Stagecoach Blog

This year, Children in Need are celebrating their 40th anniversary, and for the past 10 years the London choir has been performing in the studio.

Previously, the choir was made up of children from local primary schools. Due to the government guidelines as a result of Covid-19, the size of the choir had to be restricted and Beverly Hymen, Principal of Stagecoach Borehamwood got approached. Beverly was asked to put forward children within a specific age bracket, to audition for the place in the choir. Due to the small number of children within the age group, Beverly reached out to her neighbouring Principal, Jayne Hardy from Stagecoach Stanmore who put forward three children from her own school.  

Beverly said, ' It was so exciting for our students to be chosen to take part in this important event.  We are always keen to have opportunities for our students to perform in public, and this one probably wins hands down - last year over 7 million people watched!'

Eleven students from Stagecoach Borehamwood and one student from Stanmore were chosen. The choir were given the powerful song ‘Fix You’ by Coldplay to perform and they began practicing with their singing teacher. The rehearsals took place after the Stagecoach classes but once lockdown hit it continued over Zoom. 

The students had a lot of fun and had a fascinating experience seeing how a TV programme is rehearsed and broadcasted in a studio. On the final day, they all had a large social distanced marquee where each student had their own sectioned off dressing room area with their name like showbiz stars, complete with the stool, mirror with lights, comfy armchair and dress rail. To record the final performance, the production team had allocated a time slot to allow for several takes but the students nailed it the first time!

The students were also lucky enough to get to meet the presenters, comedian Chris Ramsey and former footballer Alex Scott MBE who introduced their song. The BBC Choirmaster Mark De Lisser, was impressed with their performance. 

The senior producer of the Children in Need said, 'We were so lucky to have had your brilliant students involved in this, so a huge thanks to you, your teachers and all the children from me and everyone here at the BBC!'

Stagecoach Borehamwood's Principal Beverly Hyman said, 'It was an absolute privilege to be chosen to be the London choir as part of Children in Need! It’s an incredible event raising a huge amount of money for really important organisations benefiting children all over the UK'.

Well done to all participants!