CHILDREN from a Branksome school donned mermaid tails and crab costumes for a film about their new hydrotherapy pool.

Students from the Victoria Education Centre in Lindsay Road created their own version of The Little Mermaid, by dressing up in brightly-coloured costumes, to celebrate their £2.8million pool, funded with the help of the Daily Echo-backed Sparkle Appeal.

Belinda Ellicott, music and dance teacher at the school, said: “The idea came from the wonderful new pool that we have. On the first day that we saw it, we thought that it looked like a theatre, and we could make a film about it, with The Little Mermaid being the obvious choice.

“The children have sung all the songs and we’ve used the new green screen and media suite to put it together, which has been a real creative arts team effort, with the staff and students aged from three to 19.

“We’ve been making it for the past two terms every Wednesday and it had been really good fun. We are also so proud of our new pool, which is amazing and beautiful.”

Once the film was completed, a ticket-only movie premiere was held at the school on last month, complete with Oscar-style awards for all of those who took part.

The Victoria Education Centre’s pool was opened in September 2013 and was visited three months later, in December 2013, by HRH The Princess Royal.

Princess Anne, who is patron of Livability, the national disability charity which runs the centre, toured the new facility and found out more about how the school works with 100 young people with different disabilities.

Copies of the film on DVD can be purchased from the school’s reception desk.