On Thursday 15 December nearly 60 students from across the Federation joined together to stage our first live IWEF Christmas Concert since 2019 at St. John’s Church in Newport.
The concert began with a tinkling rendition of ‘Jingle Bells’ performed on the hand bells by members of the Carisbrooke College breaktime Music Hub. This was followed by the humorous ‘I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas’, performed by students from all 3 sites with a special guest appearance from our Brass teacher Mr. Stroud on the tuba – dressed as a hippopotamus!
Evie and Sherine, from Medina College, then took the stage with a mature performance of Fiona Apple’s ‘Paper Bag’, performing again later with the Medina College Band in a ska performance of Duke Ellington’s ‘Caravan’ with other students from the school.
Ensembles from the Carisbrooke College School of Rock group performed an eclectic mix of songs including Green Day’s ‘Brain Stew’, Chris Rea’s ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ and year 9 student Lucy’s own song ‘My Christmas Wish’. Some of our Carisbrooke College Year 7 students then joined the final School of Rock ensemble to perform the Makaton sign language alongside their rendition of ‘Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree’.
Our federated IWEF choir performed the well loved Christmas carol ‘O Holy Night’ and then ‘You will be found’ from the musical Dear Evan Hansen. While the Carisbrooke College Ukulele Club performed the folk number ‘Santa never brings me a banjo’, joined by local musician JC Grimshaw playing on the banjo.
Our Island VI Form ensemble got the crowd singing along with their lively cover of Slade’s ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ and our stage band from the recent IWEF production of ‘Wendy and Peter Pan’ performed a popular item from the show, Emeli Sande’s ‘Sparrow’.
The concert ended with all of the evening’s musicians joining together for a massed grand finale performance of Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Underneath the Tree’. The concert was very well attended and raised over £220 was raised for our Creative Arts Faculty to put towards new sound equipment for future events.
