STUDENTS from Comet country have been praised by professionals from The Royal Opera House this week after winning a design competition.

Pupils attending North Hertfordshire College’s Centre for the Arts entered a national competition to design a piece for Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida opera and four students have emerged as winners after more than 250 entries across the country.

Erin Green, from Hitchin, who studies Production Arts at NHC, came first place in the stage design category, while Interactive Media students Daniel Tooley and Mack Knights, both from Stevenage, as well as Alex Ballantyne from Welwyn Garden City, won the online education content category for the website resource they designed.

All four students will now get to spend a day with the dedicated design and production teams at the Royal Opera House in London.

David Pitcher, assistant principal of the Centre for the Arts, said: “The collaboration with the National Skills Academy and the Royal Opera House has offered opportunities to our students in an unprecedented way, providing them with real world projects that will enable greater understanding of how they can apply their skills in many different creative sectors. Our students have demonstrated that they can deliver professional results in a challenging environment.”