13th December 2024
HEADLINES
By James Saunders
A WONDERFULLY WARMING WINTER CHRISTMAS CONCERT As we begin to look towards the final week of the longest term I would like to highlight our goal of being the beating heart of the community. The week has neatly been bookended by two heartwarming community events. On Monday we held the Winter Concert. The event was a complete sellout - it even garnered the attention of ticket scammers. I half expected to see our tickets competing with Oasis on ticketmaster. Anyway, the crowds packed in for a delightful evening of performance that really demonstrated the thirst families have for supporting the arts (and seeing their children perform). Nothing beats the pride parents and grandparents have in seeing the creativity and talent of their loved ones on stage. I was particularly impressed by our newly formed choir who have only started working together this term. We must never underestimate the power of the arts to bring people together. Welcoming families to Honywood to showcase the creative talent of our learners is a real highlight of my job. The hall was packed out for two hours of high quality performances from all cohorts. There was singing, dancing and dramatic performances aplenty, including some avant garde French theatre. I would like to thank the wonderful Expressive Arts department for their support in preparing learners for the show and for the smooth running of the evening. An event such as this is difficult to organise at the best of times and at the end of a long and tiring term it is much appreciated. The team was able to pull the night off with no issues and all the performers had an opportunity to show us what they can do. I had the opportunity to talk to families at the end of the evening. I mentioned the fact that it takes real courage to stand up in front of an audience and perform. Whilst sat in the audience it struck me that what we were all looking at in anticipation of each
performance was an empty space - nothingness. It took the energy of each performer to stimulate our senses and turn the empty space into something else; something unique; something emotive. Throughout the course of the evening I, like so many in the audience, experienced a range of emotions. Those feelings were a direct result of the incredible energy, heart, and soul that our performers displayed. They all turned an empty space into a visually and auditory stimulating environment. Sitting at the back of the hall whilst the audience sang along to ‘Hey Jude’ was inspiring and a memory that our performer Lacey will remember for a long time. School is very much like this. It is not about the building (which is useful given our need for a new school), 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. Sitting there watching each individual pour their heart and soul onto the stage I couldn’t help thinking how proud I was and privileged to be a part of our community. A community where, each and every day, we get to see the uniqueness of our learners as they continue to grow. Additionally, today was the culmination of our reverse advent calendar to support Braintree foodbank. Acts such as this really do make a difference. Extending our reach out into our community so that families can be impacted by the warmth that emanates from Honywood is something you should all be very proud of. Did you know that over the last few years for the first time in history Unicef has been providing food aid to British children. It shouldn’t be that way. We should live in a world where all children are able to grow up with access to food. We shouldn’t have to intervene. Food banks should not even be a thing. But they are.