oh my, I could have told them that trying to get the GBP to vote on 843 entrants was doomed. Oh well at least all the schools will get a fair chance at being chosen now.

It seems sort of inevitable, but I do think it's the right decision, as some of the top ones were really bad. I do feel a bit sorry for the kids in some of the choirs that probably thought they'd made it into the top 20 though.

Isn't the winning choir supposed to be singing in the final show? They'll have to get their skates on!

oh well, at least they admit they messed up. Sort of.

I am really annoyed about this. A school I am connected with was not the greatest, but we wanted to try to get into the top 150 or so, so we made lots of posters and made people vote for us. Now all these votes don't even count. WHAT A DISGRACE!!

What I find almost as annoying is that now unless the school is in the top 20, it doesn't have a ranking, so no one will know how they did.

Come on BBC - sort it out!!

And on You and Yours, there were some people talking about it...

They've announced the winner - Brampton Primary School from East Ham. The website says the runners-up will be announced on Mon 11th - I assume that's everyone who was in the top 21. The details are here if anyone's interested - http://www.josephchoirsearch.co.uk

Here are the top 21:

"Howard Goodall said: "In truth, any of these excellent 21 choirs would have been worthy winners. What's more, they are a fairly accurate reflection of the enthusiasm, the breadth, and the diversity of the other 822".

The full list, arranged in alphabetical order:

Alleyn's Junior School
Bradley Barton Primary School
Brampton Primary School
Gallery Choir of Harrogate Ladies College
Gourock Primary School
Great Walstead School
Heath Mount School
Langley First School
Loretto Convent Primary School
Loyola School
Moorfoot Primary
Poulton le Fylde St Chads C of E Primary School
Richmond C of E Primary School
Shenington C of E VA Primary School
St Joseph's Convent Prep School
St Patricks Primary School
Southwater Junior School
Taunton Prep School
Wellington School
Withycombe Raleigh C of E Primary School
Wyke Regis CE Junior School


The BBC would also like to apologise again to those who experienced technical problems with the site and also to the schools, children and viewers who took a lot of time to gather support and rate entries, and to the schools and children who were in the top twenty at the close of the original vote."

Unfortunately, this was my daughter, but they weren't in the final top 21...difficult to explain to them why!

Oh, well. If the bbc do this again, let's hope they've learned something...

The whole thing was a shambles really wasn't it.

On the other hand, I'm ecstatic to see that our wonderful local music teacher did get her choir into the top 21.

It must be appalling for all the children in the original top 21. I am so sorry for your daughter marks thespot.

The winning choir were very good (although it was hard to tell from what we heard of them.....). It would have been nice if they were used in Lee's final performance though. I didn't think they were really needed in either the first performance (I mean, there were 12 guys on the stage anyway) or in Lewis' "Close Every Door", because they didn't sing the "for we know we shall find, our own piece of mind" part, which confused me a bit.

IMO, the whole thing was a bit of a waste of resources. I hope the beeb have learned their lesson. I felt bad for the children involved really, whether their choir finished in the top 21 or not.