Children from two local schools visited Queen’s Hospital this week to delight our patients, staff and visitors by singing popular songs, including favourites from musical The Greatest Showman.

It was part of our celebrations for Volunteers’ Week, which ran from Saturday 1 until Friday 7 June.

Between the two schools; Crownfield Junior School, Romford, and the Harris Academy in Rainham, they raised almost £400 for the King George and Queen’s Hospitals Charity, to be dedicated to the volunteer fund.

The entire choir from Crownfield Junior School (pictured above with some of our volunteers), made up of 28 children from years four to six, sung a series of songs in the hospital atrium. They also included a medley from their recent performance at the O2 as part of the Young Voices concert.

Their proud music teacher Oliver Haise said: “The children were beyond excited to sing at the hospital and it was a great way for us to give something back to our local community. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we’d manage to raise so much money during our performance – we’re absolutely thrilled that we could help out the hospital volunteers so much.

“We rehearse at lunchtimes so the children give up their own time to be part of our choir and are very passionate about it.”

Three of the young singers, Daisy, Mary and Marie, from year five, said: “It made us feel happy and proud to raise money for the volunteers.”

Joshua, from year six, added: “It was a great experience to perform. I feel very pleased and would love to do it again.”

Ten singers from the Harris Academy (pictured above), from year nine, sang in the hospital’s atrium, and visited some of the Trust’s elderly care wards to entertain patients. They were also from the school choir, which has around 20 members in total.

Head of Music Emma Sees said: “We were so thrilled that we could come and sing to patients at the hospital. The girls were asking me about it for ages so I was chuffed we could do it during Volunteers’ Week. The girls loved singing and it was so lovely when they received compliments from patients and visitors. We were also glad that we could help raise money for the hospital’s charity.”

The girls sung a mixture of songs, including hits from Adele and Jess Glynne, as well as numbers from the Greatest Showman.

Other celebrations during Volunteers’ Week, which was an opportunity for us to thank our wonderful volunteers for their hard work, was a photo exhibition of pictures of volunteers at work taken by students at Havering College, which ran at Queen’s Hospital on Friday 7 June.