A PASSION for drama and singing won two York students a national NHS competition to help recruit health staff.

Year 8 pupils Margaux Barker and Molly Hilton of All Saints RC School beat 1,882 entries from 141 schools across the country with their catchy song and interactive book about dramatherapists.

Their creativity and performance won the 2018/2019 Health Education England (HEE) Step into the NHS competition to design a recruitment ad and job description for health professionals.

Congratulating the pair, the acting chair of the British Association of Dramatherapists, Madeline Anderson-Warren, said: "The presentation skilfully captured the spontaneity and essence of our profession and will encourage students with a love of arts, in particular drama, to consider dramatherapy as a varied and fulfilling career option.”

Margaux said: “When we found out we had won we were completely overwhelmed. We worked very hard from October on our entry and lots of people helped us. We were determined to do our best. We decided our entry should be about a drama therapist because our passion is drama, dance and singing. We enjoy helping people and we would both like to be a drama therapist in the future.”

Molly said: "We started with the lyrics for the song then we created the interactive book to help younger people understand the role. Margaux and I are really pleased with the prize and it shows how much you can achieve when you are really determined."

Sarah Bilton, the school's subject leader for careers, said: "We are so pleased for our Year 8 students Margaux and Molly, they worked extremely hard on this project and winning the national competition is absolutely fantastic."

Molly and Margaux will each receive an iPad as their prize.