UK ROCK CHALLENGE 2009 NATIONAL AWARDS

NATIONAL OPEN AWARDS

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NATIONAL OPEN AWARD FOR CHOREOGRAPHY
Winner: The Lindsey School and Community Arts College, Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire ("Through her eyes") for fresh and imaginative choreography with excellent musicality, stage use and innovation creating emotive and atmospheric stage pieces.
Also nominated:
Millais School
Durrington High School
Sandown High School Team Two
Tong High School
Withernsea High School
Yateley School and Performing Arts College

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NATIONAL OPEN AWARD FOR COSTUME DESIGN
Winner: Baylis Court School, Slough, Berkshire ("Simunye - We Are One") for excellent, innovative and authentic costuming using great diversity of texture and style and a fantastic use of colour and accessories to create vivid and stunning stage effects.
Also nominated:
Alameda Middle and Redbourne Upper School
Belfast Model School for Girls
Cockermouth School
Kelvin Hall School
Mayville High School
Ryde School with Upper Chine
Sandown High School Team Two

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NATIONAL OPEN AWARD FOR CONCEPT INTERPRETATION
Winner: Coopers Technology College, Chistlehurst, Kent ("GetUpOffaThatThing.Com") for a highly entertaining, colourful and original interpretation on the theme of obesity with great creativity and energy used to convey the theme clearly to the audience.
Also nominated:
Airedale High School the Arts College
Alameda Middle School and Redbourne Upper School
The Lindsey School and Community Arts College
Ryde School with Upper Chine
Sandown High School Team Two
Tong High School

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NATIONAL OPEN AWARD FOR CONCEPT ORIGINALITY
Winner: Finchley Catholic Boys' High School, Finchley, London ("Have a Heart") for their piece telling the real story behind the Tinman from the Wizard of Oz.
Also nominated:
Airedale High School the Arts College
Hertswood School
Kings Langley School
Mayfield Middle School
Mayville High School
Millais School
St Paul's Catholic School
The judges would like to congratulate the many schools this year that came up with truly unique and original themes and also those that tackled more common themes in new and innovative ways - it was a fantastic year in this award category and even to narrow the field to eight nominations was difficult before having to choose the eventual winner!

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NATIONAL OPEN AWARD FOR DRAMA SKILLS
Winner: Portsmouth College ("Split Second") for excellent projection and energy from main characters and the whole cast combined. Excellent characterisation and fantastic use of lighting, soundtrack, and choreography to make clear, exciting and diverse moods for each scene.
Special mention:
Sandown High School Team Two, Sandown, Isle of Wight ("Cursed")
Also nominated:
Lipson Community College
Portsmouth College
Queen Mary's College
Sandown High School Team Two
Tong High School
Withernsea High School

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NATIONAL OPEN AWARD FOR ENTERTAINMENT
Winner: Yateley School and Performing Arts College, Yateley, Hampshire ("I need a hero") for a performance that was pure fun from start to finish using all the elements to create an entertaining, high-energy, colourful Rock Challenge® piece with a cast displaying great talent and enthusiasm.
Also nominated:
Coopers Technology College
Haycliffe School
Kelvin Hall School
Portsmouth College
Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee School
Winifred Holtby School Technology College

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NATIONAL OPEN AWARD FOR HAIR DESIGN
Winner: St Peter's Catholic School, Bournemouth, Dorset ("Clone Alone") for hair designs excellently integrated style-wise with the set and costumes with a fantastic attention to detail and use of colour. Excellent characterisation and great overall stage-image perception.
Also nominated:
Cockermouth School
Cowes High School
Ryde School with Upper Chine
Sandown High School Team Two
St Paul's Catholic School
Wyvern Technology College

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NATIONAL OPEN AWARD FOR LIGHTING DESIGN
Winner: Royds School Specialist Language College, Leeds, West Yorkshire ("Salem's Sorcerer") for an excellently constructed lighting design utilising a fantastic palette of colours, gobos and special effects integrated well with the costuming and set designs to create fantastically moody and atmospheric stage images. Well-articulated by an excellent lighting designer.
Special mention to:
Trent Valley Academy, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire for an outstanding use of additional lighting brought in by the school for the performance.
Also nominated:
Baysgarth School
The Lindsey School and Community Arts College
The Mountbatten School a Language and Sports College
Woodlands Community College
Worthing College

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NATIONAL OPEN AWARD FOR MAKE-UP DESIGN
Winner: Lincoln Christ's Hospital School, Lincoln, Lincolnshire ("Out of the Mouths of Babes") for clear, excellently executed make-up designs that worked fantastically with the chosen interpretation of their theme. Outstanding attention to detail integrated seamlessly with the costume and set design.
Also nominated:
Cockermouth School
The Mountbatten School a Language and Sports College
Rickmansworth School
Ryde School with Upper Chine
Sandown High School Team Two
Yateley School and Performing Arts College

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NATIONAL OPEN AWARD FOR PERFORMANCE SKILL
Winner: Sandown High School Team Two, Sandown, Isle of Wight ("Cursed") for outstanding attack and performance skill displayed not only by the three lead roles, but in the whole ensemble cast. Fantastic use of facial expression and energy in both dance and drama elements from all involved.
Also nominated:
The Hemel Hempstead School
The Lakes School
The Lindsey School and Community Arts College
The Mountbatten School a Language and Sports College
Ryde School with Upper Chine
Yateley School and Performing Arts College

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NATIONAL OPEN AWARD FOR SET DESIGN
Winner: Matthew Humberstone School, Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire ("Blood Diamond") for an outstanding, unique and original set with huge impact. Excellently constructed and integrated fantastically into the performance with fantastic artwork and use of levels and a memorable set-piece in the incredible lit diamond.
Also nominated:
Belfast Model School for Girls
Bridgemary Community School
Kelvin Hall School
Mayville High School
St Michael's Youth Project
Woodlands Community College

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NATIONAL OPEN AWARD FOR SOUNDTRACK
Winner: Kings Langley School, Kings Langley, Hertfordshire ("Who Cares?") for an original and well-chosen soundtrack with great attention to lyrical content and outstanding and innovative editing throughout.
Special mention:
Mackie Academy, Stonehaven, Kincardineshire ("Respect: It's Elementary")
Also nominated:
Cowes High School
Filsham Valley School
Haycliffe School
Lincoln Christ's Hospital School
Mackie Academy
Nelson Thomlinson School

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NATIONAL OPEN AWARD FOR STAGING
Winner: Brynmawr School, Newport, Powys ("Reuban Cantu - An Innocent Man") for a fantastic use of staging of set pieces and performers as a tool to create diverse and exciting stage imagery that worked well within the style of the piece and helped the audience follow the narrative in original and interesting ways.
Also nominated:
Alameda Middle and Redbourne Upper School
Belfast Model School for Girls
Cowes High School
Netherhall School Specialist Sports College
Springwell Community School
Trent Valley School

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NATIONAL OPEN AWARD FOR VIDEO PERFORMANCE
Winner: Portsmouth College, Portsmouth Hampshire ("Split Second") for a well-directed video and for creation of a highly-detailed performance made for capturing on video.
Also nominated:
Cox Green School Open Team
Itchen College
Queen Mary's College
Royds School Specialist Language College
Tong High School
Winifred Holtby Technology College


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NATIONAL WRITTEN AWARDS

NATIONAL AWARD FOR ACHIEVEMENT IN DRUG AWARENESS
Winner: Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College, Bradford, West Yorkshire ("The Kiss")

NATIONAL AWARD FOR CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT
Winner: Cox Green School Premier Team, Maidenhead, Berkshire ("The Little Ships")

NATIONAL AWARD FOR HEALTHY LIFESTYLE
Winner: Ashfield Girls' High School, Belfast ("Wishful Thinking")

NATIONAL AWARD FOR MEDIA MANAGEMENT
Winner: Kings Langley School, Kings Langley, Hertfordshire ("Who Cares?")

NATIONAL AWARD FOR SCHOOL COMMUNITY SUPPORT
Winner: Peterhead Academy, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire ("Written in the Stars")

NATIONAL AWARD FOR STUDENT LEADERSHIP
Winner: Sandown High School Team Two, Sandown, Isle of Wight ("Cursed")

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NATIONAL AWARD FOR STAGE CREW
This year, due to the increasing standard of stage crews we decided to nominate 10 schools.

Winner: Testbourne Community School, Whitchurch, Hampshire ("Think You Know Us?"). Above all other stage crews this year, Testbourne were faultless. From the moment the first piece of scenery moved on to stage they only spoke or made noise when actually required, building a very large set in under 3 minutes. During the performance itself the crew worked just as hard as the dancers, continually working to change the scenery throughout. We also noted that the compères and our crew stood in the wings just to watch the Testbourne crew working tirelessly behind the scenery to re-dress their flats and prepare for the next scene.

Congratulations Testbourne, a very well-earned award and a performance to be proud of.

Other schools of special mention this year should absolutely include the most improved crew across the 2009 tour; seeing Lindsey School and Community Arts College on three occasions this year gave me a great opportunity to appreciate their improvement to the point that, along with all stage crews in Sheffield, they were superb.

Hornsea School Language College have always been one of the best crews in the country and winning the Stage Crew Award at the National Final is something they can be extremely proud of as this was a very smooth and strong day for stage crews; congratulations to Luke and his team!

Congratulations to all nominated schools; the standard of stage crews increases every year and so a nomination in this category is something you should be very proud of.

David Beal, UK Stage Manager

Also nominated:
Chichester College
Cox Green School
Mackie Academy
Mayville High School
Thornton Grammar School
Trent Valley Academy
Woodlands Community College