Staff at Richmond School and Sixth Form College weren’t going to let the lockdown prevent them from creating their traditional and eagerly-awaited video for their Year 11 students. Since 2013, they have produced a Year 11 video which they work really hard to perfect, and this year would be no exception, with all staff agreeing that the show must go on!
The video is always a highlight for the Year 11 students, marking the end of their time at school. Each year, the directors, Lead Teacher of Media and English teacher, Mr Boulton-Lear, and Miss Dunwoodie, Assistant Headteacher, inject their creative flair to produce another showstopper. As Jenna Potter, Headteacher, said: “This year, we agreed that if we couldn’t bring the students to the video, we would take the video to the students, in fact a series of four videos, as the response to the call out for staff to be involved has been so overwhelming.”
The brief for the video had to be somewhat more flexible than in previous years, as due to social distancing measures the staff haven’t been in school every day to practise and perfect their moves behind the scenes. Instead, staff were invited to self-choreograph resulting in a very personal and individual feel to the videos, which are a montage of clips filmed on the popular Tiktok app.
Emma Dunwoodie, Assistant Headteacher and co-director of the 2020 Year 11 videos, said: “We are always delighted with the number of volunteers who take part, but this year there has been an outstanding contribution from the majority of staff. Many of them have stepped out of their comfort zone and we have been so impressed with their energy, sense of fun, creativity and support At a time when Year 11 have missed out on so much; we all need something to make us smile and showcase our wonderful community spirit. I really hope we were able to brighten up an evening for our Year 11s and other students in our school. We can all learn a lesson from lockdown from our video – when people are apart, it can bring us all closer together.”
Jenna Potter, Headteacher, added: “A Year 11 video was more important this year than ever and Mr Boutlon-Lear and Miss Dunwoodie have been relentless in their demands of us all over recent weeks. Over the years, our videos have developed a real ‘Richmond School’ feel and demonstrate the great sense of family and community between staff, students, parents and carers. Due to the number of staff taking part, the four video instalments were premiered at hourly intervals in time-honoured fashion on Friday evening, which would have been the prom night”.
As well as the videos, which can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUV1g7SEcW2Jy0iAJI2c5Ww, a year book is being compiled for the students which will include profiles of the students, messages from their tutors, as well as a gallery of images to celebrate their five years at Richmond School.
Grace Morris, a Year 11 student, said: “The video is such a lovely idea and it has given us something that makes us feel as though we are marking the end of Year 11. When the prom was cancelled, it meant all the coming of age celebrations couldn’t take place, but the videos and the year book are really special for us in what has been a difficult time. Thank you so much to all the staff for coming together to give us these fabulous memories.”
Mrs Potter concluded: “It has been an emotional and difficult time for our students with such an abrupt end to their studies. The Year 11 cohort is a tremendous group of students and we are incredibly proud of everything they have achieved. Whilst we can’t recreate the atmosphere of a prom, we hope the videos and year book will help them to treasure memories of their time at Richmond School. We wish the students the very best and look forward to welcoming many of them back to our Sixth Form.”