THE South Lakes Rock School will turn five years old next week, and will be hosting an awards event to celebrate.

Founded in spring 2012, and originally based in Ulverston, the school since moved to Barrow's Victoria Hall and now has more than 100 students.

Marking the milestone, there will be a week of awards presentations, with certificates for the high-achieving students and JusBakes have created a four-tier rock music-themed cake for students and customers.

Founder Lesley Harris says: "We will be awarding some of our students - and their parents - who have been with us since we opened as South Lakes Rock School in 2012, and presenting certificates to students who recently passed their Trinity Rock and Pop exams.

"Becoming a local exam centre and seeing our students making progress in their instrumental and vocal skills - we have a 100 per cent exam pass rate - they have been the highlights of the past five years.

"After moving into our permanent residence at Victoria Hall two years ago, we now have over 100 students working with us from aged five to adult - many adults who have come to music for the first time, or back to it after several years away.

"Our twice-yearly shows - particularly recent ones at The Forum in Barrow, where we have worked with Alex Linney and his team - and seeing our students going on to their own live performances and playing some high-profile gigs have been great."

The tutors are drawn from some of the local area's best musicians, with the latest recruit being drummer James Davey, who has performed for a number of years with Atlas and Crane.

The one-to-one interaction with students has been the school's big success, with the likes of Thomas Salt going on to share the stage with artists such as million-selling indie band Embrace, and his band Among Giants, working with guitar tutor James Carling, becoming a gigging live act.

As well as the more "mainstream" instruments and singing lessons, the school has also recently added to its huge array of classes, with sessions in ukulele and choir singing now on offer.

To see how much progress the current crop have made, the students will be performing Now 80s at The Forum, in Barrow, on Sunday April 23, playing hits by the likes of The Police, Depeche Mode, Metallica, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Specials, The Cult, Heart, The Smiths, The Stone Roses and Rainbow.

Tickets for the show are available from The Forum now.