The grant from the Blackhill Wind Farm Community Fund supported two projects.
The first was our school show – Beauty and The Beast (June 2025). This was a large-scale production featuring a large number of students supported by a fabulous orchestra of local musicians. The special costumes required for this particular show meant that it was an expensive one to stage. The cost of the costumes along, for example, was £3700. In total, we spent £10,000 on the production – covering costume hire, set and props hire, orchestra expenses, performing rights, programmes, etc. The grant of £1000 from Blackhill, alongside support from local businesses, meant that we were able to keep the cost of tickets very low – only £5 for students and pensioners. It also meant that we were able to offer “pay what you can” tickets for one of the performances to allow families on low incomes to see the show. Even though the cost of staging the show was much higher than normal, we managed to break even.
The second part of the grant from Blackhill was £4000 towards the cost of a grand piano for the school assembly hall. After a huge fund-raising effort over the last two years, I am delighted to report that we have recently managed to purchase a Yamaha C3 Grand Piano. We were fortunate to receive a further grant of £2500 from the P.A.C.T fund. Added to proceeds from concerts over the past few years and a few donations, we managed to cover the cost of buying the piano. (The RRP of this particular instrument is £25,000 but we managed to buy an ex-demonstration model at an educational discount at the price of £15,000). Already, our students are inspired to practise more(!) and we have used the piano for our SQA exams. Later in the year (probably September) we intend to feature the piano in a concert alongside BHS students and the Jedforest Insttrumental Band.
Duns Amateur Swimming Club
6-Monthly Progress Report , January 2026Project DetailsProject title: Come Fly With Us at Duns Swimming Club- Introducing a new hourlySwimming
