Winston in Liverpool
On Monday 6th July- Thursday 9th July, the music department took 58 students to Liverpool for our first music tour since 2019.
We left bright and early on Monday morning with a coach and trailer full of excited students and a huge variety of instruments. On arrival we took a self-guided Magical Mystery Tour of The Royal Albert Docks and then returned to the hostel for dinner and Board Game Night, organised by the Year 10s.
On day 2 we were up early for a visit to the British Music Experience in Liverpool where the students were able to interact with exhibits showing music from the 1940s onwards and even play instruments and watch a ‘live’ hologram performance by Boy George. We then did a flying visit of the famous Beatles statue before setting off for our first concert at Strawberry Field. It’s hard to say whether the staff or students were more excited to perform in a bandstand shaped like a giant drum in a location that plays such a key moment in Beatles (particularly John Lennon’s) history and the rain held off long enough to perform to locals, tourists and friends. After the concert, we packed up the coach and headed to Crosby Beach where we were able to get up close to the Anthony Gormley statues, collect sea glass, explore rock pools and play games on the beach. We then went back to the hostel for dinner and a quiz organised by Ollie, Athidh and Archie. Despite the best efforts of the student teams, of course the staff team were champions and absolutely didn’t flaunt the win!
On our 3rd day, we walked through the wind and rain to discover our boat tour was cancelled due to ‘technical difficulties’ but thankfully The Museum of Liverpool was just around the corner and welcomed us in. We had a couple of hours exploring the exciting history of Liverpool, watching a knight’s reenactment and even singing karaoke. We then walked into the centre of Liverpool for a spot of shopping, where the staff were delighted to be dragged around one of the biggest Primark’s in the UK and various other thrilling shops. After a quick lunch, we got on the coach to the beautiful Birkenhead Park, which took us across the River Mersey and onto The Wirral. We had a tent to protect us from (some of) the wind and set up for our second and final concert of the tour. We performed a variety of music from Big Band, Orchestra, Session Band and Brass Band and the local families really enjoyed dancing and singing along. We then had our final dinner back at the hostel followed by Karaoke organised by Liv, Evie, Sadie and Emilia, as well as a Mario Tournament organised by the Year 7 boys. The favourite performance was by Aditya and we even had time to embarrass Hamish one last time by celebrating his birthday.
Our final morning was spent packing and loading the coach for the long journey home. Mr Drake kept everyone entertained by announcing personalised awards for every single student on tour, which had everyone laughing and cheering despite the exhaustion.
We arrived back at The Winston Churchill School in our fabulous tour t-shirts, weary but happy from such a fantastic tour. The planning for next year’s tour has already begun!
-Mrs Connie Antony, Assistant Director of Music and Tour Leader
