Page 5 - Abberley Adventures Oct 2022

ABBERLEY ADVENTURES
5
Music
Malvern College Orchestral Day
Drama
This half of term, drama has continued to occupy a significant space in Abberley life. Alongside timetabled Drama lessons, many weeks have featured Performing Arts Showcases, which provide the invaluable opportunity to perform both class poems and LAMDA pieces to a large and encouraging audience. For the pre-prep, the Harvest Festival offered great stage experience, with each class reciting autumnal themed poems alongside their harvest songs. Looking ahead, the Year 5s have been hard at work on their play ‘Sherlock Holmes and the Emerald of Alcazar’ and the pre-prep are excited to begin rehearsals for this year’s nativity play, ‘Baarmy Bethlehem’.
Performing Arts Showcases
We have enjoyed 3 Performing Arts Showcases this half of term with 30 performances taking place. Showcases are brilliant because they are by their very nature less formal occasions and the audience of pupils, staff and parents are so supportive. Thank you and well done to everyone who has put themselves forward to perform. We have another two showcases to look forward to after Half Term and they are already oversubscribed!
Art
It has been a busy and exciting start to the year in the Art Room. With lots of new projects underway during lessons and the tremendous creativity of the Saturday Discover sessions, the walls are already full of work!
A big excitement of the term was our Art Scholars trip to Deakin & Francis in Birmingham. By kind invitation of Henry Deakin, the Art Scholarship Group spent a brilliant day touring the jewellery factory before making their own silver enamel lapel pin in Abberley blue. Seeing this craft in action was fantastic. The children loved it and have been sporting their very smart pins proudly around school.
The Year 8 residential London Trip has become an Abberley institution and much to everyone’s delight HMS Belfast was back in action this year after a two-year break. Visiting the Design Museum, V&A, National Gallery, Tate Modern and the Natural History Museum requires some stamina and we combined this with a trip to the theatre to see Life of Pi, and then slept below deck on the battleship. The children did incredibly well to engage with such a variety of activities and were great company throughout. A huge thank you to Mrs Symons for organising the trip so well and to Mr BT, Mr Hiles and Mrs Austen for all their help in making the trip such a success.
A number of our instrumentalists attended the Malvern College Orchestral Day on Monday 10th October and what a wonderful day it was! Our children played in an orchestra of almost 70 musicians, taking part in workshops during the day and culminating in a performance to parents and teachers. It was so inspirational and the children who attended performed magnificently. The music team at Malvern College really made us feel welcome and promised that this is the start of an annual tradition. We can’t wait for the next one!
Upcoming exams
A large number of children are busily preparing to take their Associated Board Music Examinations after Half Term. These will likely be in the early part of December (although this is yet to be confirmed). Please make sure that all children practise hard over the Half Term break so that they are as prepared as possible to take these exams and make the most of the exam experience.
A Night at The Musicals
We have a wonderful concert planned for 6:30pm on Friday 18th November called A Night at The Musicals. This will involve all Prep School pupils singing, dancing and generally having fun up on stage in the Ashton Hall. We would love to have a good audience for this so please do put this date in your diaries and come along if you are able to. It will also be live-streamed for those parents who are unable to come in person and the link will be sent out closer to the day. Drinks in the Ashton foyer will be served from 6pm and the concert will last approximately one hour.