Year 4 pupils Leah, Dylan, Wareesha and Anthony with their artwork

CHILDREN who were inspired by an 18th-century painting about a shipwreck could see the dance they created shown at the National Gallery.

Pupils from Moreland Primary School in Moreland Street – including some with special educational needs – performed their interpretation of Claude-Joseph Vernet’s evocative painting A Shipwreck in Stormy Seas in front of pupils and teachers at Finsbury Park secondary, Arts and Media School Islington earlier this year.

The school, which has more than double the national average number of students rated as pupil premium, a government marker of disadvantage, created a wealth of artwork as part of the National Gallery’s Take One Picture project.

Headteacher Catherine Lawrence said: “The children loved it. They absolutely loved it. I mean, because all the work is from the children’s ideas, and they’re leading it, they’re so engaged with it. We even found children in the playground, playing with the blocks, building the shipwreck. They were like ‘We’re playing a ship and stormy seas!’ I mean, you don’t often find children playing classical paintings in the playground. But they got immersed in it.”

Salma, 9, who loved the dance lessons so much she now dances around her house, said: “What was amazing about it is like we all had fun and sometimes we would even have snack time, and when we went [to perform our dance in front of everyone] it was super big but in the end we did really, really good.”

Artists, dancers and actors came in to work with the school as part of its community partnership with nearby television production company Sister.

A video of the dance is now shortlisted to be a fixture at the National Gallery.