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Heriot PS, Paisley: A Glee Family Story
Last week we published our 2026 Glee Challenge Impact Report, offering an insight into the achievements of last year. While reports inevitably focus on numbers and metrics, they leave limited room for the real stories and journeys behind that success. On the very day that we released our Report we received an email from Heriot Primary School, Paisley, one of last year's newcomers, answering a few questions that we had posed at the end of the 2026 season. The timing was fantastic and their answers and photographs brought a smile and reminded us of the real stories up and down the country that lie behind all of those Glee performances.
We just had to share these with you.
Do you have a favourite memory of attending the challenge?
Arriving at the Paisley Town Hall was so exciting for our Glee Club, all the rehearsals and talking about it was over...the big day had arrived! Then we won the Spirit of Glee award! We never expected to win anything as it was our first time and we were not really sure what to expect. We really just loved the fact the children were singing weekly, enjoying themselves and then had a chance to perform on a real stage with a real audience!
How did you prepare and rehearse?
We met every Thursday, after school, to learn songs first, then create and learn the choreography. We shared music and video clips of our progress on the school Seesaw to keep the parents involved. It also let the children continue to rehearse at home and built excitement.
Has your choir faced any challenges? How did you overcome these?
Near the beginning, some of the children would miss the odd glee club rehearsal, it was hard when someone missed changes to choreography or harmonies. But the closer we got, all the children showed great commitment and focus as they really wanted to do well and not let any of the team down. We spoke to the glee club often about being part of a family, working as a team but actually seeing them truly believe that as we got closer to the competition was magical.
Has your choir been up to something exciting? Do you have any news you would like to share?
We took part in the Paisley Food and Drink festival in April and again, the response and support from parents and staff at Heriot was outstanding! The general public gave them a warm reception too in the wonderful sunshine.
Would you like to highlight any specific achievements?
After taking part in Glee Frisson Foundation event, it gave our children a passion for performing. So we decided to have a school show in June. The Heriot Heartbeats presen
ted "The Little Mermaid" show to Heriot primary school and parents. It was a huge success. We probably would not have done this without the enthusiasm of our glee club to work toward an end goal. The glee competition gave them the confidence to know they could do it!
How did your choir find performing for the first time? How did you prepare for this?
We, choir organiser and the children savoured every moment. Even just the preparation - choosing and practising different songs, planning the staging and choreography, creating our Heriot Heartbeat T-shirts, the whole excitement in the run up to performing was such a positive experience.
Many children had not been inside the town hall. They'd only ever performed on the Heriot school stage. It was magical and created a huge buzz in our school and in local community with parents and families super excited too. See parental comments in response to your feedback on Seesaw.
Memories we will treasure! Thank you!
Thoughts from the Children
"It was really scary at first, and hard to learn but if you keep going it turns out to be the best thing you can do!" Sophie
"If you join Glee club, it can be lots of hard work but its worth it and makes you feel better about coming to school. Lucy M
"It was very nerve-wracking at first, but then it was an amazing feeling and it made me want to join other club and sports too." Aoife
"It is so much fun with your friends and you can actually get more friends from being in the glee club. " Jessica
"At the Paisley Town Hall I felt nervous but it went really well and it was great telling all the school how we got on." Chloe
"Its really fun joining in with your friends." Emily C
A huge thank you to Susan Milne, Class Teacher, Carol McFarlane, choir organiser) and all the children Heriot PS for sharing their story.
We're really look forward to seeing Heriot PS in this year's family themed Glee Challenge. We can't wait.
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