The flags have been out at Our Lady’s High School in Motherwell after the school’s band, led by brass instructor James Woods, won the gold award in the school bands section of the National Concert Band Festival at the Sage Centre in Newcastle.
The school had won the gold award in the Scottish section of the festival, held in Dundee, but its UK win against stiff opposition marks the first time a North Lanarkshire Council secondary has won the top national prize.
The band has 51 players ranging in age from 13 to 18 and was publicly congratulated at the North Lanarkshire schools’ springtime concert at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall by Councillor Charles Gray, outgoing education convener for the authority, who is retiring after 49 years in local politics.
