VIDEO: It's a rap! (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Video a rap for Bingley and Cottingley pupils

6:30am Friday 2nd October 2009 in Nab Wood By Ben Barnett

Amateur filmmakers have portrayed harrowing scenes of a stabbing to warn their peers of gang culture.

Pupils at Nab Wood School, Cottingley, and Beckfoot School, Bingley, collaborated with professional film producers to make their own rap music video over the summer. Designed to shock, it also features shots inside a mortuary.

Pupils gave up four weeks of their holidays for the project, penning a script and featuring in the film.

The 14 to 16-year-olds worked on the video as part of West Yorkshire Police’s I09 project, to get youngsters involved in diversionary summer activities. The pupils unveiled the film at Valley Parade this week.

PC Richard Gibbons praised the young people’s commitment. He said: “They have produced something they can all be proud of and it has been great to see them show such enthusiasm.

“From my point of view they have formed a relationship with me as a police officer which under normal circumstances they may not have had a chance to do.”

Nab Wood School pastoral manager Ibrar Hussain said: “This is an excellent and hard-hitting project for which the children have sacrificed a lot of their time over the summer.”