Last Friday, Barrow Hills School, in Witley hosted a series of concerts by the world famous pianist, Derek Paravicini. What is particularly amazing is that Derek is blind and so plays everything from memory. Even more impressive is that he does not just stick to a pre-arranged programme, but invites requests from the audience. Throughout the three performances that he gave at Barrow Hills, to a total audience of nearly 500 people aged from 6 years old upwards, there was not a single request that he could not perform!

The concerts were held to raise funds for St Benedict’s, a school in Burkina Faso in Africa with which Barrow Hills is linked in friendship. The link between the two schools began in 2003 when Barrow Hills Pre-prep Department raised £200 to buy two bicycles enabling two children to be able to get to school in Burkina Faso. Seeing how this simple gift made such a huge difference to peoples’ lives inspired the whole of the Barrow Hills community and since then they have supported St Benedict’s School in a variety of ways. To date, thousands of pounds have been raised for various projects. This includes enabling the school to build a kitchen, so that every child in the school eats a meal each day when previously they were going hungry; building a perimeter wall; toilets; repairs to existing buildings and providing much needed teaching resources and play equipment. Perhaps the most ambitious project of all was last year when Barrow Hills raised over £16,000 to build a new classroom block, including a library and IT room. This year, the aim is to raise money to furnish and equip this new block and also to buy mosquito nets for the children.

To this end, the fund raising day on Friday started with all the children being allowed to come to school in red, yellow and green mufti – the colours of the Burkina Faso national flag. The children in Year 8 led the morning assembly with a PowerPoint presentation in French (the language spoken in Burkina Faso) describing a typical school day at Barrow Hills. This presentation has now been taken to St Benedict’s, to be shown to the children there, by two members of staff who have travelled to Burkina Faso on the annual visit to the school. The fund raising pot also got off to an unexpected good start in assembly as, following a violin solo by Josh Garman in Year 6, Director of Music, Mark Wardell, challenged the staff and pupils to name the third way to play a violin, after bowing and plucking. Although the children’s hands remained down, the raised hand of the Headmaster could not be ignored, and as he answered correctly (col legno) the promised £20 made its way to St Benedict’s!

In the afternoon, Derek started with the first of his three performances to the children in the Junior-prep department – you cannot believe the volume as the children clapped and cheered as Derek played everything they asked, including Bob the Builder! Thinking that this could not be topped, Derek followed straight on with a performance to the older children. Wow! What a rapturous response he received as he played the children’s requests. He might not have been able to see his audience but he could certainly hear them, as again there was a standing ovation as they cheered, clapped and made plain their admiration for Derek’s fantastic talent.

The third and final performance was in the evening to parents and guests from the local community. Again the performance was unbelievable and it was not hard to understand how Derek earned his reputation as ‘the human i-pod’. Not only could he play any request but his musical ability was phenomenal.

The final figure raised from the day is still mounting as donations continue to come in but it is at over £4000 at present, meaning that a mosquito net will be able to be purchased for every child at St Benedict’s and that the dream of Barrow Hills to fully furnish the new building constructed last year will become a reality for the pupils of St Benedict’s School.