gave the first public performance of a song written specially for them at the GLF Schools music festival at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon.

​Having joined the Surrey-based multi-academy group a year ago, this was the first time Salfords had a chance to perform at the annual summer music festival, and the youngsters did their school proud with a rendition of ‘Breakthrough’, a piece written by the school’s music teacher David Coslett.

“This was an amazing effort – we couldn’t be any more proud of them all,” said Salfords Year Six teacher and assistant head Jessica Balls. “The choir, which has around 50 members, had been rehearsing this and other tunes for the concert for three months, and it really showed in a wonderful performance. To appear at such a famous venue, and to perform with other GLF schools groups, is a very big deal for them, and they rose to the occasion superbly.”

The Salfords choir already have more performances lined up, and as Ms Balls explained, with a dedicated specialist teacher in Mr Coslett, music is a subject that plays a significant role in school life.

“People might have a very old fashioned image of music teaching but at Salfords it’s cutting edge,” she said. “We have an electric drum kit and the children use Apple Mac technology and iPads for learning and creating music. That means it’s a subject where everything on offer is absolutely state of the art, and the children find it highly engaging and interactive. That enjoyment and interest in the subject was borne out by how the choir performed.”