Salisbury Radio's Song for Christmas fills up quickly

Wednesday, 2 October 2024 05:50

Salisbury Radio's Song for Christmas has had a huge response this year, with more schools than ever wanting to take part.

Back for its third year, Salisbury Radio's Song for Christmas is again being run in partnership with Elite Care of Salisbury. Thanks to their backing, we have some incredible book vouchers to give to the school, which our judges pick as their favourite festive song.

The winning school will have £250 to spend on brand new books for their school library, and the first runners-up will also receive £150 in vouchers.

There was room for 23 schools to take part this year and over 30 schools have requested to take part in 2024.

Each of the 23 schools that are chosen to take part will have their song played on Salisbury Radio in the run up to Christmas during December.

Each song will debut during either Craig Hicks at Breakfast on weekdays or Weekend Breakfast with Pat Sissons. The songs will be repeated in the afternoon, on weekdays with Andy Munns, or on weekends with Matt Rogers (Saturdays) or Gary Parker (Sundays).

Salisbury Radio has assembled a panel of judges made up of five former local head teachers who listen to the songs blind. They don't know which school has sung each song, so they give each a score. The song with the highest score wins the competition.

Once again, Salisbury Radio is also organising two carol concerts for the local schools to perform in. These will take place at Sarum Academy in mid-December in the large performance hall at the secondary school on Bemerton Heath.

The concerts unite the school communities and give the children the chance to perform in front of other schools and their families. One teacher involved said last year's concerts made their pupils "feel like rockstars".

Salisbury Radio's Andy Munns said, "We have been overwhelmed by the number of schools wanting to take part this year. We were full in just a couple of days. The kids really love being involved and hearing themselves on the radio and it really is the best way to build up to the big day.

"I am looking forward to visiting all of the schools, both the ones taking part for the first time and those that are returning, some of which have been with us since the start."