MORE than a thousand children from schools across York put normal classes aside for a day and instead got to “rock out”.

Just under 400 pupils at Copmanthorpe School, along with 200 from St Paul’s CE, 150 from Lord Deramore’s and 440 from Poppleton Ousebank all had visits from Rock Kidz On Tour.

The St Helen’s based company gives primary schools around the country the opportunity to learn important life lessons in a fun way through our high energy rockstar workshops.

Each school focused on a different workshop such as self esteem, health and wellbeing, dreams and goals, anti-bullying or equality and diversity.

Jenny Rogers, head teacher at Copmanthorpe, said that on Friday, March 4, they transformed their school hall into a stadium and the children and adults transformed into rock stars.

The children learnt a song called ‘Don’t Quit!’ talking about the importance of working hard, having goals and not giving up.

Mrs Rogers said: “This was the first time that we have been able to get together as a whole school since the beginning of the pandemic, so it was a really special day.

“It felt absolutely amazing to get the children together again and to see the joy on the children’s faces.

“Lots of them came up to me afterwards to say thank you and to say how much they’d enjoyed it.

“We linked the day to Time Table Rockstars, having times table battles throughout the day, whilst dressed as their favourite rock legends.

“We had dance battles between the children and staff got involved too.”

"Our amazing parents raised £1,039 during the event.

"The money was originally going to go to maths resources in school, however due to the crisis in Ukraine we have now split the money and have actually match funded it through Aviva, so we've raised £500 for school and £1,078 for the Ukraine humanitarian appeal."

Copmanthopre School is no stranger to musical showcases back in 2019 a Big Sing event was held at the school run by York Music Hub, and three generations of the same family with links to the school were among the visitors during its 150th anniversary celebration week.

The school has held a range of activities to mark the milestone.

Sarah Hudson and her daughters Megan, aged 10, and seven-year-old Jessica, along with Sarah’s father, Colin Hudson, 75, joined in the anniversary celebrations by attending the school’s tea party on Wednesday afternoon. Sarah’s grandfather Joseph Robinson Hudson was also a pupil at the school.

On that occasion number of past teachers attended the event, as well as current staff and pupils, and other members of the community.

Held in the lower school hall, the tea party included a display of historical photographs and logbooks dating back to 1869.