A BOY band of 11-year-olds has swept to victory in a children’s talent contest – and now has its sights on Britain’s Got Talent.

Gravity, made up of four Year Six pupils at Didcot’s Stephen Freeman School, got together for the first time to appear in the Reach For The Stars talent show before a sell-out crowd at the town’s Cornerstone Arts Centre on Saturday.

After being crowned victors in their first public appearance, Jamie Allen, 11, Dellan Thornton, 11, Ryan Butler, 10 and Lewis Apera, 11, have their sights on the hit ITV show.

The quartet, who sing in the school choir, performed the JLS hit Everybody In Love to a panel of four judges, including the principal of Thames Valley Drama Group, Donna Thompson, and Arts Minister Ed Vaizey, the local MP.

They beat 15 other finalists, who in turn had been selected from a field of 60 acts, including singers and dancers.

Dellan said: “When we were told there was a show going on, we all looked at each other because we do this sort of stuff together.

“We had about three weeks to practise. We are trying to be a little boy band. We do not want to copy JLS, but we like a few of their songs.

“When we found out we had won, we all jumped up cheering.”

Ryan added: “When we got to school and told everybody, everyone was really excited.

“We want to do something else now.

“We said from the beginning that if we were told we were good, we would go for Britain’s Got Talent.”

Headteacher Ruth Bennie said the whole school was proud of them.

She said: “They are nice, outgoing boys who are very sporty, but they had kept all this singing and dancing to themselves before Saturday.”

Second place went to Oliver Bolton, 10, from Long Wittenham Primary School, who sang Crazy Little Thing Called Love, while Irish dancer Mollie Hart, nine, from South Moreton Primary School came third.

The event, which involved schools from across south Oxfordshire, was set up by members of South Moreton School’s PTA to raise more than £1,000 for participating schools.

Organiser Sarah Carter said: “There was a high standard of performance across the board, and there were quite heated discussions among the judges backstage.

“There were children as young as six performing to 200-plus people without batting an eyelid.”

She hopes the contest will return, possibly run by different local schools each year.

lsloan@oxfordmail.co.uk