DRAMA students from St Gabriel's High School have been praised for an "inspiring" political performance by the leader of the Green Party.

The performance was a response from the year 10 and 11 pupils over the Government's English Baccalaureate plans.

The students felt so strongly about the impact that they felt the EBacc could have on arts subjects that they wanted to put together a play on it.

The Government has said that by 2020, it wants at least 90% of pupils in England to be taking seven GCSEs in EBacc subjects - including English, maths, two science subjects, history or geography and a language.

The concern from pupils at the school is that subjects like drama will be pushed out of the curriculum.

The students felt so strongly about the impact that they felt it could have on arts subjects that they wanted to put together a play on it.

Head of drama Marc Young invited Natalie Bennett to watch the show.

He said: "The pupils felt so strongly about the issue so I thought why not get a high profile politician to come and watch and listen to what they are trying to say.

"The concern is that the arts subjects such as drama will be squeezed out. All of them firmly believe that creative subjects should remain and the younger generations should be given the same opportunities that they were.

"An ex-student also turned up to show her support because she feels so strongly about keeping drama in the curriculum."

Mrs Bennett was unable to watch the whole performance but she saw clips of it and hosted a question and answer with the pupils.

Following the afternoon she tweeted that the school was "inspiring" adding "the pupils are a credit to it."

Mr Young said: "The pupils really enjoyed talking with Natalie and it's great that she has listened to their concerns.

"She also told them that she would act on their worries and try and get their concerns taken to parliament."

Mr Young also explained that journalist Mrs Bennett told the pupils that she thought creative subjects should be available for all.