Christmas concert at Guardian Angel School

The hall of the Guardian Angel School was packed with parents, relatives and friends for the annual Christmas concert which has become a very important event in the school calendar.

Michael King, director for Special Education, Evarist Bartolo, MP, Opposition spokesman on Education and present and former officials of the Education Division, were among the highly appreciative audience.

The headmaster, Carmelo Pace, in a short welcome address emphasised the inclusiveness of the programme in which all the students participated, and praised the efforts that went into its planning and preparation.

The setting for the various items ranged from downtown New York for a dancing performance of 42nd Street under the direction of Alison White to a typical local seaside restaurant for a comic mime to the Maltese song Rosa Marie.

Line dancing, action songs and folk dancing together made for a highly varied programme. The beautiful costumes added brightness and colour. There were the "Men in Black", cowboys and cowgirls, Maltese folk characters and disco dancing town dwellers. Poems about Christmas were read, and two of the boys who took part in a food project together with a school in Birmingham talked about their experience.

The highlight of the concert was Dik il-Lejla Xitwija ("That winter night"), a Nativity play with a difference, consisting of an interview with the animals connected with Christ's birth and ending with a final tableau under the spectacular comet which appeared during the first Christmas. The 60-strong school band concluded the programme with a lively rendering of traditional Christmas carols which both the audience and the students enjoyed immensely.

The headmaster at the end of the programme, heartily thanked the staff for their commitment and hard work. He then went on to show how the motto chosen for the current School Development Plan, "Improvement and Quality" was being implemented.

Parent involvement, participation in the Comenius project Stepping Stones to Independence and projects with foreign and local schools like the School of Agriculture and the ITS were aimed to enrich the students' education. The embellishment of the school premises and the development of the school gym and workshops together with the setting up of a student council and the number of outings open new horizons to the students.

The theme of quality education was taken up by Mr King who referred to the increase in the number of students attending Guardian Angel. He also emphasised how the aim of the school was to give a holistic education and develop to the full the potential of each individual student.

"We do not just care for the children, but we educate them," Mr King concluded, and he encouraged the parents to continue at home what the school began.