A GROUP of students from a Basingstoke school have been chosen to put together a performing arts piece to be shown at the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.

The project involves 30 Year 7 pupils at Everest Community Academy in Popley, who have already begun working alongside The Grange Festival and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to share their powerful message for fighting climate change.

The students have worked alongside professional musicians, production directors and Peanut and Crumb, a London-based sound and film crew, to create an innovative new musical project addressing the climate change crisis in the African Grasslands.

The song will be shared with world leaders, including Boris Johnson and Greta Thunberg, at the COP26, Glasgow in November.

One student said: “I enjoyed the WWF project as it was an amazing experience and I learnt about lots of ways to help save the planet.”

Another added: “The experience was spectacular, everyone who was there took part and did amazingly. The atmosphere was always so positive.”

WWF aims to highlight the importance of change through the impacted generation’s perspective and to share visions of a sustainable future with the general public and decision-makers in 2021 and beyond.

The WWF is also working with eight other schools to create short films focused on different areas of the world, in an attempt to show the vast impact our behaviours are having.

The Grange Festival visited the students to hold a conference with a WWF conservationist to learn in-depth about the impact climate change is having and have any questions answered. Students took what they learnt, the concerns and ideas that they had and wrote a song with The Grange Festival musical directors focused on the African Grasslands.

On the final day, Peanut and Crumb carried out sound checks and rehearsals following the audio being recorded professionally. The film crew then spent the rest of the day with Everest Students filming clips for the short film.

Mrs Cash, a Performing Arts teacher at Everest, said: “Having the Grange in to work with our Year 7 students was an incredible experience. Our students were able to work with artists to create a powerful and emotive piece on the importance of acting against climate change - a topic they were all keen to have their voices heard on.

“The students were key in the devising process and worked closely in collaboration with film crew, musicians, singers and directors to create the work. We have been very lucky to have the Grange and their artists to work with us and promote the arts further here at Everest.”

As well as being shown at the conference, BBC South will also be airing clips of the final piece in November.