Students from Bobin Public School were thrilled to win the very very small school choir section of the 2016 Taree and District Eisteddfod.
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Their success earned them a MidCoast Water Scholarship for $125 to be spent at Bass ‘N’ Blues, in Taree.
As the students walked onto the stage at Manning Entertainment Centre the master of ceremonies announced the tiny school would be singing a song called ‘The Ocean’, written by one of Bobin’s year three students, Mikaela Berry, principal Diane Myer explained
“This song was very well received by the audience, with one of the eisteddfod organisers commenting afterwards that it was very heart-felt,” Diane said.
The next song was a contrasting piece called ‘It’s Ruff Being a Dog’, which had the audience giggling at times as students sang about the trials and tribulations of our canine friends.
“Some of the students were a little nervous about singing in front of a packed auditorium, particularly the kindies, but once they were up on stage and started singing Mikaela’s song ‘The Ocean’ you could see they were really enjoying themselves,” Diane said.
“They really put their hearts into it.”
Bobin Public School students flex their creative muscles regularly and do a lot of song writing.
“I think it’s because we’ve focussed a lot on poetry in our literacy sessions and ukulele in our music sessions. Ukulele is an easy instrument for students to play and compose music on,” said Diane.
The students have also taken part in a few songwriting workshops with local songwriter and teacher Angela Page.
“That has really inspired them to write songs of their own,” classroom teacher Sarah Parker said.
The school is grateful to their dedicated choir leader Judi Costanzo and local musician Jeff Orr who accompanied the students on guitar.
“It all came together so well,” said Diane. “They all worked hard and received a fantastic result for their efforts.”
The small school made headlines last year when they were one of six finalists announced in the Australia's Picasso Cows Makeover program. Their dairy work of art was Daisy, a life-sized fibreglass cow capturing the 'farm to plate' story of Australia's dairy industry, and was selected from a pool of more than 50 submissions from schools around the country. Judges selected the finalists based on the artistic efforts of the students.
All students from Bobin Public School were involved in every aspect of Daisy's makeover.