A ROCK school in Winchester is gearing up to celebrate its 20th birthday.

First launched in 2004, the Winnall Rock School has supported hundreds of young people by providing opportunities to learn how to play music and write songs.

Aside from in 2020, the culmination of each year’s show has been a summer show held at the Theatre Royal where pupils of the school can be rock stars for the evening.

This year’s show will take place on Wednesday, July 17.

It will be attended by the Mayor of Winchester, Cllr Russell Gordon-Smith, and will feature three groups of 11-year-olds to 18-year-olds performing original songs on topics including loneliness, megalomania, relationships, hopes, the moon and cheese.

Winnall Rock School pupils performing in 2023Winnall Rock School pupils performing in 2023 (Image: Winnall Rock School)

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There will also be a selection of songs from the founding year of 2004.

Project coordinator Peter Brown said: “Celebrating 20 years is a remarkable milestone for a local service that almost wholly relies on voluntary support.

“After some very lean years recently, supporters, including Youth Music, have energised us to keep going, extend our age range and devise new projects. We have also sought new collaborations, as part of our ‘Sound Winchester’ project, with other local music groups who also use music-making to improve people’s wellbeing."