Performing Arts Highlights

Hoxton Hall / Border Crossings – Checkpoint Project

For six weeks, the international theatre company Border Crossings worked with our Year 10 Performing Arts students on a project celebrating the company’s 30th anniversary. Students were asked to create an original interpretation of Border Crossings’ work and devise something new.

One of the pieces they explored was Gaza Monologues, a verbatim theatre work based on interviews with people affected by the Gaza conflict. Our students adapted this concept to reflect their own experiences of Covid, writing original monologues rooted in personal testimony.

The resulting event, titled Checkpoint, was presented at Hoxton Hall Theatre in Whitechapel, where students performed alongside drama schools and professional performers. They did an outstanding job, representing not only the school but also themselves and their own stories with confidence and integrity.

Royal Ballet Dance Workshop

We were extremely fortunate to host the Royal Ballet for a full day of dance workshops for our KS3, KS4 and KS5 dance students. The sessions focused on space and movement within contemporary dance styles.

The day culminated in a small performance for a select group of parents and teachers. As always, the students worked exceptionally hard and impressed the visiting choreographers not only with their technical ability, but also with their commitment, focus and speed of learning.

West Side Radio Christmas Donations

Each year, the Performing Arts department organises a charity donations event. This year we supported the West Side Radio Toy Appeal. Over four weeks, we collected toys and gifts for children in hospitals and care settings.

In total, we donated 20 large boxes of gifts, which were delivered to a very grateful radio station just in time for Christmas. As a result, we also secured work experience opportunities for some of our students, as well as a live on-air shout-out.

Flower Market

We began our Christmas festivities with our annual visit to the flower market. Thirty students, all dressed in the silliest Christmas fancy dress, arrived at the market to sing and dance for a large and appreciative audience.

As always, the weather was not on our side, but that certainly didn’t dampen our Christmas spirit. And, of course, the Easter Bunny made a surprise appearance…

Cavendish Primary School Project

For six weeks, our Year 13 Performing Arts students visited Cavendish Primary School to teach drama. The residency culminated in a performance exploring themes of identity and language.

Twelve Cavendish pupils took part in the final performance at Chiswick School, presenting their work in front of an audience of parents. They did an excellent job. The project was a valuable opportunity to share our Performing Arts practice with a local school, while also giving Year 6 pupils a taste of what they might experience when they join us next year.

2025 Schools Panto

Our Christmas performance programme continued with our now traditional Schools Panto. Our Year 10 Performing Arts students performed two pantomimes for four different schools.

With a lively mix of Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, The Three Little Pigs and a very confused wolf, the students sang, danced and laughed their way through energetic performances. The pantos were punctuated with Christmas songs and plenty of enthusiastic “It’s behind you!” moments.

Grove Park, one of the schools in attendance, emailed to say:

“I just wanted to email on behalf of the children and staff at Grove Park. Thank you to yourself and your amazing Year 10 performers. The pantomime was an absolute hit with our children! The children could not stop talking about the performance when we got back to school.”

Music Hall / It Was Christmas Day at the Workhouse

For our Christmas showcase this year, we decided to do something a little different: a Victorian Music Hall. This included a dance interpretation of the poem It Was Christmas Day at the Workhouse.

The performance, presented in two halves, featured traditional Christmas sing-alongs and solo renditions of songs such as Where Did You Get That Hat? and Ooh Mr Porter. In the second half, a cast of 50 students, primarily from KS4 and KS5, told the story of a workhouse man on Christmas Day, lamenting the death of his wife the year before.

The dance, which included students from across the year groups, was performed to music by Vaughan Williams. All students performed superbly, but special mention must go to Jacek and Audrey (Year 13), who portrayed the man and his wife. Their dancing, full of both energy and delicacy, held the narrative together beautifully.

For the first time, we used the Hammersmith Centre, an Edwardian hall whose atmosphere added greatly to the sense of an authentic music hall experience.

JOSEPH!

Our Christmas musical this year was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The cast, made up of KS3 students, brought extraordinary energy to the production. They sang confidently, danced throughout the audience, and encouraged everyone to join in.

Every student shone, from the many narrators to the eleven brothers, Pharaoh, Mr and Mrs Potiphar, and of course Joseph himself. As always, there were surprises along the way, including a truly terrible boy-band moment and an even worse camel!

We are already planning our end-of-year musical, and if this early performance is anything to go by, July promises to be a wonderful celebration.

Importance

We began the year with a bang. After just one day back, we staged our first production of 2026: Importance! Performed by our Year 12 students at The OSO in Barnes, the play combined The Importance of Being Earnest with trial transcripts from Oscar Wilde’s life.

This new piece was devised and re-adapted by Mr Robinson and cleverly juxtaposed events from Wilde’s real life with those of his fictional character, drawing out striking parallels and coincidences. The play also included letters written by Oscar to his lover, Bosie, and concluded with the judge’s decision and Wilde’s eventual imprisonment.

W4 Plinth

Every six months, a new artwork is unveiled near Turnham Green Tube station. We have previously been invited to perform at this event and were delighted to be asked again.

In the presence of the Mayor of Hounslow and local MP Andy Slaughter, 35 students from across the year groups sang and danced to four songs. This performance acted as a precursor to our next major event: the Jack Petchey Glee Semi-Finals.

Jack Petchey Glee Semi-Finals

Since before Christmas, we have been preparing for the Jack Petchey Glee competition, in which we reached the semi-finals. The event, featuring ten schools, is a celebration of the performing arts.

We chose to present something a little different: a mash-up of two songs sharing the same rhythm and melody. This was technically challenging, as it required the choir to sing both songs simultaneously while maintaining timing, choreography and performance quality.

On the day, we travelled to the Arts Depot in North London. After rehearsing for most of the day and inevitably singing and dancing in the corridors, we performed one song in the first half of the evening and the second in the latter half.

We waited on stage for the results alongside the other schools. Three schools were selected for the finals at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London’s West End, and we were absolutely thrilled to be named among them.

This achievement follows our recent successes: winning Best Play at the National Schools Theatre Awards, becoming regional champions and runners-up at the National Schools Dance Competition (Big Dance Off), and now reaching the finals of a major singing competition. In the industry, this combination is often referred to as “the triple threat”, and we are proud to say we firmly belong in that category.

The finals will take place at the end of April, with tickets available from the start of March.

To the Movies with Love

To end the term, and as a precursor to the Valentine’s celebrations, we put on a showcase of music from the movies. The event featured 22 dances, monologues and songs, all drawn from films with a love theme.

Highlights from the evening included a dance to Moon River (from Breakfast at Tiffany’s), songs from Midnight Cowboy and The Way We Were, and monologues from Jerry Maguire and American Beauty.

Over 60 students participated from across the key stages and, as always, we had a full house of around 200 parents and friends. In addition to the performances, we also hosted a movie quiz, with prizes of prosecco going to the winners.