St Philomena's pupils compose their very own school anthem!

The enterprising pupils from St Philomena's National School in Tullamore worked on a unique collaborative project in recent weeks which culminated in the composition of the very first school anthem in the 93-year history of the local educational institution.

Working alongside Emma Goulding from Music Generation, and using the school motto of 'Every Child Deserves a Chance', the pupils from 3rd and 4th class began the project to compose a school anthem by brainstorming words that came to mind when they thought about going to school in St Philomena's and what the school means to them.

The jumble of words was then brought to 5th and 6th class pupils and they, in turn, worked extremely hard on writing the lyrics, under the watchful eye of their class teachers.

The third, and final phase of the novel project was the melody. Working with a backing track provided by Emma Goulding, the students engaged in more brainstorming to come up with a catchy melody to match the lyrics.

The resulting anthem received high praise from Principal, Geraldine Gaffey, and the entire school community when it was unveiled at a recent school assembly, where Ms Gaffey paid tribute to the pupils and their teachers for their “wonderful work” and also paid tribute to Music Generation for their assistance with the history-making project.

Music Generation aims to promote creativity and self expression through music in schools. It is led by Geraldine Relph who is the development officer.

The anthem is set to be performed at all future school gatherings in the all-girls Tullamore school, which provides education to pupils from 3rd to 6th class inclusive.