Sidmouth College is hoping to turn cash donations into notes of a different kind - and buy students a portable music studio.

Music teacher Ollie Hickman hopes the school can raise £1,000 to spend on a mixer, a computer and microphones to allow pupils to record their own songs.

The college held a spring concert last night (Thursday) to kick-start the fundraising and will be holding more events throughout the year.

Mr Hickman said: “I really would like to set up a portable studio that you could use in school for all the different things going on.

“They [the students] really want to make their own music and write their own songs. It’s really important that we give them that opportunity to develop that further.”

The concert featured performances from 20 pupils, including the debut performance of the school’s transition choir.

Among those to benefit would be year 10 pupils Daisy Theophilus and Emma Merideth. The duo have started working on their GCSE music compositions and said that the studio would help with their work.

Daisy said: “We do not have the equipment that would be really useful to have if you are making compositions.

“At the moment, we have a box we sing into. It’s nice to be able to write stuff that we want to listen to and it is personal to you.”

If you would like to donate to the fund, contact the college on 01395 514823.