Close
The half term break is upon us and it has been a breathlessly packed five weeks. As ever in the Lent Term energetic charity fund-raising has been the leitmotif for the community. ‘Speed acquaintancing’ (!) was a particularly popular recent event and this week’s Spyring game has pitted dastardly secret agents of all sorts against one another – mathematicians amongst both staff and pupils have been particularly sneaky and effective. Thousands of pounds will be raised for pupil-chosen good causes over the course of the term.
The last ten days have seen two full-scale productions in the Lancing Theatre. This week saw Sixth Former Gus W’s Bancroft Award winning piece Temper 11, a high-impact exploration of family dysfunction. Last week we enjoyed One Man, Two Guvnors, Nick Beeby’s debut production as Director of Drama and Dance. A piece of madcap and knockabout fun, the audience was left roaring for more – an effect magnified by seemingly unwitting staff members being dragged into the action for long moments of embarrassment.
Exits and entrances are much on our minds in other spheres. Not only have these last weeks been full of good news on the university applications front, including a strong list of Oxford and Cambridge offers, we have been welcoming multitudes of prospective pupils including those chasing our much sought-after scholarships. We have also undertaken the first round of assessments for the Lancing Advance Programme. 60 pupils from Year Six enjoyed a wide range of activities across the day including written papers, interviews, group exercises and an exploration of the school with the support of the College prefects.
Last night saw a glorious final concert to round-off the annual House music competition. Nearly 300 separate initial entries were whittled down for this celebratory final event. Works by Michael Jackson; Staeps; Jimmy Page; Shostakovitch; Rodgers and Hammerstein; Beethoven; Liszt; Mozart; Carnelia; Grieg; Billy Joel; Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith added up to two hours of wonderful, not to say eclectic, entertainment. As the final ‘hurrah’ of the competition we enjoyed a reprise of Langlais’ mighty, Chapel-shaking Hymne d’action de grace played by Ramon B on the organ at the conclusion of today’s Assembly. A powerful piece of aural punctuation to mark the end of a half term’s work, it also served as the herald of the rest and recuperation which I hope will be the hallmark of the week to come. I hope that all of you enjoy the break.