THE NEWSLETTER OF THE GREY COAT HOSPITAL COMMUNITY Issue 17: November 2011


Celebration of New Arts Building


Drama students take part in a mask workshop during the day of celebration of the new Arts building On Monday 7th November we held


a grand celebration of our new Arts Building. A group of staff and 6th


formers


had spent time preparing for the big day to involve as many students as possible in workshops, games and presentations, to celebrate our new specialist space. The day was launched with a fantastic assembly led by Voces8, an international award-winning young British a cappella group who sang and taught the girls. We also had a slide show of the development of the building from the hole in the ground through to the completion and the moving in to our fabulous new rooms. During the day in the Drama department, in the basement of the building, we had the Trestle theatre company working with Y10, 12 and 13 drama students and some of our Gifted and Talented


Y9 students. The company worked to explore how mask training can unlock the door to a versatile and more focused physicality in all performance. On the first floor in the music department we had Voces 8 running a number of workshops for many of our various choirs, including one workshop for all Y7. On the second floor in the Art department we had Paul Brandford, a portrait artist running drawing classes for Y12 students and Stuart McCaffer, our Creative Mentor, running a sculpture project with some of KS3 students and designing and making lanterns with some of our Y7 students.


At break time the 6th form prefects and


the Drama department led the whole of Lower School in drama games in the playground. The prefects had such


a good time they plan to come down weekly to run games sessions. At lunch time we were serenaded by a band in the playground – outdoor music in November was a first, but lots of fun.


At the end of the day we held a concert in the Great Hall. Voces 8 and the Year 7 choir and musicians performed and Y13 Theatre Studies students performed a number of monologues and duologues. It was great to see so many governors and Old Greys helping us to celebrate. It was especially lovely to see Rachel Allard, who had been key in driving the whole project forward, being able to see the building and grounds in all their splendour. We rounded of the evening with a reception in the cafe on the ground floor of our new building. A lovely day.


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