Pupils have been gearing up for the graded LAMDA drama exams, which are taking place at the Senior School on 24th November. Will B will be taking the final grade, which is Grade 8 – Gold Medal, and Ilana B will be taking Grade 7 – Silver Medal. There are a record number of Prep and Senior pupils taking the exams this year. Good luck to them all!
As part of the GCSE Spanish course on festivals, pupils in Year 10 have been learning about the ancient Mexican festival of “El Día de los Muertos”. This festival, celebrated on the 1st and 2nd of November, is to honour and celebrate the lives of loved ones who have passed away. In Mexican culture, El Día de los Muertos is a lively celebration of colour, music, food, and traditions that acknowledges the beautiful lives of those who are no longer with us.
What a fun visit and trip down memory lane we had with Old Greshamian Susie Ashfield, (c & E 2000 – 07) returning to Gresham’s for the first time since she was a pupil to give not just one but three talks!
The first talk was in Chapel, where Susie recounted some very amusing school memories whilst celebrating the positivity of a Gresham’s education. The second interactive talk was in the Auden Theatre for Year 13 pupils on ‘finding your career path’. The third talk was for teaching staff, on Susie’s professional work in communication coaching.
This year’s Fright Night production took us to the circus with some chilling performances by the Ringmaster and his acts. The audience met the Dolls in the Auden Theatre and braved a trip into the woods to meet the rest of the weird and wonderful circus performers, experiencing their terrifying tales and scares along the way. The makeup team truly excelled themselves, creating some truly horrifying and detailed makeup designs and the production was expertly supported by a circus themed soundscape which provided a chilling atmosphere throughout. A huge thank you goes to all of the Fright Night performers, makeup team, lighting team and the Music Tech students and staff who all contributed to a fantastic set of performances. Will you be brave enough to join us next year?
We were delighted to welcome enriching speaker Jess Roper to talk to current Year 13 pupils. This was thanks to Marcus Maddison-White, a former pupil of the school, who had heard Jess speak at Sandhurst College and highly recommended her talk for current pupils.
Jess’s talk was inspirational and gave insight to her beginnings and personal journey that led her to kickboxing and how with her motto of ‘Dream BIG, start small and NEVER GIVE UP’ led to her becoming a 2 x English kickboxing champion and 2nd-degree blackbelt.
It was a superb talk giving such encouragement to the pupil audience on becoming the best they can be with empowered action, increasing aspiration, health, wellbeing and raising resilience.
The Senior School marked All Saints Day in Chapel with a mini-revolution! The Headmaster was (temporarily) overthrown by water pistol wielding Sixth-formers. Rev Jack and Mr Gates also joined in the fun, illustrating the point that peaceful revolutions of thought in which all people are treated as ‘saints’, are ultimately more effective in changing the world than violence.
The first half of the Michaelmas Term means one thing-House Music! Tensions were running high as Houses chose their Big Song and nominated soloists to represent them on the day. With the theme of ‘Dance’ there was plenty of musical choice. A slight change to the format this year encouraged top musicians from all houses to take part in a massed instrumental ensemble. They started the event enthusiastically, playing an upbeat medley including Stayin’ Alive, Sailor’s Hornpipe and Dance the Night Away. Opportunities for solos and improvisation were readily taken and the energy within the performance was palpable. Our Judge, esteemed drummer Ash Soan, took to the stage and interactively showed off his rhythm skills to the delight of the audience.
It was then time for the three houses to hit the stage. A positive start from last year’s winner, Reith, included a superb rendition of ‘I Will Survive’ sung by Gen and Albert. YMCA was a great choice for Big Song and the whole presentation was held together with a fun script and dramatic performances.
With the bar set high, Woodforde took to the stage with Alien costumes, space ships and a plethora of corny time travel jokes-all well received by the excited audience. Esme took to the stage, giving a heartfelt rendition of ‘Time after Time’ and the choice of ‘Time Warp’ as Big Song was genius.
Not to be outdone, Borrow soloists, Immie and Clara, confidently performed ‘You’re the One That I want’ before more exciting drama lead the whole house into ‘Dancing in the Street’. The standard was very high this year and Ash had a difficult task ahead of him. His final decision meant Woodforde triumphantly accepted the coveted trophy to adorn their shelf for this year.
A group of 24 Year 11 & 12 cadets spent the first day of the October half term break on the CCF Junior Leadership Course. In an intense day of activity they were all introduced to leadership in practical tasks, taking command of teams in scenarios that varied from saving casualties, crossing simulated minefields, building watercourses and re-constructing sabotaged information. They all performed at a very high standard and the future looks very bright for CCF leaders in the future.
Last week, 8 Gresham’s CCF (RAF) Cadets from Years 10 – 13 managed to get airborne at 7 AEF, RAF Cranwell.
Each Cadet got a 25-35 minute flight in a Grob Tutor with an experienced RAF pilot around the area local to RAF Cranwell. They were learning the principles of flight, how to control an aircraft and some even opted to experience the thrill of aerobatics such as loop the loops! All of the Cadets took control of the aircraft and flew the aircraft for themselves under the watchful eye of their pilots.
Flying is a core activity to the RAF Section and experiencing the thrill of flight helps foster an interest in aviation as well as develop Cadets’ confidence and knowledge of the basic physics behind flight.
For most of the Cadets, it was their first RAF Air Experience Flight, which means that they have earnt their blue wings to wear on their uniform. What a brilliant way to end the term!
This term we were visited by performance poet Harry Baker, which was a great opportunity to experience poetry outside of the classroom and in spoken word form. As a UK Slam Poetry Champion, published author and regular at festivals across the country, we knew we were in for a treat! Harry was with us all day, performing to the Year 9, 10 and 11 pupils and performing and workshopping with the Sixth Form. Harry’s skill and catalogue of material was incredible – after four hours he had only repeated one poem twice and he had also managed to seriously impress the Year 9s with his ability to create a poem up on the spot using random words they gave him. This poetry day was also a great launchpad for the Gresham’s Poetry Recital Competition and all the pupils were able to pick up some valuable hints and tips from Harry on how to elevate their own poetry performances. If you’d like to know more about Harry’s work please do follow him @harrybakerpoet on Instagram.
