This half term, the Year 9 drama students have been working hard getting to grips with their theatre practitioner study, Bertolt Brecht.   They’ve been discovering his unique style of theatre and applying some of Brecht’s techniques to their own work.   Techniques including narration, third person narration, re-ordering the scenes sequence into non chronological order and the use of placards have all been used creatively and imaginatively in their group devised pieces.   They’ve also been exploring what style of theatre Brecht came out of and why he created and developed this new style, that is still influencing theatre and film makers today.  They learnt that Brecht had said of theatre audiences that they ‘hang up their brains with their hats’ when they watch a piece of naturalistic theatre, whereas he wanted to challenge his audience and make them use their brains.  Think of a film or TV programme where a character speaks directly to the camera, well, that’s Brecht’s influence.

On Thursday 1^st February, the Year 8 netball team played their second fixture, against Simon Balle School.

The girls started the game well, scoring a goal within the first 3 minutes. Simon Balle made a strong comeback, and despite some excellent defending from Myleene and Isabella, managed to score 2 goals before the end of the first quarter. Throughout the game St Mary’s worked really hard as a team to get the ball up the court and remain in possession. There was some excellent work on the middle of the court from Maria, Sienna, Ana and Jessica, as well as some great shooting from Shumaila and Sofia.

Unfortunately, Simon Balle came away with the win (5-3) but the girls played incredibly well and held their own in what was a very close, competitive game. Well done to everyone who took part, especially the player of the match, Sofia.