For yet an­oth­er year Guaico Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry School has emerged win­ners of the Na­tion­al Ju­nior Panora­ma mak­ing them 3-time cham­pi­ons .

It was ju­bi­la­tion by the Prin­ci­pal, teach­ers, pupils and par­ents at the school com­pound in San­gre Grande this morn­ing as all cel­e­brat­ed the vic­to­ry one day af­ter cop­ping an­oth­er ti­tle at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah yes­ter­day. They al­so won the ti­tle for the most sup­port­ive band.

Play­ing Blaxx “Same Way” which was arranged by Tris­ton Mar­cano the young boys and girls won the hearts of many in­clud­ing the judges.

Guardian spoke with Prin­ci­pal Mar­garet Gopaul Mo­hammed. In all smiles, she said, “I am elat­ed for the school win­ning Ju­nior Panora­ma 2023 and yet for an­oth­er year. I have not dropped the ba­ton that was passed on to me by the for­mer prin­ci­pal Ram­baran- Mo­hammed ."

She said the pupils have not on­ly brought glo­ry and fame to the school, but the North East­ern Ed­u­ca­tion Dis­trict , the Pres­by­ter­ian Board and res­i­dents of San­gre Grande and en­vi­rons.

The prin­ci­pal said the suc­cess of the steel band was a team ef­fort by pupils from stan­dard 3 to 5 and the ma­jor­i­ty of play­ers were new.

She men­tioned Brand Source as their main spon­sors . They pro­vid­ed uni­forms, in­stru­ments and trans­porta­tion for the pupils, like wise East­ern Busi­ness Mer­chants As­so­ci­a­tion of San­gre Grande who as­sist­ed in pro­vid­ing the ban­ner and re­fresh­ments.

She al­so thanked the par­ents who sup­port­ed their chil­dren by giv­ing their time, ef­fort and en­er­gy.

"All these con­tribute to suc­cess, when all gets in­volved es­pe­cial­ly par­ents," Gopaul Mo­hammed added

The band al­so won the tro­phy for the school with the most sup­port. She said when this kind of sup­port is giv­en, it gives more mo­ti­va­tion and the dri­ve to win.

She said the arranger Tris­ton Mar­cano was very in­stru­men­tal in train­ing the pupils. He held them to­geth­er, prac­tis­ing and in­still­ing the con­fi­dence in them, let­ting them know they could win.

The pupils be­gan prac­tis­ing as ear­ly as Oc­to­ber and con­tin­ued dur­ing the Christ­mas hol­i­days up un­til Fri­day.

Mo­hammed said their aca­d­e­m­ic work nev­er stopped as the pupils prac­tised from 3 to 6 pm.

The band leader King Lee Smith jumped for joy when they were an­nounced win­ner say­ing, “I know we were go­ing to win.”

The ju­bi­la­tion was re­in­forced by the play­ers, par­ents , friends and sup­port­ers.

Gopaul- Mo­hammed said “We have seen how mu­sic has a pos­i­tive ef­fect on pupils. As it builds con­fi­dence and abil­i­ty to fo­cus.”

The band will be par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Ju­nior Panora­ma 2024 com­pe­ti­tion and is con­fi­dent that their per­for­mance will be par ex­cel­lence. “We will not stop here but the band will con­tin­ue to show case their tal­ent and even makes some tours over­seas.

A school su­per­vi­sor II from the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion who iden­ti­fied her­self as Mrs. Ba­boolal vis­it­ed the school to pay com­pli­ments to the prin­ci­pal, staff and pupils on their vic­to­ry.

Guaico-Pres­by­ter­ian Steel-Or­ches­tra have won Panora­ma Cham­pi­on Ti­tles in 2019, 2020 and now 2023. There was no com­pe­ti­tion in 2021 and 2022 be­cause of COVID-19.