Rugby World Cup role for Maynard girls

Preparations for The Maynard School’s involvement with the Rugby World Cup 2015 are in full swing as the Senior Choir busily prepares for its performance at the Australian team’s Official Welcome Ceremony on Tuesday 15 September 2015 in the beautiful Bath Assembly Rooms.

With just five days to go until the ceremony ‘kick off’, the rehearsal schedule has ramped up a pace, nerves and excitement have reached fever pitch and the choir’s fame has hit the media limelight.

Consisting of 44 girls aged from 14 – 18 years old, the choir is performing daily rehearsals of the official anthem, ‘World in Union’ in the hope of providing the largest welcome possible to the visiting Australian team. With all the hard work and dedication comes stardom status and the girls have already featured on BBC Spotlight with, earlier today, ITV Westcountry taking a cut of the rehearsal action for broadcast throughout Monday, 14 September.

The Maynard School choir is one of only 20 schools in England and Wales to have been selected to be part of these welcome ceremonies following a rigorous selection process led by the independent charity Youth Sport Trust and involving over 100 applicants from schools across England and Wales.

“Following an extensive nationwide search we were delighted to be the only choir in the south west picked to represent the country in this world wide event. We are representing Exeter, the School and the country so we must be pitch perfect!” said Angela Blackwell, the Director of Music and Performing Arts at the Maynard School. “The World Cup only happens every four years, we only get one chance and we have just one hour at the venue to prepare so we are working really hard on being as slick as possible.”

To embrace the theme of the ‘World in Union’ and to reach out to a maximum audience, the choir has also incorporated the sign language Makaton to accompany the anthem. “To start with it was quite tough to learn the sign language and remember the words,” said choir member, Bella Attenburrow. “But it’s getting easier now as you can remember the words from the actions and vice versa. It is very nerve wracking but we’ve worked really hard with loads of rehearsals and our teachers have been amazing. So it’s also very exciting!”

When asked what being selected to perform at this level means, Mrs Blackwell replied: ““Being able to give this opportunity to the girls, which is hopefully something that will stick with them for the rest of their lives, is terribly exciting. They probably won’t ever be able to recall what it is I taught them on a Tuesday morning in Period 2, but this they will always remember. It’s such an experience, character building and a real team effort and has taught them discipline and perseverance.”

The Maynard School has also been awarded the privilege of designing, under the guidance of Zoe Vingoe the Head of Art, Good Luck cards for the Australian team which will be included in the players’ packs being distributed at Tuesday’s welcome ceremony. But in a last minute ‘call-up’, and with its reliable reputation for finishing the task professionally and on time, the school was this week handed the honour of designing cards for the Georgia team when another school unexpectedly dropped out.

“It really is quite exciting and the sense of achievement afterwards will have made the blood, sweat and tears during this last week all worth it!” summed up the inimitable Mrs Vingoe who, in just three days has helped the girls produce a vibrant display of 30 beautiful Good Luck cards with which to welcome the Georgia team to the tournament.

England will kick off the first match of the World Cup on Friday, 18th September when they play Fiji at Twickenham. In an interesting turn of fate for The Maynard choir, who now face split loyalties between Australia and England, the Wallabies’ debut performance will also be against Fiji on Wednesday, 23 September!