THREE Ross pupils have won a £3000 cheque for a local charity in a school competition after using dance to get a powerful message across.

Fourteen-year-old Ryan Sutherland, Rae-Anne Simpson and Brooke Macleay were the Alness Academy winners in this year's edition of Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI), bringing home the vital funding for the local charity Ross-shire Women's Aid (RWA).

After meeting various charities invited at a fair earlier this year, students had to prepare group presentations on the organisation, with six groups in the final display.

Miss Macleay said about the win: "It's unreal, we really didn't expect to win. We didn't know Ross-shire Women's Aid before the project and we were shocked to find out how many people were affected by domestic violence. It came quite natural for us to do a choreography, as we dance daily."

English teacher Gordon Robertson said: "The presentations went very well, there were a few project that were close to win but the Ross-shire Women's Aid presentation was the strongest.They were clear speakers and gave a clear understanding of the activities of the charity, producing a video and visiting the Women's Aid shed in Dingwall."

The winning team, who performed in a video with a themed choreography, will have the opportunity to attend the national YPI event in Perth this summer.

RWA general manager, Adele Newlands, said: “The team at RWA are in awe of the presentation that Ryan, Brooke and Rae-Anne presented for their YPI. The presentation itself was extremely powerful, the dance and music together was so evocative that they managed to demonstrate the forms of domestic abuse very well – there was a few tears shed from staff upon viewing this. If you have not yet seen the video the students created we urge you to go and take a look.

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"We would like to give a huge well done to the students and a massive thank you for choosing RWA as your chosen beneficiary. £3000 is a lot of money for our service and this has just given our service a huge boost for 2020. We will use the money within our Children and Young Persons service to fund a summer and winter club and activities and trips throughout the year such as the cinema and bowling, which some of the children we support wouldn’t have the opportunity of taking part in if it wasn’t for the kind donations that we receive.”

Alness Academy has been involved with YPI Scotland since 2013, an initiative that the English department organises with S3 students.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvIjC--Lpis&feature=share

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