On Thursday 13th of February the school hall became a hive of activity as our fantastic students at HVC descended - fueled be delicious cakes made by the PTFA and parents - to dance the afternoon away and perform alongside alumni from the National Folk Ensemble, Sarah Matthews and Sam Sweeney. Have a listen and look to the highlights in the video on the Hope Valley College  Facebook page.

Over the past few weeks we have met lots of inspiring professional folk musicians who have spent three full days with us working with our students at HVC. In total around 180 students have met, worked with or seen a performance by the musicians and we have seen inspiring results from the amazing musicians at HVC. 

The performance started with our very own folk ensemble performing their own arrangement of Old Joe Clark and Shepherd's Hey. These are two pieces that they have developed and worked on during the length of the project. This was followed with enthusiastic dancing by the audience and students alike (I did a spot of dancing myself!) with music played by our visitors. Later on in the evening we performed our new numbers Sarabande and Ross Castle alongside Sam, Sarah and the National Folk Ensemble alumni. 

Thank you to the PTFA, the fantastic National Folk Ensemble players as well as Sarah, Sam and Ian for making the evening one to remember. Thanks goes to our very own folk extraordinaire Matt Laurie who led the HVC folk ensemble and worked with them to achieve their excellent performance. The HVC ceilidh may become a regular event.... watch this space!