Several of its school musical groups recently took part in the Kool Skool Project, with one – headlined by year 10 singer Olivia Shalders – chosen to perform at its awards night on December 18 at Ringwood’s Yarra Valley Grammar.

The project allows schools to use a Studio 52 recording studio for a day to create their own CD, with groups writing and performing their own songs and even designing the cover’s graphics. Olivia, 15, wrote an acoustic slow pop song called Right Here and performed it with her band of Louis Edwards, Harry Wrigglesworth and Alex Mercer.

“I was in grade three when I started singing and hopefully I can keep going,” Olivia said. She has also regularly performed in South Street competitions and local musicals.

BCC was sponsored for the day by Michael Koopman of Document Solutions Specialist who said he took part to help students “get the experience of being a musical artist for a day”.