News

Highly Sprung Physical Fellowship – 25th June 2025

The Year 10 GCSE Drama class had an exciting day at the Belgrade Theatre, taking part in workshops with three professional theatre companies, and a performance of their original piece of theatre. 

This experience forms the final part of the Highly Sprung Physical Fellowship, which the students first took part in at the start of May, when a theatre practitioner came into school and worked with them over two days, creating a fantastic physical theatre piece titled ‘Sacrifice’, based on ‘Scylla’, one of the stories from Homer’s Iliad. The students have since been rehearsing the piece during lunchtimes, all whilst preparing for their mock exams.

After an introduction by Highly Sprung, the students took part in two workshops. The first, with Fourth Monkey, explored being present on stage, partner work, ensemble work and intentional movement. The second, led by Motionhouse gave the students their first chance to work on stage in the B2 theatre. They worked on fluid movement, learned some impressive partner lifts and created their own movement sequences.

They then joined two other schools for the Highly Sprung devising masterclass, where they were taught all about the company’s process for creating new work. The masterclass was fascinating for our students and highly valuable, as they are currently devising their own work for their Drama GCSE. 

Our pupils were the third and final school to perform their piece in the evening performance, and were absolutely fantastic. Their piece was polished, pacy, showcased some technically challenging performance skills, and highlighted what a fantastic ensemble they are. The headline act of the night was a performance by Sprung Advanced Plus, a pre-professional youth ensemble, who gave a phenomenal performance, based on the story of Helen of Troy. 

It was a tiring, but rewarding day, and our students were enthusiastic and delightful throughout, and came away with a true sense of achievement when they realised what they’d accomplished. An unforgettable day for all involved.

Mrs Thompson