SCHOOL pupils from four choirs in Poole helped to raise the roof of London’s Royal Albert Hall last week at a gala concert attended by the Duke of Kent.

Over 2,000 young people from around the country including students from Canford Heath Junior and Haymoor Junior schools in Poole came together to form a mass choir for the AC Academy Does the Royal Albert Hall, event.

The singers were accompanied by professional musicians and joined on stage by special guests, Strictly Come Dancing stars Gorka and Dianne and actor Mark Williams, known to millions as Arthur Weasley in the Harry Potter films.

The concert included choral music and songs as diverse as Handel’s Zadok the Priest to Pharrell’s Happy and extracts from Bizet’s opera Carmen to music from around the world.

A highlight was The Trip, a piece created by children with moderate and profound learning difficulties as part of AC Academy’s ground-breaking work with children with special educational needs.

The gala brought together 52 choirs formed through Armonico Consort’s education programme AC Academy, supported by Phillips 66 and its fuel brand JET.

Christopher Monks, artistic director of Armonico Consort, said: “This year is the tenth anniversary of our Choir Creation scheme where we create choirs in schools and train teachers as choir leaders.

“It’s also a timely reminder that the incredible thing about singing – aside from building confidence, raising self esteem and benefitting mental health – is that the skills to do it well can be taught on such a large scale, and also retained for years to come by the brilliant teachers who work with us.”

AC Academy reaches 15,000 children a year in partnership with music services nationwide, including SoundStorm, lead partner in the Bournemouth and Poole Education Hub, and through collaborations with venues such as the Royal Albert Hall. AC Academy’s Choir Creation scheme is now in its tenth year and has an ambitious target to create 300 choirs and train 300 new choir leaders by 2020.