Primary school children across Salisbury and South Wiltshire record Christmas songs for a daily December broadcast, with two carol concerts at Sarum Academy.
Song for Christmas is back for its fifth year, with Salisbury Radio running the competition throughout December. It's a singing contest for primary-aged children across Salisbury, South Wiltshire and West Hampshire, and the whole thing kicks off on Tuesday 1 December, with a different school's song played every day until Christmas Eve. You'll hear them on Ian Burrage's Breakfast Club, so if you've got kids in one of the participating schools, you'll know exactly when to tune in.
The station visits each school to record their entry, and from there it's a blind judging process. A panel of former local headteachers, led by Anne Munns, scores the songs out of ten without knowing which school is which. The winner is announced on Christmas Day, with the trophy going to the school that comes out on top.
There's more to it than just the radio entries, though. The competition also fills two carol concerts at Sarum Academy, the large performance hall at the secondary school on Bemerton Heath. Musical director Helen Rawson brings together more than 100 children to perform each night, so the whole thing moves from the radio to the stage as December goes on.
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And there's a charitable side to it: every song download costs £1, and the money raised from those downloads and the concerts goes to Stars Appeal, which supports work at Salisbury District Hospital. Station director Andy Munns has called it 'the best thing we do all year'. It's a long-running local tradition that brings together schools from across the area, and if you're around Salisbury in December, it's one of those things that's just part of the festive sound.
