Hopelands Wins Cheltenham Drama Cup

IT IS well known that our Year 6 pupils are great at drama (!) but this year, when they took their skills to the Annual Cheltenham Festival of Performing Arts, they won a prize for it.

The Stewards Cup is awarded for a Junior Themed Performance and requires the participants to show a number of skills including singing, dancing and mime – as well as, obviously, acting. Hopeland’s piece was called ‘Making a Splash’, a spooky undersea adventure and was conceived and choreographed by the pupils themselves.

Extracts from the judges’ comments sum up how good Hopelands was “Movements and Actors were thoroughly orchestrated”

"You explore and carry the humour of the suit very well”

“Confident use was made of the performance space”

Pupil Harry Luck said “ It was the best experience ever, and I want to do it all again”.

Mr Steve Evans, Head of Drama, said “I quite agree. It was a fantastic afternoon, tense but enjoyable, and I am immensely proud of everyone involved.”

This win comes on the heels of the School Choir’s second place in the Cheltenham Music Festival of Performing Arts.

Although they were the first on the stage the choir did not allow their nerves to get the better of them.

The judge was very complimentary about this performance too, commenting on our beautifully well sung melodies and said “This is a school choir that really rose to the challenge”.

Hopelands achieved a mark of 88, with Honours.

Pupil Saba Heard said ‘Even though we didn’t win it was an amazing experience and I really enjoyed it.”

Thank you to all the parents who supported us.