Dunstan High School will have 10% of its pupils absent next week, but the powers that be could not be happier.
Dunstanza, the school's 50-strong choir, will head to Melbourne tomorrow to take part in two separate musical festivals.
The choir and nine accompanying adults will spend a week overseas as Dunstanza competes in the Melbourne Eisteddfod and then performs in and takes part in workshops on the opening days of the Melbourne International Singers Festival.
The group will return home next Sunday. ''It's so gratifying that so many of our young people are singing in our school choir, specially when you consider it's 10% of the school roll, '' principal Brent Russell said.
The pupils range in age from 13 to 18 and are in years 9 through to 13. Conductor John Buchanan clearly had the skills to get the best out of the young singers, Mr Russell said.
''These kids are talented and keen to learn and they've got lots of support, but the conductor is the linchpin.
''For most of them, it'll be the trip of a lifetime; the experience they're going to have over there, performing and attending workshops. It's a just reward, though, for a group of fine young people who have worked so hard, and they'll be great ambassadors for our school.''
Mr Buchanan said the choir had been rehearsing twice a week all year. The original focus had been the eisteddfod but then he realised the trip would coincide with the start of the international festival, so asked the organisers of that event if the Dunstan choir could sit in on some of the workshops.
As a result of that contact, Dunstanza would take part in two workshops and perform at an outdoor concert as part of the festival.
''The festival has some eminent people taking the workshops, so we're lucky to be involved in that. The organisers obviously went away and did some homework on us, checked out some You Tube clips and things like that, before asking us to be involved,'' Mr Buchanan said.
The choir received a Jetstar Flying Start Programme grant, comprising $15,000 cash and $15,000 travel funding, to supplement the fundraising it had already completed.
Mr Russell was grateful for the grant from Jetstar, which was ''the icing on the cake'', he said. The group had worked hard fundraising through a variety of methods and the community had been very supportive.
