FIFTY students from St Gregory the Great Catholic School teamed up with an international band for a confidence-boosting show.

Gen Verde, a group composed of 21 women from 13 countries including Argentina, El Salvador, Brazil, Portugal, South Korea and the US, visited Oxford to teach children how to sing, dance, act and play percussion.

Their visit was part of the Start Now project, for which Gen Verde work with young people for five days, preparing them to perform in a concert.

After four rehearsals, the students hopped on stage at the Christian Life Centre in Cowley Road.

Tina Hill, who helped bring Gen Verde to Oxford, said: “This touring group’s aim is to give students a reason for having some kind of self-worth, particularly children who come from difficult circumstances.

“As well as doing their own songs and telling their own stories, they hold workshops for the children and teach them to do something.

“It’s very skilled – they had buckets used as drums and there was singing and drama.

“The best thing was when we went to the feedback session the next day.

“Lots of them didn’t have much confidence and it was amazing how they just took it on.

“Their faces were beaming and they were talking. They now walk in a different way and their eye contact when they meet people is completely different.

“That was the aim: to give them this self-affirmation.”