On 28th April, Year 10 Student Voice, Musical Minds Enterprize, organised a charity concert in raising funds for their charity, Harvest Help. Harvest Help works with thousands of farmers in Africa, helping them to feed their families, earn a living and become self-reliant. See www.harvesthelp.org for more information.

This was a showcase of many firsts!!! Newcomer Sila Ecrument put in a confident performance with “I Can’t Live”. The audience were also treated to new rising stars in the form of Shevannah Mulcahy and Sammy Lee, with their version of “Ain’t No Mountain Higher”.

Two schools, The Valence School and Hayes offered their support in this worthwhile project and the show opened on an upbeat with Tasheena Livingston, Gaby Ward, Kirsty Young, Mollie Davis, Ben Edgett, Joshua Ivins and Jake Graham from the Valence School performing “The Little Red Rap” to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. Hayes School provided us with two talented singers, Chloe Ward and Hannah Coldspring. Both schools were warmly welcomed by Musical Minds Enterprize and hopefully these links will become the norm for future concerts at Charles Darwin School.

Previous Battle of the Bands winners reminded us of the quality of talent we have at Charles Darwin with the band “The Way to Callisto” Jamie Smith, James Killick, Conor Crowley and Philip Greenaway and our own Paul Weller aka Will Powell displaying original compositions and unique sounds. The Grimey showed they haven’t lost their stage magic with Ryan Ramdas, Josh King and Blair Turgott performing more originals.

Linking all these performances was a joint venture with our three electric divas in Linda Obakpolo, Temi Ken-Afolabi and Bonita Darkoh and our budding DJs’ Dwayne Phillips, Daniel Hemple and in-house DJ Philip Farnham. Pointblank (www.pointblanklondon.com) have been providing weekly workshops on DJ skills at Charles Darwin School and our DJs’ were supported by Nigel Hosten and Tim Shingfield, Pointblank DJ experts. Pointblank will be running a new DJ project in 2010. More details to follow.

Our Rock Challenge team of dancers also provided their support to Year 10’s cause by wowing the audience with their interpretation of the life of Charles Darwin and his Theory of Evolution.

Finally Michael Matthews, the London Director of Blastbeat, announced the winning group going forward to Blastbeat’s National Competition on 4th July in Hounslow are “The Way to Callisto”. On behalf of Year 10, big thanks go to the following students for organising this event: Whitney Anang, Linda Obakpolo, Temi Ken-Afolabi, Beverly Nyame, Luke Hagon, Daniel Hemple, Sammy, Christina, Rachel, Jessie Stacey….WELL DONE! Thanks also to staff members Nicky Tapson, Ross Matthews, Colin Andrews, Conor Crowley, Christine Horgan, Joy Young, Gina Sheehan and Gil Carpenter for their assistance, and to the SLT for giving us the go ahead.

Karen Dwyer-Burchill