Shiplake pupils are celebrating fantastic London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) exam results this week after achieving top marks in the music and drama tests. Eighty percent of students gained a distinction with one pupil even getting 100 percent!
LAMDA teacher Scott Jenkins said: “My message to these boys was, ‘Teachers open doors, but you must enter by yourself’. I use this a lot as I do not take any credit for these exams, the boys go in and do all the hard work, and I just give them the ingredients for a successful performance.
“I am very impressed with this set of results and hope to see them increase even more next year.”
Three Year 9s took their exams and all passed with distinction. J King, was only 5 marks away from getting 100% in his Grade 5 Acting Solo, where he looked at two pieces: ‘The Date’ and ‘Adrian Mole’. Like J King, H Wood also took Grade 5 Solo, where he performed parts from: ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and ‘Reserved’. M McLaren finished his Grade 4 Acting Solo, looking at two monologues: ‘Beowulf’ and Equss’.
From Year 10, H Kunzig took Grade 6 Acting Solo, and achieved Merit after he completed pieces from ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Herons’. A Taylor-McDowall undertook Grade 7, where he had to look at three different pieces: ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’, ‘Chatroom’ and ‘When We Dead Awaken’. After his performances, Taylor-McDowall secured himself a distinction, only two marks off full marks.
Six Year 12 students underwent their LAMDA exam ranging in Musical Theatre and Acting Solo. H Finnegan received Merit in his Grade 6 Musical Theatre where he had to perform three pieces: ‘A Million Dreams’ taken from the Greatest Showman, ‘The World’s Greatest Dad’ from Elf the musical and he also had to execute song lyrics as a monologue, he chose ‘Electricity’ from Billy Elliott.
The other five Year 12 pupils took exams in Acting Solo, ranging in different grades. F Hewitt took Grade 6, where he studied ‘When We Dead Awaken’ and an extract from ‘Legends’. Hewitt received distinction. C Thomas and C Bradshaw undertook their Grade 7 and both achieved high distinction marks, in the three pieces they looked into.
M Scanlon underwent the highest Grade exam of Grade 8, where he was only two marks off full marks, securing him a distinction. He performed ‘King John’, ‘Equs’ and ‘The Crucible’.
A Britten took Grade 6 Acting Solo and achieved an outstanding mark of 100%. This is an extremely rare result; pupils must be ticking all the right boxes during the exam.
LAMDA has been offered at the College for the past three years as part of the School’s co-curricular programme and is growing in popularity. For more information on LAMDA classes and if you would like to get involved, please click here.
