The Hollywood actress Dame Emma Thompson surprised students at Plymouth High School for Girls with a message of praise for students who successfully re-enacted famous scenes from her films.
The school holds an annual drama festival, where each house has a talented group of representatives to deliver a show based on an assigned theme.
For this academic year, the theme was iconic actors and actresses, where students had to pay homage to famous scenes from their films.
The festival, organised by a team of House Captains, is a long-standing tradition at Plymouth High School for Girls, with the aim to provide their students a chance to express their creativity, to work as a team and collaborate in bringing compelling stories to life.
The students can earn points for their house, which contribute to their efforts to win the house shield at the end of the year.
There are four houses at the school: Anthony, who were given Tom Hanks; Latimer, who re-enacted scenes from films featuring Will Smith; Temple, who had Zendaya Coleman and the winners Kendall, who had the opportunity to perform scenes with Dame Emma Thompson, DBE.
The highlight of the festival came when Dame Emma Thompson surprised the event with the following personal pre-recorded video message played to the students to conclude the festival.
The highlight of the festival came when Dame Emma Thompson surprised the students with the following personal pre-recorded video message, which concluded the event.
Simon Underdown, Headteacher at Plymouth High, said: “Each house performance was amazing, with clever links and incredible entertainment.
“It was wonderful to welcome our guest judge, Saja Altamimi, who is a previous Head student at Plymouth High. She studied drama at A-Level and at university, and now works in a theatre with young actors in London. Saja was very impressed with the performances and was honoured to announce the winner of the festival.
“The message from Emma Thompson was such a wonderful surprise to the pupils, and on behalf of all the school, I would like to thank Dame Emma Thompson DBE for her time in recording this for our students and allowing us to replay this to our whole school community.”
The room erupted with cheer as her message was played out to the students. It was the talk of the school and a truly memorable moment in their experience at Plymouth High.
