Savoy Youth Theatre nominated five of their wonderful volunteers, Holly Ayling, Ella Evans, Kitty Adams, Caitlin Walters and Tom Fell for the Monmouthshire Volunteering Awards, organised by Monmouthshire Housing Association and GAVO.

Ella, Kitty and Tom are Savoy Youth Theatre Students in their Senior Class, who give up their time to volunteer each week in the junior group and often during school holidays when they run workshops. Caitlin and Holly are former SYT members, who still play a valuable role within Savoy Youth Theatre, helping to teach and being a huge support during holiday workshops.

They were delighted to hear that the judges felt that all five of the theatre's young volunteers should be recognised and presented with Highly Commended certificates. Rob Carey, from Monmouthshire Housing Association, and Chris Irving from GAVO came out to one of their junior session and presented each volunteer with a certificate.

Ella Evans was also invited to the Monmouthshire Volunteer Awards evening, where the High Sheriff of Gwent presented her with an award for "the recognition of great and valuable services to the community".

A spokesman for the youth theatre group said: “We are so lucky to have our five amazing youth volunteers, and incredibly proud that their hard work and dedication has been recognised with this well-deserved award!”

Some of the SYT students had the wonderful opportunity to attend the book launch of local author Margaret Iggulden, who was celebrating her new release, The Golden Web, which is part of her incredible series, The Spirals of Time.They did a fantastic job of reading extracts from the book, bringing the story to life and celebrating this special moment with her.

The Senior group are taking part in National Theatre Connections next year, which is a nationwide youth theatre festival, where they will perform their chosen play at the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff.