Page 9 - Abberley Adventures - June 2021

ABBERLEY ADVENTURES
9
A New (Old) Music School and Theatre (continued...)
The girls’ boarding is now happily established within the Main House and it is thriving with capacity to grow and expand. Due to covid restrictions and a lack of ventilation under the Ashton Hall, we have been using Yates House for Music once again and have gradually realised that it is a far nicer and more inspiring space for this. As of September this year, Yates House will become a Music School once again! Work to prepare for the move has already begun and we believe that it will be the perfect space for Music and a far more inspiring and creative area than the subterranean space below the Ashton Hall with more space, better acoustics, fresh air and natural light.
The large girls’ dormitory, Ash, started off as a beautiful Victorian country house theatre and was used for this purpose by the school for many years. The room is decorated with murals depicting scenes of rural Worcestershire life, which are said to be the earliest examples of their type. The room is a very special part of the history of Abberley Hall and it needs to be seen and enjoyed by our pupils and parents. To this end, we are incredibly excited to be returning this spectacular part of the school to its former glory and to its intended use. We look forward to welcoming parents to a reopening of our Old Theatre with a series of Performing Arts Showcase events in September and we anticipate many exciting performances in the years to come.
Eco-Schools
We have joined the global Eco-Schools movement to ensure that, as a community, we are doing our bit to protect the planet. Eco-Schools is a global programme engaging millions of children across 64 different countries, making it the largest environmental schools programme in the world. We have taken our first steps by appointing a committee of pupil representatives. These committee members have already carried out an environmental review of the school and are coming up with an Action Plan focusing on three areas where they think we can make a significant difference.
The Abberley Eco Committee was formally appointed before Half Term after candidates had to submit letters detailing the reasons for which they would like to join the committee. One of the pupils said, “Our planet is precious and we must protect it. It makes me feel sad to see litter on the floor, especially when we go for walks.” Another pupil wrote, “I want children of the future to live in a world where we still have trees, tigers and elephants and don’t have to wear pollution masks.”
Pupils from each year in the Prep School and in Years 1 and 2 have been selected and they are very excited to get started! Although we already do a lot to lower our carbon footprint such as composting our leftover food, growing our own veg and planting trees, we recognise that more can be done. Mrs Besley will chair the committee, but the pupils will be the driving force behind making Abberley Hall a greener and more environmentally friendly school. The pupils are also keen to work more widely across the local area to make sure the impact is as big as it can be.
We will be keeping the community up to date with our progress so watch this space!
This is an exciting project and one that will provide us with a truly unique performance space for some of our smaller and more intimate productions. The Ashton Hall will still be used for large-scale productions. We can’t wait to invite you all to see our new (old) Theatre in September. For now, pleased see this photograph, taken in the early 1900s to give you an idea of what to expect.