7th December 2023
HEADLINES
By James Saunders
A WINTER WARMING CHRISTMAS CONCERT One of the highlights of my job is being able to welcome families to Honywood to showcase the creative talent of our learners and on Monday night I had the pleasure of attending our Winter Concert. The hall was packed out for almost two hours of high quality performances from all cohorts.
School is very much like this. It is not about the building (which is useful given our current state of play), it is about so much more. Without learners a school is just an empty space - a nothingness. It is the learners that bring their own unique performance day in day out. Just like a live performance, every interaction with our learners is a one off. Like them, it is unique. Sat there watching each individual pour their heart There was singing, dancing and dramatic and soul onto the stage I couldn’t help thinking performances aplenty. I would like to thank the how proud I was and privileged to be a part of our wonderful Expressive Arts department for their community. A community where, each and every support in preparing learners for the show. An day, we get to see the uniqueness of our learners event such as this is difficult to organise at the as they continue to grow. best of times, however, with our RAAC backdrop, it is even more demanding. Thankfully we were WIth only two more weeks to go it is important able to pull the night off with no issues and all the we all remain focused on maximising our learning performers had an opportunity to show us what time ahead of the two week break. Our C11’s they can do. have been conducting themselves marvellously during the mock exams and have only one more I had the opportunity to talk to families at the end week to go. of the evening. I mentioned the fact there was a real parallel between the act of performance and On another note I have just received our the experience of being in a school. Whilst sat in provisional numbers for next year’s C7 cohort. I the audience it struck me that what we were all am pleased to say that the numbers reflect the looking at in anticipation was an empty space - growing popularity of our wonderful community nothingness. It took the energy of each performer and family orientated approach. This is certainly to stimulate our senses and turn the empty space reflected in the comments that parents put in into something else; something unique; something their application form to justify why they wish to emotive. Throughout the course of the evening I, send their child to Honywood. like so many in the audience, experienced a range of emotions. Those feelings were a direct result I wish you a lovely weekend, only two more of the incredible energy, heart and soul that our weeks to go. performers displayed. They all turned an empty James Saunders space into a visually and auditory stimulating environment.