Gold For The Third Year Running

Highfield and Brookham School has achieved a rare national hat-trick, earning Coram Shakespeare Schools Gold Medal School status for the third consecutive year and cementing its reputation as one of the country’s most drama-committed independent schools.

Highfield and Brookham School in Liphook has staged Shakespeare productions at professional public theatres for over a decade as part of the nationally acclaimed Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation programme. This year’s production of Romeo and Juliet, performed at Theatre Royal Portsmouth in March, not only secured the coveted Gold Medal status once again. It also made history for the school.

In a first, Head of Drama Sarah Baird opened the production beyond Year 7 to create a mixed-year extra-curricular cast spanning Years 6, 7 and 8. Highfield and Brookham’s pupils were the youngest performers on stage at the Theatre Royal that night, sharing the bill exclusively with senior schools, and held their own with pride.

The Coram Shakespeare Stage Director said, “The company seamlessly transported us to 1980s Berlin, skillfully blending physical theatre with choreographed sequences that captured the emotional intensity of the play. From the opening fight sequence to the heartbreaking final scene, their precise movement and strong ensemble work created a compelling atmosphere, making the story both vivid and deeply affecting.”

Highfield and Brookham is one of only 89 schools nationwide to hold Gold Medal status, a measure of just how rare and hard-won the accolade truly is.

The Coram Shakespeare Schools Outreach Team paid tribute to the school’s extraordinary commitment: “We are so honoured to have worked with you for seven-plus consecutive Festivals. The extra effort you put in to help run these Programmes for your young people is truly inspiring, and it does not go unnoticed. Well done again to the whole team, you’re all utter stars!”

It is a relationship that stretches back to 2016, when current headteacher Suzannah Cryer, then Head of Drama, first brought the Coram programme to the school. She has since passed the baton to Mrs Baird, who has taken it and run.

Mrs Cryer said: “What Mrs Baird and these children achieve in just a few short weeks is nothing short of phenomenal. Shakespeare is demanding at any age, demanding on stage and demanding off it. Our youngest pupils holding their own at a professional theatre, alongside senior school students, is a moment that will stay with them forever.”

The school’s love of the stage has never wavered, not even during a pandemic. In 2021, with theatres closed, the school took the imaginative step of staging Macbeth outdoors in the woodland of the Highfield and Brookham estate.

Previous productions in the programme have included Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, all performed at professional venues as part of the wider Coram festival.

The Gold Medal accolade sits alongside another remarkable achievement this year: all 130 pupils who sat LAMDA examinations were awarded a Distinction, a clean sweep that speaks to the school’s exceptional commitment to performing arts education at every level.