In the early days of September, the auditions for Oliver! marked the commencement of an exhilarating journey. The competition proved formidable, and deciding on the lead roles became a challenging task. Following intense callbacks, our definitive cast emerged.

The real excitement unfolded during the subsequent weeks – with rehearsals for songs, dances, and acting conducted twice a week. Remarkably, some of our talented year 11 students assumed the responsibility of dance choreography for Oliver!, leading the dance rehearsals with exceptional skill. The infectious tune of “Food Glorious Food” echoed through the corridors, and students left rehearsals, merrily singing down the streets.

As we approach the culmination of this remarkable journey, with show nights looming less than two weeks away, a sense of pride envelops us. Reflecting on the progress made since September, we are profoundly proud of the entire cast. Anticipation is building, and we eagerly await the opening night on Tuesday, 5^th March.

‘I am excited about Oliver because there is lots of acting which I enjoy a lot. It also involves lots if singing and dancing and I got to do this with my friends. Oliver rehearsals have brought me closer to my friends and I have also made new friends from the experience. I have also enjoyed working with people I don’t normally. It has given me more confidence with my acting and singing’ – Lucas Worthington – Mr Bumble.

During January we have been having lessons with KS3 and an assembly for KS4 to talk about how to use AI to help their learning, whilst making sure to avoid using AI to do too much for them.

“We want our students to be responsible citizens and we do this by educating them and giving them information so that they can make informed decisions. AI is part of our lives and, therefore, it is our responsibility to educate ourselves and our community to ensure we can use it to enhance our lives and give our students the digital literacy skills that will be in high demand now and in the future” Miss Sheath

What is AI? 

AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is like having a really smart computer that can learn and understand things, just like humans do. There are different types of AI, and two of them are large language models and image generating AI. Large language models (LLMs) are like smart writers. They use pre-existing information from the internet to help them answer questions and write stories, but they don’t actually create new ideas on their own. They are really good at organising and using the information that already exists. However, they can’t check if something makes sense compared to reality, and they can make up facts. As an example of other forms of AI, Image generating AI is like a digital artist. It can create pictures that look real, even though they are made by a computer. But just like the language models, it doesn’t come up with completely new ideas. It uses a lot of pictures that already exist to figure out how to make new ones. So, even though AI is very clever, it still needs humans to give it ideas and information to work with.