Drama

Our Drama show is ‘back on the road’!

It is without question that the last two years have denied the pupils the full, immersive, tangible experience of the performance arts subjects and we are utterly delighted that our children were able to return to this experience, this year.

The year 5s kicked off tour year group productions, with the ‘The King’s Sentence’. The pupils arrived at the hall on Monday morning with a hundred questions, highlighting their nervousness as they approached this new, unknown event. Throwing themselves into the challenge with great gusto, it was a joyful, productive week of spontaneous creativity, teamwork and lateral thinking and learning. Every child in the cast is to be commended for their effort, focus, determination to succeed, and growth in performance skills. I am not sure who had more butterflies in their stomachs; the actors or the excited audience who knew that they were at last in for a well-overdue performance treat!

Following on soon after, the year 7s brought much-anticipated Christmas spirit with Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’. The cast were split into two as we doubled up the roles to give additional performance opportunities. The pupils brought Victorian England alive, maturely delivering the lines with great power, and the live singing, violin playing, and dancing were a joy to behold. Commendations must be given to our two outstanding Scrooges who portrayed Scrooge’s emotional journey so poignantly.

Just a few days into the Lent term our year 3s hit the ground running and rehearsed a show of performance poetry and interactive songs and dances. The children’s happiness of exploring and learning rhythms, rhymes and choreography was joyful! Their singing raised the roof of a packed hall and anyone who walked through the hall could not help but smile and even join in! The year 3s have not stopped talking about it and singing the songs since!

As the weeks of the Lent term whizzed by, the excitement about the year 6 production was not only bubbling, but almost beginning to boil over. It was impossible to walk down

the corridor without being asked multiple questions! The moment the cast walked into Greenfield Hall, our new performance venue, on the Monday morning, will be a moment to be treasured. The joy and wonder on their faces was priceless. Their enthusiasm did not wain throughout the week as they worked tirelessly and effortlessly, learning the lines with ease, remembering, and polishing the choreography and becoming one of the most dynamic, supportive teams I have ever worked with. They performed well for the whole school in the afternoon, but their evening performance was electrifying. It was without doubt an evening to remember.

Just a matter of a few weeks later, the year 4s took to the stage with their adaptation of the story ‘The Day We Met the Queen.’ Once

again, this initially timid, but excited team, quickly rose to the challenge of mounting a play in a week and surpassed any expectations of what these young performers could achieve. Their flexibility, playfulness, joy, mature handling of a topical and very sad situation was remarkable.

Our focus then moved to our eldest pupils and their Leavers’ Show. By this point in the year, many of the year 8s are ready for the challenges that lay ahead in their next schools, but this last performance moment is always a special and often emotional one. An elegant evening of recalling Hollywood’s finest songs is to be staged. As I write this, the set design plans are coming into place, the costumes are being sourced and the songs are beginning to ring down the corridors. They will spend a week singing and dancing, but most importantly celebrating their time together at Sherborne Prep.

These productions never fail to show me how important and effective they are for each and every pupil’s growth. Following each show, the pupils seem to walk into class a little taller, with a little more to say and share, they talk more kindly and more confidently listen to each other…and the desire to learn grows.

Our Speech and Drama provision has gone from strength to strength. It is only our second year of offering these lessons, but the demand is high and the results have been outstanding, with every pupil being awarded with high merits or distinctions. We hope to increase this offering next year to enable more to access and reap the rewards of learning how to present and perform with confidence.