By Ms Smith (Speech and Drama Coordinator) and Miss Burns (Speech and Drama Teacher)

We are incredibly proud of our Sixth Form Speech and Drama students who achieved fantastic results in their most recent LAMDA examinations. The students achieved four distinctions and one High Merit. Shayna Juma (Upper Sixth) was awarded a staggering 98 out of 100 for her Grade 8 examination, which was well deserved.

Emily Pinkney (Upper Sixth), who started her Speech and Drama journey when she joined the school in Year 3 and shared her experiences: “Attending Speech and Drama lessons has been such a fun experience and has helped me in so many different ways! Not only have these lessons enhanced my communication skills which are so vital for many different reasons in life, but they have also helped boost my self-confidence when performing in front of an audience. I have thoroughly enjoyed working towards my LAMDA grades, and it feels like a fantastic accomplishment to finally finish my Gold Medal (Grade 8) after first starting in 

Year 3. In the later grades, I found it particularly interesting to learn about how your body produces speech and how we can change our voice to create different tones and moods. Learning about sonnets and poetry techniques has also really helped me in my English lessons over the years. I have so many great memories of performing at the Bedfordshire Festival, and I particularly enjoyed winning the duet reading class with my friend. I encourage everyone to keep doing Speech and Drama if they can because it is so worth it!”

You can read students’ reflections on their speech and drama journeys here.