It was standing room only at TN Tatem Middle School’s auditorium recently as the Tatem “Family of Schools” — the feeder schools of Purvis Primary, Gilbert Institute and Heron Bay, and TN Tatem itself — joined together for a two-hour concert featuring music, dance, skits — and an amazing art display.

Emily Cabral, one of the steel pan ensemble at TN Tatem said “It was so exciting to see all of the talent come together for the special evening. I know that the preparations for the concert took a long time.”

Purvis Primary P5 student Tekalia Skinner said: “Practicing at my school, Purvis, was like being in a movie and every Friday I would run into the Assembly Hall for practice.

“When we listened to the steel pans during the concert it felt like an amazing experience for everyone.”

Malachai Santucci-Smith and Keenai Smith-Hayward were two of the emcees who kept all of the acts moving smoothly.

“We had stage and lighting technicians who projected images of each school onto a special screen as the children assembled behind the curtains” said Keenai. “It helped the whole programme run very efficiently.”

“I kept peeking behind the curtain from my position on stage as I checked with my programme” said Malachai. “It was exciting to co-ordinate everything to ensure that things ran smoothly. The whole auditorium was packed.”

“We had a short ten-minute interval to move the steel pans from the front of the stage to allow a dance act to have sufficient space” said Keenai. “Everything was well organised, however, with vendors ready in the courtyard to sell lemonade and pizza along with baked goods from the PTA. It went really smoothly.”

Danta Sousa of Heron Bay received a special round of applause when he became emcee for his school.

With his sense of humour and timing he held the audience spellbound while his school choir assembled behind the curtain! The finale to the concert was amazing agreed Emily and Takalia.

“Camaria, Kayla and Kailee sang We are the World, the 1985 charity song.

“We had distributed sheet music to everyone and all the parents and guests rose to their feet and joined in the chorus. We almost raised the roof!”

Garita Coddington, principal, said: “This was a wonderful evening of the arts and music for the TN Tatem family. Congratulations to the organising committee for an excellent evening of Spring into the Arts.”