Hammond Academy Bournemouth

Exam results are starting to come in. I will be in touch with more details. Hope you are all enjoying your summer.
Miss H

Feeling overwhelmed 💔

Winners will be announced next week for our school awards!!!!

The Peter King Award for Enthusiasm.
The Grace Johnson Award for Improvement.
The Miss Hammond Award for Achievement.

A huge congratulations to everyone who took their dance exams yesterday! 🌟 We are so proud of all your hard work. Now it's time to relax and be proud of yourselves while we wait for the results. 💃🕺✨

❤️

Well done to those who took exams with Mr Hunt at West Moors and good luck to all taking exams at HAPA today!!!

The Miss Hammond Award for Achievement.

Miss Hammond was born in Liverpool and from a very young age showed a love and passion for dance and drama. Music was part of daily life at home. She was always singing and choreographing to the latest songs and even “old” music that her parents would play at home. At the age of 7 she followed her big sister to dance class to learn Ballroom and Latin American at the Billy Martin School of Dance. By the age of 11 she knew that dance had to be much more. Changing schools, she began a long journey learning many genres that would shape her future. At The Vernon Johnson School of Dance and Drama, Miss Johnson introduced Classical Ballet, Cecchetti Ballet, Free Movement, Modern, Tap and Disco into her repertoire. Of course, along with Ballroom and Latin American. At the age of 16, a scholarship took her to full time college at Merseyside Dance and Drama Centre for 3 years before pursuing a long career on the stage travelling the world.
Retiring from performing, Mis Hammond embarked on a career of teaching. To date, thousands of students have passed through her schools to be trained by her, receiving so much knowledge and life skills in the process.
This award was presented to the school by the Staff and Cast of Cowboys & Angels in 2012.

The Grace Johnson Award for Improvement

Vernon Johnson owned a music shop in the wealthy district of Sefton Park on the south side of Liverpool at the turn of the last century. Whilst he taught pianoforte in the shop his wife taught Classical Ballet in a small studio at the rear.
They had two daughters Grace and Olga who both naturally grew up with a love of music and dance. A career on the stage followed for the girls, performing in theatre shows around the country and summer season every year at the prestigious Blackpool Tower Ballroom. The two girls eventually took over the family business and so The Vernon Johnson School of Dance & Drama was born.
Miss Johnson (or the Boss as she was affectionately known) never had any children of her own but saw all the children who passed through her school as her own. She loved to watch the development of toddlers as their first co-ordinated steps and actions would happen and praised the teenagers when those tricky combinations they had practised for weeks finally came together. It was not about being the best it was about being the best you can be.... was her ethos.
The Boss would tell us as students and teachers “No matter how big or small try to learn one new thing every day”
I was very fortunate to be trained by this great lady and indeed spent 15 years learning from her. When she died in 1993 a great void appeared in my life. The school continues and is now over 120 years old.
In memory of an outstanding lady and my mentor.

The Peter King Award for Enthusiasm.

Peter was born in Eastham on the Wirral Peninsula in Merseyside and from an early age showed a great love and talent for dance. After leaving school he went on to full-time college attending MERSEYSIDE DANCE AND DRAMA CENTRE for three years. It was here that he not only trained to be a dancer but also a teacher and choreographer.
After graduating he travelled all over the world performing. He later returned to England to teach not only at his former college but at other full-time establishments as well as local dance schools.
Peter never really “retired” from dancing, like the rest of us he continued to perform appearing in the West End in musicals and pantomimes each year.
I met Peter at the MDDC when I was in my first year and he his final year. I had an instant admiration for his enthusiasm and energy (especially whilst being thrown around the Pas de Deux class as he was often my partner!).
Peter was a very thorough teacher who never expected unrealistic goals from his pupils. When teaching he never had favourites and he didn’t care if every student had two left feet! Peter wasn’t looking for the next Nureyev or Fontaine as long as you had energy and enthusiasm he was happy to teach you. Indeed, when Peter walked in to a room it would light up with smiles and soon would resound with laughter. That was the effect he had on everybody.
I opened my former school in the Village where Peter was born and I taught many pupils who were children of Peter’s old friends. In 2001 I was honoured to be presented with a shield in Peter’s name by his mother Mrs Mary King. The shield was donated by Mrs Tina Murray, a close friend of Peter’s family.
The very first presentation of the shield was to Miss Julia who had been a pupil of mine for twelve years before being asked to join the staff. Her dedication and hard work were one of the reasons the school was such a success.
When HAMMOND ACADEMY OF PERFORMING ARTS was born in 2006 it only seemed fitting that I bring the shield back into existence. I have been honoured to perform with, and teach alongside Peter over the years and even though the months would pass without contact, when we met again it was as if no time had passed at all. In the years to come I will ensure that the shield is awarded in the same manner as if Peter himself were to present it.

A GREAT FRIEND, TEACHER AND COLLEAGUE WHO IS SADLY MISSED, FONDLY REMEMBERED AND NEVER FORGOTTEN!

Read up on our School Awards..............