STUDENTS on a new educational course starting soon in Bolton will be bursting into song midway through lessons. And the tutor won't mind a bit!

Instead of getting black marks or detention, this class will be urged to give it all they've got. And teacher won't just be tickling the old ivories -- she'll be joining in too.

Bolton Branch of the Workers' Education Association have had music courses galore in past years, but they have usually been to study the works of great classical composers.

This one -- "That's Entertainment - Music from the Shows" -- will be no-holds-barred, rollickingly different with the accent on fun and on reviving Bolton's interest in musicals, particularly those which are seldom performed.

It will also be a "first" for the WEA in that the tutor will also be the entertainer!

Bolton musical maestro Marjorie Sims is a woman of many talents.

A car crash forced her early retirement as a tutor in the acclaimed music department of Salford College where, as well as teaching music, she also introduced singing lessons and ran a Fame-style performing arts section.

She now teaches piano -- mainly at her Horwich home -- but also coaches singing, is heavily involved in the amateur musical stage and is well known as an entertainer with her "memory lane" nostalgia performances at local old people's homes and centres.

Marjorie, a soprano, also works with the international Stagecoach organisation teaching young children the performing arts.

She said: "This new course will be general in the extreme, covering musicals from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day.

"I'll be entertaining and I have already got the song sheets ready so that the class can join in."

The WEA brochure describes it as a "decidedly light hearted overview of the development of the musical" -- and that's exactly what Marjorie says she intends to make it.

She says her forte is Noel Coward, but she will also focus on the likes of George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The course runs for 11 weeks on Thursday afternoons from 1.45 to 3.45pm, starting September 14 at Bolton Central Library theatre. Further details from the WEA office on 0161 273 7652.