Girls in the senior school achieved great creative success this term. Francesca in the second form and Amy in the fourth form both did extremely well in the recent Alton Arts Society Competition. Francesca gained first prize in her age category with her outstanding drawing of a tiger cub and Amy gained third prize with her excellent pastel composition based on Poseidon, having already won the Hellenic Society Competition during last summer term with this piece of work. Alton Convent School also did very well in the recent ISA Art Competition with the work of Francesca, second form, and Allison, a former A-level student both given a Highly Commended Award.

Musicians from the Upper Prep performed to an audience of parents, siblings, friends and teachers on Thursday 6th November in the first of this year’s Prep School concerts. The programme was wonderfully varied, with an excellent selection of short pieces. We began with a performance of Les Bouffons by the recorder ensemble, with the concert closing an hour later to The Drunken Sailor by the violin group. In between we’d heard many children perform, including both Maddy and Bryony on the harp, Katya on the cornet and Rachel’s Edelweiss on the trombone.

GCSE and A'Level drama pupils were very lucky to have the opportunity to be visited by two professional performers from the London production of Mamma Mia the hit musical. The girls were treated to a fantastic day of dancing, singing and acting pieces from the show.

Accompanied by Peter Roberts a singing tutor and musical director from the Guildford School of Acting and Sylvia Young’s Theatre school, pupils learnt an array of ABBA songs including Waterloo, Thank You for the Music, and Mamma Mia. The girls sang superbly, sometimes in complicated three part harmonies.

The music department closed the first half term with a concert of chamber music featuring AS and GCSE pupils as well as music scholars. Parents and staff enjoyed a varied programme with music spanning four centuries on a variety of instruments. Sarah impressed with a performance of her own composition for piano and we look forward to hearing more from Les Six – a newly formed vocal group who gave a beautiful rendition of ‘The Long and Winding Road’.

Upper Prep children enjoyed some exciting art and design technology workshops on Thursday, when an inventor came to share his expertise with many of our pupils. The theme for the day was working mechanisms and models, and each class learnt about different ways of making things move or come to life. Year 4 explored designing and making through electricity, and were very proud when they got the opportunity to make their own working torches. Year 5 investigated moving toys from the past, before using levers and cams to make their own snapping crocodile toys.

On Thursday 16th October all Prep school pupils and staff danced their way around the new drama studio led by visiting theatre group HotBuckle Productions. Years 1,2 and 3 watched exciting performances of The Gruffalo and The Emperors New Clothes and also explored their own imagined worlds through some interactive storytelling. The children’s own ideas for a play were brought to life as the three actors from HotBuckle improvised their way through the children’s stories about a kidnapped prince and a two legged pig!

Today the early years department made the most of the Autumn sunshine and joined together for an afternoon of creativity and fun based around the theme of colours. Children from each of the three classes were encouraged to participate in a range of activities that enabled them to explore different colours and their properties, whilst investigating the effects of colour mixing. The children particularly enjoyed the outdoor activities which included welly boot painting and bottle swinging, whilst opportunities to do marble painting, make a colour wheel spinner and explore light and colour on the OHP were firm favourites amongst the indoor activities.