Holkham Candelight Musical Tour & Concert

The Music Department was delighted to take part in a fundraising evening on Thursday 1st December, to launch the Christmas Candlelight Tours around Holkham Hall. Planning began several weeks ago, to provide music for some of the beautifully decorated state rooms as well as programming a special concert in the Marble Hall. Musicians from Alderman Peel High School in Wells joined our musicians, with singers and instrumentalists playing in the Saloon and the Marble Hall during the tours before they too took part in the main concert.

The concert in the Marble Hall was programmed as two distinctive halves. Given the standard of our singers, the department was able to stage an abridged version of Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’ (Winter journey). This song cycle is a challenge for a professional singer and it was a proud moment to watch Ruby S, Johnny D, Tamsin S and Julius R not just perform, but really master with such aplomb this piece. Schola joined them in the first half and Elgar’s ‘The Snow’, with violin accompaniment from Ilana B and Isadora A was a stand out moment.

After interval drinks in the Saloon, Brass Ensemble opened a lighter second half. ‘White Christmas’, ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘All I want for Christmas is You’ got everyone’s feet tapping, with some excellent jingle bell action from a certain trumpeter! Two Ukrainian pupils from APHS treated the audience to an emotional first verse of ‘Carol of the Bells’ sung in Ukranian, and Gresham’s Strings players joined in accompanying the APHS choir in Gjeilo’s ‘The Rose’. Further Christmas pieces from Schola concluded with Chilcott’s ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’, a version with many unexpected twists and turns and surprises, which is always a refreshing change from the well-known traditional version!

The audience showed their appreciation with extended applause and the proceeds of the evening will greatly help the two benefactors, St Withburga’s Church and Gresham’s charity, the Holt Youth Project.

Messiah

This event is always a favourite with our wider community and for those that know Handel’s work well, a chance to dust down a loved-score and come along on the day and sing an abridged version of this great work. For our pupils, it provides the experience of getting to grips with some beautiful arias and performing with an orchestra – a mix of peripatetic staff, invited professionals and our own instrumentalists. This year was no exception and although it was a very cold and frosty night, those who braved the wintery temperatures were treated to a rousing performance of Messiah, with notable solo performances. The School Chaplain, Rev Branford ran a wonderful bar in the interval, offering the chance to have a glass of something festive whilst raising money for the School Charity, The Holt Youth Project.

Our Choral Society next term is a chance to sing Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah‘. Rehearsals commence on Thursday 12th January. Contact Fiona Ross [email protected] for further information and to be added to our mailing list to hear about future events.  

Choir to Fishmongers’ Hall

The end of the Michaelmas Term is a busy one for all choir members, and for Schola Cantorum it means two visits to Fishmongers’ Hall in London to sing at the Livery Dinner. Our Heads of School attend this formal dinner which takes place in the Banqueting Hall, and the choir sing on the very impressive double staircase whilst guests arrive and later entertain during courses. The Carol Service in St Magnus the Martyr Church a few days later, is a chance to see the Fishmongers in their finery and enjoy another trip to London.

Gresham’s flagship ensembles share Christmas music

All of Gresham’s flagship ensembles have shared Christmas music with the school. On Monday, Concert Band performed a foot-tapping rendition of ‘Feliz Navidad’ alongside the Christmas hits ‘Sleigh Ride’ and ‘Fairytale of New York’ to an appreciative audience in the Chapel. 

During Chapel last week, pupils were treated to a preview of the latest Gresham’s Girls single. This was followed by String Ensemble playing ‘Let It Snow’ and ‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas’ and Brass Ensemble performing ‘Carol Fantasy’. The Chapel concluded with Gresham’s Guys 2022. 

It’s not just pupils who have been sharing the Christmas cheer – the staff choir have also been rehearsing for a performance this term.

This has been a wonderful way for Gresham’s musicians to showcase all their hard work in ensemble rehearsals this term, and a great way to spread Christmas cheer through the School!

The GCHQ Languages Competition kicked off on Monday, 14^th November and ran until Friday 18^th, with Year 9 Teams from all houses getting involved, to solve as many online decoding problems as possible to capture the flag before the end of the competition.

GCHQ is a world-leading intelligence, cyber and security agency, who along with MI5 and MI6 keep the UK safe from threat. So, as you can imagine, this competition was not for the faint-hearted.

The Languages Department would like to congratulate Team Farfield: Will B, James C, Connor M and Alex P, for their tenacity and the many hours spent cracking codes. Although they did not win the national competition, they did come in the top 10% of the country out of over 3000 Teams, which alongside following the Gresham’s timetable was no mean feat. Congratulations too to the Edinburgh and Woodlands Teams who came 2^nd and 3^rd respectively.

Languages play a huge role in intelligence in the UK, and we hope this competition has inspired our Year 9s.

The Colloquium offers regular academic enrichment to all pupils, especially the most able (Juniors meet on Thursday afternoon, and Seniors after Saturday chapel, in the History Department). The group began in September looking at the rapidly changing events and people in and around 10 Downing Street and the Conservative Party, and the various Prime Ministers. This was followed by an excellent presentation on veganism and the ethical and practical challenges of food production and consumption faced by the modern world, courtesy of Year 12 pupil, Tillie C. Black History Month (and why Columbus didn’t discover America,) was the focus in October. After exploring the importance of the COP27 Climate Change conference, the second half of term hit it big with presentations to the Senior Colloquium drawing on the expertise of members of the Gresham’s teaching staff, including:  Mr Haniewicz, The Universe’s Illusion of Gravity; Mr Kinder, A Whistle-stop tour of British Politics since 1900; Mr Brettel, Greek- Cracking the Code. More next term, including a return visit to Mars… 

On the 1st December, a group of Afro-Caribbean pupils put on an evening of entertainment for invited pupils in the Farfield common room. Pupils made jollof rice, rice and peas, asun, meat stew, dumplings, jerk chicken and mocktails for their guests, who thoroughly enjoyed their meal. It was a huge group effort, and Mojo, Michelle, Albert, Toby, and Eduvie are to thank for leading the cooking; Cerys and Teagan for their help in the kitchen; Daniel from the catering team for his help, and Ms Masters for her efforts.

December’s Music and Munch was a joyful celebration of all things Christmas! Guests from the local area, including residents of Lloyd Court and family members packed into Tig’s to listen to our musicians whilst nibbling on mince pies. The concert featured 29 pupils, showcasing the variety of music on offer. Gresham’s Concert Band and Brass Ensemble performed the Christmas hits ‘Sleigh Ride’ and ‘Feliz Navidad’, complementing vocal and piano solos which covered the breadth of Christmas repertoire, from ‘Walking in the Air’ and ‘O Holy Night’ to ‘Glasgow Love Theme’ from Love Actually and, of course, ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’. Thank you to all of the performers and guests. The next Music and Munch is on Friday 20th January 2023.

Sixth Form pupils have experienced a diverse range of subjects for the Academic Enrichment Talks to expand subject classroom learning and knowledge, challenge thinking and create discussion.

For the last two talks of term we welcomed two guest speakers.

The first was Dipi McKernan. Dipi works in Financial Services for Fidelity Holdings Ltd. in London. She gave pupils an insight on how to succeed and talked about opportunities in the finance services sector, but her key message was to share how the financial services industry have had to adapt their culture to deal with recent changes in the world, including diversity and inclusion, dynamic working and sustainability. Dipi showcased that financial services are pushing forward with ESG (environmental, social, governance).

Find out more about Dipi McKernan by clicking here.

the second was Bob Goodson, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, user interface designer, and an early pioneer of social media. Bob shared practical tools and inspiration for career and education decisions in any field with examples from his own journey.

Read more about Bob Goodson by clicking here.

The final talk was with Emma Cole. Emma spoke to the L6th honestly and with humour during her ‘Positive Voice’ talk. She talked about being diagnosed HIV positive as a young heterosexual woman in the early 1990s and how treatment has progressed as a ‘long term survivor’ (31 years), but possibly not the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS. Her thought provoking talk led to questions as her annual visits always do.

Drama & Careers visit to Thursford Christmas Extravaganza

The Cushing Family kindly gave tickets for drama sixth form pupils and staff to attend the show.  This was a superb opportunity for pupils to gain an insight into a large scale production involving performers, choreography, costume, staging, lighting, live music and all the roles and expertise required.

Our main weekend Chapel services here at Gresham’s are always engaging and special. In the past two weeks the Senior School has enjoyed spellbinding performances of beautiful Advent music for our choir; World Cup related footballing fun drawing out the importance of hope; and a student led Q and A session with Jerome Mayhew MP, who suggested that faith helps to gives him a sense of perspective in parliament.

We are currently holding our third annual Christmas Tree Festival. The school Chapel has been filled with over forty beautiful Christmas Trees, all lovingly festooned by members of the school community. Every pupil from all three schools has helped to decorate a tree, with the catering and support staff also joining in on the fun. All of this will help to create a special atmosphere and environment for the Christmas celebrations, carol services and events in the coming weeks.

At this time of year, the school’s Chapel have always collected donations for a variety of good causes. This year, the Christmas Tree Festival is raising money for the school’s charity partner, Holt Youth Project. The charity exists to provide a safe environment for young people to meet and socialise with the minimum of supervision, which builds their social communication skills and promotes ownership. The centre is a place where young people have opportunities that empower them to reach their goals and aspirations, through various programmes and activities. If you would like to donate to the Christmas Tree Festival you can do so on the Just Giving page by clicking here.

The festival is open to visitors during the special Festival Open Afternoon, which is taking place on Saturday 10th December, 1 – 4pm.

In The News

Earlier this month, The Oddballs Foundation visited the school to give a talk to our Sixth Form pupils about testicular cancer. The talk concerned the signs and symptoms of testicular cancer, also with the resounding message to talk and support each other. Pupils were also informed of the work that Oddballs does as a charity and the support it provides to those affected by testicular cancer.