Dormston School pupils win 'Best Event'

Pupils from Dormston School in Sedgley enjoyed success when they entered a competition run by registered charity Blastbeat and O2 through their community programme 'Think Big'.

This was a hunt to find the best musicians and social entrepreneurs in the UK, two competitions in one. The programme has been open to several areas around the country from London to York.

The Blastbeat programme allowed young people to learn about industry and in particular the music industry. The pupils had to create their own business, arrange a show, book bands, engage in selling tickets for the event and arrange all marketing and technical organisation on their own.

The Dormston Pupils formed their own Events Social Enterprise Company, which they called EPIC to compete in the competition.

Judges from O2 and Blastbeat attended the fantastic sell out show and gave the group the top scores for organisation in the Midlands. This secured Epic a place in the London finals - held at the Indigo O2 London arena. Twenty five per cent of the profits made from the evening were given to the charity Help For Heroes.

On Tuesday 25th October the team travelled to London to present their work to judges and show a three minute film of their fundraising event. Around 3,500 people were at the event and after the judging the team were able to enjoy the bands that had also made the finals.

The group had a fantastic, if long, day ending with being awarded the award for Best Event.

Through the process the pupils gained a hands-on learning experience which has certainly inspired them to go on and achieve even more success with new events arranged by the group. They have worked independently and occasionally with mentors to achieve all the success and had real life experience of running a business, formulating sales, setting up a marketing strategy as well as a business plan with financial responsibility.

The group also helped the community through social awareness and the events have given lots of young people throughout Dudley an enjoyable, safe, alcohol-free event which was enjoyed by all, as well as the donation to the local charity.

The students loved the excitement of Blastbeat, and they loved the experience. They worked very hard as a team while also enjoying themselves immensely.