AFRICAN drummers from three Valleys schools are to perform in a national music competition in Birmingham tomorrow.

Around 140 pupils from Coed y Garn Primary School in Blaina, Blaentillery Infant School and Roseheyworth Primary School in Abertillery were selected to represent Gwent at the National Festival of Youth Music at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall.

The years five and six pupils use African drums, disused glue containers with plastic tube sticks and their own body-parts to create sounds through the Samoan Sasa - a dance which involves using hand movements to depict every day activities like cooking and cleaning.

Through workshops with Gwent Music Support Service (GMSS), which selected the group to perform following its performance at the Big Beat Festival in Newport in April, the pupils created a 12-minute composition, which the group of 140 will perform at the festival with GMSS.

They called it Celebrate the Earth, which was inspired by animals, land and the weather, and designed their own costumes to perform in by decorating green t-shirts with pieces of colourful material and plastic.

Melanie Watkins, year five teacher at Coed y Garn Primary, said: “We are so proud of them.”

More than 12,000 talented youngsters from across the UK will perform at the six-day festival in categories including jazz, choral, orchestra and brass.