Band Comp is a music festival for the end of summer term in Stromness Academy every year where kids get on stage and perform songs to the whole school.  

There is a S2 competition and a S1 competition, as well as supporting performances by older music students.  Each house performs a song as a separate ‘House Band’ competition as well, where anyone can join in including teachers.   

Back during the 80s, band comp was started by two music teachers, Jean Leonard and Moria Summers. The first judges were Gordon Scott and Jim “Pie” Groundwater (they were a maths teacher and a modern studies teacher, who had their own band called Gerbil).  

The competition started when Jean Leonard took one of her younger classes and taught them how to play a couple of songs and they performed them on the last day of school. Since then band comp has been the reason most pupils have come to the last day of school. There is now an S2 bass trophy which is used to honour Gordon Scott who unfortunately passed away not long after his retirement. 

Originally the pupils that would play in front of the whole school and would play one new song, one old song and one The Beatles song. Nowadays, the pupils would play two songs from S1-2 and now there is also a house band where the staff members in the same house would join on stage. 

Students from S2 had mixed feelings about band comp considering how they already did it when they were in S1. One student said, “It’s fun”, while Paiton, another S2 stated that it is “terrifying but fun at the same time.” 

Even though the pupils have different opinions on band comp it gives the students a good reason to go to school and enjoy the last day of term.  

Report by Emma, Erin, Paiton, Alyssa, Orlagh.