West End Week

West End Week offers young people a 5-day musical theatre experience. Students take part in workshops covering drama, dance and singing with entertainment industry professionals and appear in a show alongside top West End performers.


News and Updates 

2020 Sponsorship agreed

Felixstowe Rotary Club has agreed to sponsor a number of students for next year’s West End Week, to be held 27 - 31 July 2020.

Concert at the Hayworth Theatre 

This years’ workshops included numbers from Les Misérables, Footloose and Hairspray culminating in a performance at the Hayworth Theatre in the grounds of Ipswich High School on 2 August. Joining the students in the performance were Gemma Naylor and Norman Bowman, both well-known on the West End stage and beyond. Norman also took part in an inspirational question and answer session about his life in theatre.

Felixstowe Rotary Club’s Youth Development project aims to give young people opportunities to develop and demonstrate the confidence to succeed.  West End week does just that and the club is pleased to have sponsored four places on this year’s event. For many it will be a once in a lifetime experience, for others their first steps into the entertainment industry.

Here we see Rotarian Mike Watkin with Mark Connell of West End Week and three of the performers.

Related pages...

Clip 'n Climb 2024

more On 5 March, the Rotary Club of Felixstowe enabled some 40 junior school children from the Felixstowe area to take up the challenge of the climbing wall. (Photos Bushfire Photography.)

Community Cup 2024

more Six junior schools in the Felixstowe area competed for the Rotary Club of Felixstowe’s Community Cup at ITFC on the 14th February. And this year Trimley St Martin came out on top. (Thanks to Bushfire Photography for the pics.)

Kids Kitchen 2023

more Here at the Alex, thanks to the Yeo Group, we see Mayor Seamus Bennett, Rotary Club President Dougie Pipe, and young chef Vasilisa Tymoshenko who earned the Top Chef award for her outstanding work.(Images Bailey’s Photography.)

Community Cup 2023

more On 22 March six teams from junior schools around the town met on the Portman Road all-weather pitch to compete in the Rotary Club of Felixstowe’s Community Cup. And for the second year running Colneis won the day.

Fun and so much more

more Thanks to Ipswich Clip ‘n Climb, on 21 March we were again able to give children from several junior schools around the town the opportunity to have fun, face challenges and build their confidence in a new environment.

Kids Kitchen 2022

more Thanks to the Yeo Group for again hosting at the Alex Brasserie, Kids Kitchen is an established part of our Youth Development Programme. This year eight young cooks prepared and served a three-course meal for almost fifty. (Photos: Bushfire Photography)

Rotary Club of Felixstowe’s Community Cup 2022

more Children from Felixstowe junior schools had an amazing morning taking part in our Community Cup on Ipswich Town Football Club’s all-weather pitch. (Images thanks to Bushfire Photography)

Reaching ‘Great Heights!’

more On 14 July the Rotary Club of Felixstowe sponsored some thirty children from the primary schools of Felixstowe for a session at the fabulous Ipswich Clip ‘n Climb.

Kids Kitchen 2021 - Details of this year's event to follow

more On 18 October, thanks to our young cooks and the Yeo Group, this year’s Kids Kitchen culminated in an excellent three-course meal for fourteen parents, special guests and Rotarians in the Alex Brasserie. (Photos thanks to Bushfire Photography.)

Football with ITFC

more Football tournaments in association with Ipswich Town Academy (Photos Bushfire Photography)

Clip n' Climb

more Do We Have a Future Olympian Climber in Our Midst? (Images thanks to Bushfire Photography)

Kids Kitchen

more Learning culinary skills in association with the Yeo Group and Felixstowe Academy (Images thanks to Carl Middleditch of Bushfire Photography)

Rotary Youth Leadership Award

RYLA 2019

more Excellent talk by Oliver Brooks, this year’s RYLA candidate

Community Lunch

more Our annual lunch provides a fun opportunity to establish and maintain links with our supporters and collaborators working with young people across the community

back to page above this...

Youth Development

back Thanks to Andrew Rowdon, Youth Development lead, we have an established programme including Community Cup with ITFC, Climbing with Clip ‘n Climb, and Kids Kitchen with the Yeo Group. Fun, but also an opportunity to build confidence in a new environment.