Winter Arts Festival 2022

Posted on 11th February 2022

Students from Nursery to Upper Sixth enjoy week dedicated to the arts.

Our annual Winter Arts Festival kicked off last week. This artistic highlight of the school calendar provides all of our students, from Nursery to Upper Sixth, the opportunity to express themselves through a variety of creative endeavours. 

Senior students spent much of last week rehearsing for the much-anticipated ‘Finale’ performances which took place last Friday and Saturday evening at Norwich Playhouse, while Upper 1 put on an excellent show of ‘The Bee Musical’ in Stafford House on Thursday afternoon.

This week at Norwich High has been dedicated to celebrating the arts and we hope students have enjoyed all that was on offer for them. Please click here for the full programme of events and see some highlights and photos from the Senior and Prep School below.

Finale

This show-stopping event featured a variety of music, dance and theatre acts including sets by our Concert Band, Jazz Band and singers, play extracts and comedy sketches from our talented actors and a selection of dance items in styles such as Indian Bollywood and Commercial Dance. The programme also included extracts from some much loved musicals such as Rent, Little Shop of Horrors and Matilda.

Scholars’ Concert

A number of our Music Scholars from Years 7-13 performed a range of solo and ensemble repertoire in the beautiful surroundings of St Peter Mancroft Church on Wednesday evening. 

‘The Great Outdoors’ Art Exhibition

The Exhibition featured students’ work from the Nursery to the Sixth Form and was at The Forum from Monday 7th to Wednesday 9th February with a Private View reception on Monday evening. It was lovely to see families from the Norwich High community and beyond join us for this.

In the Prep School

The Winter Arts Festival in the Prep School had an international theme this year. Under the title of ‘One World‘, the girls have been introduced to the art, dance, drama, stories, language, food and music of different cultures from across the world.

The week began with an exciting day of music from the Steelpan Agency, who taught the Prep School about the history and music of the steelpan and all the girls were able to learn to play some rhythmic tunes for themselves.

On Tuesday, Anna Mudeka introduced the girls to Zimbabwe through the storytelling and songs of her childhood with her grandmother. Also that morning Sevanti Roy, an Indian textile designer, taught some year groups how to block print with mud to make beautiful indigo cloth designs. In the afternoon the girls enjoyed learning classical Indian dancing from three of our Sixth form girls, Samyuktha, Nikitha and Nanditha, who shared the intricate moves that develop the beautiful storytelling style of this type of dance.

On Wednesday we were delighted to welcome 25 international students and their teachers from INTO at UEA who ran sessions throughout the day on the language and culture from many different and diverse nations. The girls were taken around the world to learn about customs and traditions from Russia to Indonesia, Panama to Korea and enjoyed the craft and games provided by the students. 

On Thursday we hosted a Bollywood dance workshop where the girls learnt high energy and expressive dances and dressed up in colourful costumes to take part. In the afternoon we focused our activities on Guatemala and made Guatemalan worry dolls, which the girls have taken home to keep under their pillows. 

Finally on Friday we welcomed Sevanti Roy back to school for a session with Kindergarten and Lower 1. Alongside all of this activity the girls have also had wonderful workshops provided by Norwich High School parents and these have been immensely creative and lots of fun. In class time the girls have created Rangoli patterns on acrylic, focused on oral storytelling using books from other cultures and had a cooking session.

It has been a busy but inspiring week! Well done to everybody.