Schoolchildren showed “passion and pizzazz” as they performed at the finals of Barnet’s first ever Eurovision Song Contest last night.

Eight primary schools took to the stage at Ashmole Academy in Cecil Road, Southgate where they sang songs in another language.

After scoring the contestants on musical ability, enjoyment and pronunciation the judges named Mathilda Marks Kennedy Year Six pupils the winners of the competition.

The group sang Hinei Ba Shalom in Hebrew – a song about wishing for peace.

11-year-old Jordan Reznik said: "I enjoyed hearing some well-known songs in new languages that I don’t learn in school. I really think that all the other schools did extremely well. It’s a shame that all schools didn’t have a chance to win. I definitely learnt a lot of Spanish and met some really nice people."

Dressed in their school uniform and caps, each pupil held a cardboard balloon with peace written on it in a different language.

Mathilda Marks Kennedy deputy dead, Ruth Wilkinson, said: “The children absolutely loved it and have come away from it buzzing with new languages. They’ve been singing in Spanish, which we don’t teach here – it’s great.

“It was a real festival of music and it was lovely for the different schools to mix and share their modern language skills.”

Also taking part in the competition were Akiva School, Trent CE Primary, Deansbrook Junior School, Garden Suburb Junior School, Colindale Primary, Martin Primary School and Broadfields Primary.

Deansbrook Junior School teacher and organiser of the event, Caroline Goodman, said: “The aim of the contest was to reignite primary schools’ passion for modern foreign language.”

Ms Goodman’s Year Six class performed their school song, The Children of Deansbrook School, in Spanish which they had been practising twice a week.

She said: “It was absolutely brilliant to see all the schoolchildren performing with such passion and pizzaz – they really upped their game for the final. They enjoyed their chance to shine and the audience were completely at raptures with what they were hearing – it was beautiful to watch.”

Ms Goodman and fellow organisers, Ali de Jong and Rebecca Gitau-Bone, hope this will be the first of many Eurovision events in the borough.