April 1st may have been a bold choice for a school trip to London with 42 Year 10, 11 and Sixth Form students, but nonetheless, on Friday morning students boarded a coach to the capital for a cultural smorgasbord of activities including two West End shows, a dance and drama workshop and a trip to the National Gallery.

On Friday night students saw ‘Wicked’ at the Victoria Apollo Theatre, the storyline of which is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz. The show boasts a magnificent set, beautiful score and fantastic costumes and special effects. The students were really impressed, and thoroughly enjoyed the performance, and then had the adventure of a Tube ride home after the coach failed to turn up.

The following morning, half the group went to Danceworks studio for a dance and drama workshop based on ‘Wicked’ which they absolutely loved. The rest of the students went to the National Gallery where they marvelled at the Impressionists and all the wonderful art on display including new artists such as Kehinde Wiley, an American artist. He is best known for his portraits of people of colour in the traditional settings of Old Master paintings. Most famously, in 2017, he was commissioned to paint Barack Obama, becoming the first Black artist to paint an official portrait of a president of the United States.

The group then ventured to their final destination, the Noel Coward theatre, for a matinee performance of Dear Evan Hansen. A powerful musical which covers many serious issues and has a lot to say about the positives and negatives of social media, but is also punctuated with humour and great songs and music. The set is a marvel of technical theatre and is a mass of phone and computer screens which permeate the action. The show is a show for this generation and our students were left stunned, many very moved, as were the staff.