Forest Town School keeping up with the times
An envisioned idea turned into a beautiful African vibey school song at Forest Town School.
Forest Town School modernised their school song and have given it an African beat.
Having the vision to introduce an African beat to the school song which children could relate to, Claudia Vila Boa, a physiotherapist at the school had learners and teachers singing and dancing to the new song.
According to Vila Boa, she had been at the school since 2009, and although she loved their school song’s lyrics, she felt that the beat was outdated and needed some more flare. She approached the principal Ronalda Lucas with her idea, and she agreed without hesitation as she was eager to see what the project would produce.
“I then took the idea to our music teachers Siyanda Mhlungu and Glen Hodgson to see if they would be interested in working on this new project. They accepted the challenge enthusiastically,” she said.
She said they worked on the song and created the sound that she envisioned, keeping the song’s original verses, and introducing an isiZulu verse.
Vila Boa added they decided to have Hodgson sing the English verses, the isiZulu verse was sung by teacher Neziswa Nokona and general assistant Thoko Ndaba, and specific children were selected to sing backup vocals.
“The new song was later performed for the learners and teachers at the school, and I stood with pride watching everyone enthusiastically sing and move to the new school song. It was an epic experience and it will be a historical moment for our team and will forever be in the history books.”
Related articles:
St David’s Marist Inanda comes out tops at SA Schools Sprint Champs
