The reputation for quality drama provision at Highfield and Brookham School has been strengthened further.

It follows the release of the latest round of autumn exam results by the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) in which the burgeoning talent of children at Highfield and Brookham has shone through again.

Hot on the heels of an impressive showing in the spring exams, in which 108 children secured an astonishing 94 distinctions between them, another 31 children performed and excelled in December, with 27 securing distinctions.

In both sets of exams, children at Highfield and Brookham secured a remarkable 87% distinction success rate.

Such success doesn’t come about by accident, with Highfield and Brookham having a very clear policy where the arts are concerned – that the school doesn’t choose between core subjects and the arts, it focuses equally on both.

Sarah Baird, the nursery, pre-prep and prep school’s Head of Drama, leads an incredibly talented team of specialist LAMDA teachers in the shape of Sarah Dungworth, Hannah Baxter-Eve and Susannah Wilson, two of whom are professional, working actors while the third has extensive West End stage experience.

She also heads up a thriving department which offers specialist teaching from Year 3 and drama lessons once a week compared to many schools who offer drama on rotation with other subjects.

And Mrs Baird’s dedication and devotion to her art has seen Highfield and Brookham secure ‘Gold Shakespeare School’ status having performed the Bard’s plays publicly for seven successive years as part of the Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation, including at G Live in Guildford and The Hawth in Crawley.

Furthermore, 14 children have secured drama scholarships to leading senior schools since 2020 on Mrs Baird’s watch.

Suzannah Cryer, Head of Highfield and Brookham, said: “Our drama provision is quite exceptional and is really going from strength to strength. The decision to keep the arts on the same footing as our core subjects is paying dividends and I couldn’t be more proud of the results that our children continue to achieve and the progress that they continue to make.”

In LAMDA’s December exams, nine of the 31 candidates scored at least 90 out of 100, with Max Reid and Clementine Snagge top of the pile with 96 for speaking verse and poetry at entry level. Oliver Fanshawe, Tamara Passi and Iona Dumas were just two marks lower in their respective disciplines.