This month we had an incredible opportunity for our Year 9 students, with touring theatre company Quantum Theatre, coming in to perform Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy ‘Macbeth’. Year 9 will be studying Macbeth in the summer term and so this visit allowed them to see the story unfold in the way that Shakespeare intended, through a fantastic, engaging performance. The cast of Quantum Theatre were brilliant as always and our Year 9s could not take their eyes off the performance. The sword fighting scene at the end created lots of excitement!

A big thank you to all of our Year 9 students. You represented Henry Beaufort well. Quantum Theatre said you were a fantastic crowd, and they would love to return! We are looking forward to seeing this engagement and excitement in the summer term, when we tackle Shakespeare’s tale of ambition!

 

Poetry Live! Bournemouth - Wednesday 28^th February 2024

This month, we had the pleasure of taking 95 Year 11 students to the Poetry Live event in Bournemouth. The event had a star-studded line-up of both poets and senior examiners, including the likes of Carol Ann Duffy, Imitiaz Dharker and John Agard. The event offered our students an invaluable opportunity to delve deeper into the works of the poets behind the anthology aspect of their GCSE Literature course. Our students truly made the most of this opportunity, with many of them asking some great, insightful questions and making detailed notes that will be really useful to them when revising for their Literature exam.

As always, our students were an absolute credit to Henry Beaufort and represented the school excellently. I could not be prouder of our young people for their incredible attitude and engagement on the day!

Mr Cameron

 

I would like to start by saying a huge thank you to all the students involved in the Spring Concert on Thursday 7^th March 2024.  They filled the Sports Hall with the most exquisite sounds and both Mrs Saunders and I were overwhelmed with pride, admiration, and positivity after such a wonderful evening of music.  In the Music Department, we embrace and thrive on music from different cultures and genres and like to celebrate music that is diverse.  We had everything from sublime Beethoven to heavy rock – we loved it all!

We broke with tradition this time and started the evening with the wonderful Resonate Choir.  The harmonies and strength in the students’ voices gave us a brilliant welcome.

Throughout the evening, we were treated to excellent performances from all three GCSE classes in Year 9-11.  It is so wonderful to showcase the range of instruments and talent of our GCSE students.

We also had the Chamber Choir, which is ably led by Ms Orba, our singing teacher.  The Chamber Choir really gave us a masterclass in how to sing beautifully and also to bring the performance aspect of concerts to life with their well-coordinated and uplifting choreography.

As has become tradition, we ended the evening with the Jazz Band, who, under the leadership of Mr Wilson, has really grown in both numbers and quality. They have really bonded as a group of musicians and their fantastic sound is down to sheer hard work at both Jazz Band rehearsals and also their dedication to practising their instruments outside school.

I am genuinely proud of every musical performance in the concert. However, I must highlight the exceptional performance of the school orchestra, which I believe sounded truly amazing. Their remarkable attention to detail and the development of their musical skills over the past two terms have been evident. I am incredibly proud, as it takes considerable hours and effort for an ensemble to achieve such a cohesive and impressive sound.

We were also treated to various other ensembles, such as the Flute, which included students who have only been learning the flute since September alongside the other more experienced musicians.  We also had stunning solos and gorgeous duets.  What a wealth of talent!

As always, it was our Year 11 students who really led the way for the evening in both their support behind the scenes but also in their high-quality performance. They are all wonderful students to work with and are hardworking individuals and true role models for the younger students.  As I said after the concert, I really hope that Year 7-10 were paying attention as we would love them to follow in Year 11's footsteps! Mrs Saunders and I would like to thank Year 11 for being so delightful and inspiring to work with and making our jobs an utter delight.

So what’s coming up for us?

Well, we’ve got a summer concert on Tuesday 2^nd July.  This will be a slightly smaller affair in the drama rooms – posters and letters will come out during May/June.

Following on from our successful run with Matilda in the Theatre Royal in January 2023, we are now really excited about our next production, which will be ‘Everybody’s Talking about Jamie’ (teen edition).  This will be performed in the Theatre Royal in Winchester:

• 1^st night Wednesday 22nd January 2025 7pm
• 2^nd night Thursday 23rd January 2025 7pm
• Final night, Friday 24th January 2025 7pm

The energies of the Expressive Arts staff and students will now be dominated by our rehearsals and preparation for this huge production.  Please spread the word and encourage your friends and family to come and watch at least one performance.

It is the magical combination of dedication and support from students, parents, teachers, and the wider community that enables us to put on these concerts. So finally, a very big and heartfelt thank you to everyone who supports the Music Department at The Henry Beaufort School. 

Mrs Seddon

Head of Music