Lifestyle & Entertainment
13 September, 2026
A spectacular experience
FIVE Halls Gap Primary School students have gone from rehearsing songs at their small rural school to performing before thousands of people at John Cain Arena. The students joined more than 1000 others in the mass choir at the 2026 Victorian State Schools Spectacular in Melbourne last month.
For student Otis Boyd, the experience was all about the job at hand.
“We got to sing and dance, and it was quite complicated, but we got to know it eventually,” he said.
“All I can say is it’s really fun.”
Asked whether the Spectacular had been bigger than he expected, Otis had a simple answer.
“Yeah. It was much more lively.”
The annual Victorian State Schools Spectacular brings together government school students from across Victoria for a large-scale production of music, dance, circus and other performing arts.
This year’s production, This Is Me, was staged at John Cain Arena on August 29 and featured two performances, a live 80-piece orchestra and students in roles ranging from mass choir and dance to principal performers and behind-the-scenes production.
Halls Gap Primary School co-principal Samantha Stoffel said the five students had rehearsed extensively at school before travelling to Melbourne, with a Spectacular musical director also visiting Halls Gap for two sessions with them.
Ms Stoffel said the musical director would ordinarily conduct the sessions with a much larger group, but Halls Gap was the only school from the area taking part.
Even after all that preparation, nothing quite conveyed the scale of what awaited them.
“They were so taken by surprise,” she said.
The students took part in mass choir rehearsals at Melbourne Town Hall before production week at John Cain Arena, where the enormity of the event began to sink in.
Co-principal Jessie McCosh said it was an extraordinary experience for children from a small rural community.
“Some of our kids have never seen 1000 people,” she said.
“You could see their little faces.”
Ms Stoffel said the students initially found it difficult to know where to look.
“They kept looking at each other,” she said.
“For the first day, it was very hard for them to concentrate on what we were actually doing because there was so much happening.”
Then came the realisation they would soon be performing in front of an arena crowd.
“The nerves kicked in when they realised, ‘We’re actually doing this’,” Ms Stoffel said.
The choir’s role involved more than singing, with the students also required to learn extensive choreography.
Even during the final days before the performance, new movements were being added.
“By that stage, they just did it,” Ms Stoffel said.
“They just took it on board like they were pros.”
For the two co-principals, however, the most important part of the experience was seeing what it sparked in their students.
Around them were principal singers and dancers, the Victorian State Schools Choir, musicians and students involved in lighting, makeup, staging and other aspects of the production.
Ms Stoffel said seeing all of those possibilities had opened up a world children in rural areas did not always have an opportunity to experience.
“Even some of our kids have said now they’d really like to do the VSS choir,” she said.
“Now they can see that there are possibilities.”
Ms McCosh said the change in the students was visible.
“To see the kids’ eyes twinkle, they are so inspired to go and do something more now, whereas they would never have thought that could be an option,” she said.
“I think that’s probably the biggest thing.”
Ms Stoffel said providing that exposure was particularly important for a rural school.
“If your kids ever have the opportunity, just go for it, take it with both hands,” she said.
“Our kids in rural areas have very few opportunities like State Schools Spectacular.”
The experience appears to have made its mark.
Back at Halls Gap, the students are already asking their teachers one question.
“Can they do it again next year?” Ms Stoffel said.
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