Last week’s production of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was an absolute triumph. I watched each performance and every night the cast aced it and the music was perfection. It was a hugely ambitious production—two casts involving around 180 pupils and accompanied by a 20-piece orchestra. Everyone involved should take enormous pride in the final spectacle.

It's impossible to calculate the real benefit of a production like this to the school and its pupils. In education we tend to reduce everything down to numbers but I’m afraid there is no number that could accurately calculate the value added created by this experience. The cast of 2025 had a wonderful camaraderie that crossed over year groups. So many times I saw older pupils congratulating or coaching younger cast members. A production like this is a huge team effort which is fuelled by incredible levels of engagement and supercharged by the togetherness and fellowship which comes from being part of something so special.

None of this happens by accident. It is the result of countless hours of work and meticulous organisation and attention to detail. I would like to thank EVERYONE who was involved. One of the things that will live long in the memory was how the show looked. The Balcarras Design Department did a fabulous job on costumes and the set. The scene when Aslan arrives was really special—thanks to Mrs Swanepoel and everyone in tech. A production like this lives or dies on the technicals—it’s so important to see and hear everything. Caleb Horne did a superb job as Technical Director and was ably assisted by a group of pupils and our former student Matthew Chestney.

The music was absolutely perfect—my thanks to all those staff and volunteers involved in the orchestra—Nicola Hopkins, Nathan King, Tracey Vacher, George Douglas, Matt Howell, Dan Armstrong, Elian Moisey and Sarah Chestney. And thanks of course to all our student musicians. There were 20 people performing—that’s quite a number and requires a director of considerable skill and experience. Fortunately for us we have Jane Watts who did a superb job, not just of directing, but of putting together the score.  She should be hugely proud of the final result.

Finally a show like this needs leadership, vision and guts. Ms Went and Miss Ball provided all of these and in spades! It was incredibly ambitious to involve almost 200 pupils and to entrust so many key roles to relatively young actors. If that was a risk, it paid off in some style. They should both feel enormous pride at what they facilitated last week. I use that word deliberately. Therein lies the real role of educators—our job is to inspire and to coach so that the youngsters are empowered to be who they want to be. So many pupils benefitted from this last week—they were able to be part of something special and their confidence and self-belief must be higher this week than it was last.

Final word goes to the cast of the 2025 Balcarras School Production—it was inspirational to watch you and you should all feel very proud of what was a vintage production. Well done!!!

Dominic Burke

To see photos of the cast on the Wednesday and Friday click here

To see photos of the cast on the Tuesday and Thursday click here