Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust’s Festival of Hope during March has been hailed as a massive success.

The theme was ‘Better Together’ and the goal was to bring all the schools together in the Trust spreading the message that everyone is part of something bigger and to increase student aspirations.

Sporting events took place, a reading programme that ran across the primaries and secondaries, a travelling art exhibition with submissions from all schools and a new song was written for the Trust entitled Make our Future Bright which can be viewed on the DMAT website and involved almost all of the schools within the Trust.

Schools also set up their own community events and encouraged parents, carers and the wider community to join in the festivities in some way.

Students from many of the primaries and secondaries participated in an indoor athletics tournament at Holsworthy College at the start of the festival and a football tournament at Okehampton College at the end.

A cross phase art exhibition (from primary right up to secondary) was arranged which started its tour at Tavistock College and travelled onwards over the month to the other two secondaries.

A digital art gallery of all the contributions can be viewed on DMAT’s website

Live Art sessions were led by an artist at three sites with a range of primary pupils attending. They had the opportunity to create a ‘DMAT Shoe’ and tour the exhibition.

A music video was produced to showcase the participation of all the schools in the festivities for the song Make Our Future Bright.

The secondary students added instrumental accompaniment to the backing track, while some of the primary students created their own dance routines, all of which can be seen in the video

Year 7 students from Okehampton College took part in several ‘Book Club’ sessions at Okehampton, North Tawton and South Tawton primary schools and Holsworthy College visited Bridgerule and Black Torrington primary schools during the festival, where they used reciprocal reading strategies to lead an academic discussion on Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief with Year 6 students.

Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust leader and CEO, Dan Morrow said: ‘The Festival of Hope has involved a significant range of activities for our young people raging from Year Reception up to Year 13, centred on art, music, sport and the wider curriculum that brings so much to the vibrancy and breadth of school experience.

‘As the shadow of the last few years still looms heavily upon us all, centring this on hope and the belief in human potential and compassion, has been so important to the sense of identity and belonging crucial to the development of character.

‘It has been a real privilege to see what our young people have produced and the care and dedication that they and the staff who steward them, have invested into this wonderful event.

‘We end this term in hope — its celebration and its revealing. Whilst there will always be uncertainty, we weather any storm through our collective commitment and will to putting children at the heart of all we do.’