This year’s Secondary Winter Showcase may have been online, but it lacked none of the community spirit, nor feeling of coming together, normally associated with the pre-holiday show.

The Winter Showcase itself is a chance for us to come together as a community - to laugh together, to appreciate together and to enjoy together - with the creative arts at the centre of this bond. True, there was no staff parody this year and therefore no chance to amuse ourselves with the antics of our staff, so willing to risk embarrassment in the name of comedy and a shared laugh. It is also true that this year we were not to be graced, as we sat silent with lights low and the hairs on our arms standing on end, by the heartwarming  live renditions of our choir and orchestra. No. This year’s show was not the same, but… The show that we did assemble this year, that we as a school collaborated on and participated in and interacted with, was in many ways more impressive. In fact, it positively, undeniably reeked of community spirit and pulling together, our love of the arts the unifying factor. Miss Amor’s wonderful interactive virtual tour highlights this point perfectly.

As students and other members of our community, walked the virtual aisles, virtually adorned with pieces created by real artists from across our school community, they might have pondered how the various pieces in various formats were linked by Miss Amor’s exhibition themes of nature, technology and people. But more than this, they might have come to realise that even when we are scattered and remote, cut away from the routines and customs and people that we became so dependent on, and when we are seemingly isolated… we are not… because we are all ourselves linked by these themes, united and bound together by them, no matter where we are or what problems we face. And in this way, we are reminded that we are not really alone, whilst we can share the same beliefs and hopes and ideas and values and love of what is good in this world.

Do we wish that we could have heard Year 7 singing their recorded Jingle Bells rendition live or that we could have watched Mila belting out Rudolf The Red-Nosed Reindeer live or that we could have watched Lia’s horror homage film in a shared viewing, feeling afraid together? Yes. Do we wish that we might have listened to Amélie playing piano in person or Firas playing guitar in person? Yes, yes of course. Things will return to normality eventually, but we may just appreciate these things, that we might have in the past taken for granted, even more when they do and we may realise what a gift it is to enjoy the arts together.

For this year, our reflections on the arts in the Winter Showcase, albeit from afar, have allowed us a sense of togetherness and community that we should savour and be proud of. 
 

 Please click here to view the Secondary Art Exhibition prepared by Ms Amor.