IT WAS the magnificent finale of six nights of stunning dance and musical extravaganza at one of the South’s most spectacular youth competitions.

After months of rehearsals hundreds of youngsters from across Hampshire danced the night away in the Rock Challenge heats.

Stunning sea creatures, fearsome pirates, mystical woodland creatures and delightful dancing sweets were among the exquisite characters gracing the dancefloor during the Rock Challenge 2016 at 02 Guildhall in Southampton.

Hampshire Chronicle:

Families proudly watched pupils from schools across the region over six nights – three for secondary schools and colleges and three for primary schools. Top judges have been scoring teams for their skills in dance, drama, set design and lighting during eight-minute performances.

Pupils from 13 schools starred in the Junior Rounds Two and Three nights on Friday and Saturday night.

Braishfield Primary School ran out winners with their flagship piece ‘Carry me to Safety’ in Friday’s heat which was about refugee children from Syria.

Their victory qualifies them through to the Southern Open Final B at Portsmouth Guildhall in June where they will get the chance to be named Rock Challenge champions.

Assistant head teacher at the Common Hill Road school, Pete Stuart, said the school was “ecstatic” to have won.

He said: “We consider ourselves to be the underdog in these situations. We’re very aware that we’re a really small school. We’ve taken part in the competition for three years now, I don’t think that we could ever consider that we could win the competition. It’s always been good for us to be on stage. It was entirely unexpected.”

Narrowly missing the top spot were runners up Highfield CE Primary School.

Rolling into third was Nursling CE Primary School, while Calmore Junior School landed fourth place.

The Southampton City Council Award for Excellence in Choreography was handed to Halterworth Community Primary School, Highfield CE Primary School, and Braishfield Primary School.

The Pauline Quirke Academy Award for Excellence for Performance Skill was received by Braishfield Primary School.

On Saturday, youngsters from Harefield Primary School clinched the runners up position behind winners Rushington Primary School from Littlehampton.

Shirley Junior School finished in third while all three schools gained the Southampton City Council Award for Excellence of Choreography that night.

Harefield and Shirley also won the Hampshire County Council Award of Excellence for stage use.

Thornhill Primary School came fourth with their performance ‘Beware of the Vicious Web’ which tackled online negativity and cyber bullying.

The Rock Challenge, an international initiative run by the Be Your Best Foundation, was brought from Australia to the UK by Hampshire police in 1996 to encourage young people away from alcohol, tobacco and drugs.

Now in its 20th year, the popular event reaches out to more than 20,000 young people across the UK aged seven to 18.