CARISA LEE

Re­porter

carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt

An­tic­i­pat­ing that the turnout of pupils yes­ter­day would have be low, con­sid­er­ing all the ex­cite­ment af­ter their Na­tion­al Ju­nior Panora­ma vic­to­ry on Sun­day, St Mar­garet’s Boys’ An­gli­can School prin­ci­pal Co­lette Perez had pushed the cel­e­bra­tion cer­e­mo­ny to to­mor­row.

But she was wrong, as the lit­tle mem­bers of the school’s steel or­ches­tra, who per­formed Olatun­ji Year­wood’s En­gine Room to win the Pri­ma­ry School ti­tle, showed up in their num­bers and were ready to cel­e­brate with their school­mates.

Yes­ter­day, the ju­bi­la­tion con­tin­ued for mem­bers of the steel or­ches­tra and the en­tire school pop­u­la­tion, as they belt­ed out the tune which led the school to top.

“When you hear the rid­dum ah the iron, And the man with the con­go drum (In the en­gine room), Is ah vibes in the ses­sion, when we jam­ming to the steel­pan (In the en­gine room), come and join the lime, grab yuh bot­tle and spoon (Jam­ming!). Is ah par­ty in the en­gine room,” the as­sem­bly of pupils sang as the pan­nists stood in front of them.

This was the school’s 12th vic­to­ry and ac­cord­ing to Perez, the per­fect re­tire­ment gift.

“I’ve been an ed­u­ca­tor for al­most 33 years and I’ve been prin­ci­pal here at St Ma­g­a­ret’s, this will be my 16th and fi­nal year here at the school,” she said.

“We’ve had three sec­onds and one third (place),” she added.

St Mar­garet’s Boys’ An­gli­can de­throned de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons Guaico Pres­by­ter­ian Steel Or­ches­tra.

Perez said she be­lieves that the arts helped in­stil dis­ci­pline in the pupils and mem­bers of the or­ches­tra. She said it al­so im­proved the aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance of pupils, as well as in sports com­pe­ti­tion.

“They have been North Zone B Ath­let­ic cham­pi­ons for al­most 16 years, so they’re re­al­ly good at sports,” she said.

One of the band’s arrangers is Carel Tay­lor, a past pupil. The prin­ci­pal re­vealed they start­ed prac­tis­ing be­fore Christ­mas.

“We take mu­sic pret­ty se­ri­ous here at St Mar­garet’s...the school has a mu­sic pro­gramme, where we start from our in­fant class­es and come up and there are a num­ber of the boys who are Stan­dard Five boys and they would have been play­ing since in­fants so they are sea­soned in­stru­men­tal­ists,” she ex­plained.

Cap­tain of the pan side Stephen Gue­vara said he was ner­vous when it was their turn to per­form at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, but when the band be­gan to play the fear went away.

“All the oth­er bands played well, but when we were on that stage we just felt an en­er­gy and knew we were go­ing and win,” Gue­vara said.

And he was right.

“Well, by the time we heard sec­ond we were al­ready cel­e­brat­ing be­cause they didn’t call us yet,” he re­called.

Stan­dard Four pupil An­dell Ed­wards said he and his young band­mates on­ly felt ready in Jan­u­ary and when they called his name, he knew that their hard work paid off.

“I ran on stage, jump up with the tro­phy with Stu­art Young, we cel­e­brat­ed,” he said.