St Margaret's School brings music, art and theatre to life with week-long arts festival

Independent day and boarding school in Bushey, St Margaret’s, has hosted a week-long Arts Festival in celebration of music, art and theatre across the entire school community. Pupils across all year groups were treated to a whole week, off timetable, to enjoy an array of theatrical performances and music and dance workshops and taster sessions, as well as visits from special guest speakers and performers from the arts sector.

Showcasing the diverse range of talent at the Hertfordshire school, pupils at St Margaret’s were lucky enough to watch a piano recital by award-winning pianists Lara Melda (winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2010) and her sister Melis Azra, as part of an Earthquake Relief Recital to raise money for Turkey and Syria. A group of Year 10 pupils also performed a variety of classic, comedic and naturalistic monologues to a live audience, and the school’s Year 9 and 10 cohort also gave a playful portrayal of traditional ‘cautionary tales’ to parents.

Celebrating the impact of physical theatre, Year 7 and 8 took part in a series of performances exploring the skills of mime, masks and movement. Singing teacher Nicola Webb, also hosted ‘A Night at the Musicals’ with performances from shows such as Carousel, My Fair Lady, Wicked and Mary Poppins. Year’s 3 to 5 gave a LAMDA showcase displaying the best of their work from this academic year, while the younger pre-school children in Year 2, took part in a production of What the Ladybird Heard for a live audience of parents.

Another highlight of the week was a live theatrical production of Matilda from the Junior School at St Margaret’s, which was also attended by parents and children from other local primary schools in the region. The pupils also took part in some special writing workshops, creating a play from scratch and also experimenting with directing performances.

Nadine Sender, Head of Art at St Margaret’s School added, “Our Year 9 and 10 artists and art scholars had an exciting time exploring paper construction techniques to create stunning 3D paper masks. They had a blast embellishing and spraying these masks, resulting in vibrant and lively animal designs. A highlight was the visit from an artist from Tim Davies Design, who collaborated with Year 7 and 8 students. Together, they used willow and paper to craft magnificent giant animal heads adorned with colourful patterns.”

As part of an initiative to encourage to uptake of more orchestral and less common instruments, the school’s music teachers also ran more than 80 music taster sessions throughout the week across multiple instruments including the harp, trumpet, trombone, French horn, violin, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, oboe and drums.

Lara Pechard, Head at St Margaret’s School, commented: “Our Arts Festival has been hugely successful, and it has been wonderful to be part of a whole week where our pupils have been able to celebrate the value and power of the arts, to express themselves creatively through dance and theatrical performances as well as through the written and spoken word. We are fortunate to have so many talented young people in our community and we are looking forward to repeating the event next year.”