IT’S not every day that a headteacher gets up on stage and plays the saxophone, but that’s exactly what happened at the St Julian’s School spring concert in Newport on Thursday night.

Three teachers and more than a dozen pupils got up on stage and sang or played instruments over the course of the school’s musical evening, which was moved from summer to spring to allow Year 11 and Sixth Formers to take part before they left to do their exams, said head of performing arts Andy Edwards.

Mr Edwards joined headteacher Denise Richards and teacher Cai Hywel for a rendition of the 1930s big band hit In The Mood made famous by Glenn Miller, with the three teachers performing as the DCA Jazz Trio.

In the first act, a group of Year 7 singers performed Naughty from Matilda the Musical; Niamh Mumford sang Sara Bareilles’ Love Song; after a few technical problems the Happy Band performed Pharrell Williams’ hit Happy; Year 11 pupil Amy Griffiths performed Riptide by Vance Joy and played guitar; Molly Cooper also played the guitar and wearing purple sang the Prince hit Purple Rain; Year 13 pupil Emma Peacock sang Hey! Ho! by The Lumineers; Year 7 Lucy Parker sang A Thousand Years by Christina Perri; then guitar band Social Paranoia covered Summer of ‘69 by Bryan Adams.

A short interval followed, then Year 8 pupil Jamie Wright played an electronic guitar solo of Parisienne Walkway by Gary Moore; Seren Lewis sang the theme song from the musical Legally Blonde; Hollie Flannigan who played Dorothy in the school production of The Wizard of Oz performed Stay With Me by Sam Smith; Jenna Williams, who was the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, played the piano and sang Addicted to You; violinist Meg Cox performed a folk wedding reel with her dad, Dave; Year 12 pupil Amber Bendall sang Lay Me Down; Year 7 Meghan Bellamy sang Let It Go from the film Frozen; and to finish, Abi’s Supergroup sang Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing, before performing an encore with some of the other singers.

Sound and lighting was all done by pupils. To buy any of the pictures from the evening, visit southwalesargus.newsprints.co.uk