Private School News

Cavendish School visit The Globe Theatre

It was a gloriously warm and sunny day for our visit to the Globe Theatre. Year 5 have been studying Elizabethan England, its theatres and the period’s most famous playwright, William Shakespeare. So it was with much excitement and anticipation that we set off, armed with our sunhats and sunscreen, to tour this wonderful replica theatre, take part in a workshop on A Midsummer Night’s Dream before seeing the Globe’s production of the play in the afternoon.

It was very exciting to be taken into the theatre for our tour only to discover that the cast were in the middle of a rehearsal! They were rehearsing their entrances and exits with the musicians in the gallery above the stage. The director and musical director were giving instructions,
stopping and starting the players to ensure that we would have the best possible performance that afternoon.

Valentine, our workshop leader, then took us to a building, on the site of the original Rose Theatre and just a few metres from the Globe, to workshop the play. The room contained a replica Elizabethan stage and the girls did
some warm up exercises before acting out some of the more memorable lines and events of the play on the replica stage. Everyone worked very hard, all listening and concentrating carefully.

After a picnic lunch by the Thames in the sunshine, we returned to the Globe for the real performance. What a
difference to see the same actors and musicians we had seen in rehearsal all dressed in their magnificent costumes and performing to a packed theatre! The performance was lively and hugely entertaining. Above the pit an enormous orb represented the moon and it was not difficult to imagine we were in a magical land of forest mists, fairies and potions. Puck, the mischievous fairy appeared from the roof of the stage whist the actors regularly ran in and out of the audience.

It was an excellent day. Thank you to the girls for their exemplary behaviour and to Mrs Thomas and accompanying parents, Ms Ford and Mrs Randall-Cutler. Now we look forward to Year 5’s own ‘production’ of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Assembly later this term.

Local students amongst top ten in country

Local students Naho Genko, Miku Tatsuno, Ranko Nakamura and Saki Yokota were amongst the top ten students according to Edexcel, the UK’s largest awarding body.

Naho, Miku, Ranko and Saki sat the Japanese GCSE (writing, listening and reading) exam earlier this summer at The Mount School and the results, issued last month, show that out of 613 candidates, the girls achieved four of the highest overall marks.

Jerry Jarvis, Edexcel’s Managing Director, said: “This is a tremendous achievement and testament to the hard work students put into preparing for their exams. We send our congratulations to Naho, Miku, Ranko and Saki”.

The Head, Mrs. Jackson, explained that the four girls were in Year 9 and so took the GCSE two years early. Five of their classmates also took the Japanese GCSE early, all achieving an A*. Two other year 9 and 10 pupils achieved an A* in GCSE Turkish and an A* for GCSE Spanish. All in all an excellent year for our language department and for the ESOL department who support these girls with their translation into English. This has proven enormously successful in ensuring they achieve top grades in their other GCSE’s and A levels.