Sharing Your Feedback
At the start of the academic year, students from the Music and Drama Departments collaborated to perform The Addams Family at the Rhoda McGaw theatre. As a community you turned up in force to support the 270 students that took part and we couldn't be more grateful for your feedback. We have appreciated every single kind email, and read many of them to the cast themselves, I have included some of your words below.
As a very quirky and different musical, The Addams Family presented a new set of challenges to the students. The musical score was intrinsically tricky and the characterisation demanded of the students was often very different from roles they are used to playing. I cannot tell you how astonished I have been of the monumental efforts of our students. They rose to the challenge and found their stride from the very first rehearsal. With three casts this year, they remained focused and hardworking throughout.
Students have dedicated hours of rehearsal time to work tirelessly arranging each song, dance and scene with a determination that continues to grow each year with every production. I am very proud of their efforts. The performance itself ran for 6 nights from Tuesday 3rd February to Saturday 7th February. I have shared your kind words below, so that students can see how much their hard work is appreciated by the wider community.
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I just thought I’d drop you a note to express how absolutely brilliant the Addams Family production was. We attended on Saturday evening and the music, dance, acting and overall performance was amazing! I would say it’s the best performance we’ve seen from the school and a really fantastic demonstration of the talent of the pupils and capability of students who put on a fantastic show after enormous effort. Our daughter really enjoyed the rehearsals and performances and I’m sure is looking forward to the next performance!
Thank you to all the staff and students involved and wishing you good luck with the awards on Thursday.
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We just wanted to congratulate and thank you for another fantastic show. We absolutely loved The Addams Family and really do appreciate all of the time and hard work from the staff that goes into a show like this.
Both our daughters loved being part of it and we are so proud and grateful for how far Bethany’s come with her performing, confidence and leadership - thank you for supporting, enabling and encouraging her. We can’t quite believe it’s the last school show that she’ll do.
Seeing our youngest being part of something and stepping outside of her comfort zone socially is so good, so thank you for giving her that opportunity.
Do please pass on our thanks to your the rest of your team, and enjoy a break over half term!
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I just wanted to write to say that my daughter (who is 10 years old) and I came to see the schools play in Woking on Saturday night. She has already expressed an interest in coming to the school following the primary schools choir event last month.
I wanted to say how impressed we were at the standard across the board and how much we enjoyed the show. In particular the girl who played Wednesday had an incredible voice and the girl who played the grandmother had lots of comedy charisma, but the standard of the whole cast and pit band was really high and I was very impressed to hear that even the lighting and AV was also handled by the students. Clearly everybody has worked really hard on this and it really was great.
It has cemented the fact that my daughter would like to audition to come to Winston Churchill as we are not in the catchment area. She is currently in year 5 but she was excitedly talking about what song she would audition with and would love to go to a school with such opportunities in drama and music.
Please pass my congratulations on to all involved if appropriate.
The Pit Band
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I just wanted to drop you a quick email and say well done for yet another amazing show! The whole cast and crew should be very proud of themselves for all of their hard work and yours bring it all together, it was absolutely incredible.
I have to all children, from all the conversations I overheard and the emails back and forth worked really well together and were a lovely team, it's been so nice for my daughter to have another lovely mentor this year after her experience last year. She has absolutely loved every single minute of it even of she was absolutely exhausted by the end of the week and can’t wait for the next show! They are all a credit to the school.
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Huge congratulations to you all. What an incredible show. The cast, crew and pit band were phenomenal. Both our girls had the best time working on the Addams Family. Everyone absolutely nailed it!
Well done all. Roll on the next one!
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We just wanted to send a short note to say how brilliant 'The Addams Family’ show was. We know that all the cast put in a huge effort, doing themselves and the school proud, but all the staff involved have clearly spent an enormous amount of time and effort supporting the students in making the show such an awesome success. Thank you and please pass on our thanks to everyone involved.
The casting of the roles was spot on and all the students were amazing as the various characters. In addition to this the Pit Band was fantastic. Alice really enjoyed playing Grandma and it was a delight to watch. It is wonderful to see so much talent at Winston and to see this talent harnessed and developed in such a positive way. We know that you will continue to tell all the students what a great job they did - please pass on our feedback as well.
The Winston music and drama departments go from strength to strength! Wishing you all the very best at the awards evening on Thursday.
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I just wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to every teacher and member of staff involved in the school production. It was truly wonderful to watch, and the amount of work, care, and creativity that went into it was so clear in every moment on stage.
My daughter had the most incredible experience. She was so happy to be part of the show and worked very hard to be the best she could be. Seeing her shine like that meant a great deal to us, and we know it wouldn’t have been possible without your guidance, encouragement and dedication.
And a special congratulations to Mrs Davies. I absolutely loved her dress. It was stunning and suited perfectly.
The whole production was amazing, such talent and teamwork from everyone involved. Thank you for giving her and other children an opportunity they will remember for a very long time.
Warmest thanks again.
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The show has once again blown me away. The talent of these students is phenomenal.
I saw two different casts this year and both were brilliant in their own individual way.
The immense amount of work put in by all involved has paid off once more, in abundance.
I honestly get home after these shows and feel such a buzz. To have this effect truly shows how amazing they are.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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Hope you have had a wonderful day and are not too tired. First of all, I would like to thank you for the amazing opportunity to be a part of the show in the pit band. I have just finished my shift at Knaphill primary school, and I thought I would let you know how massive our production is over there. I help out with a football club after school on a Friday and when I arrived, I was greeted with pictures they had drawn of the actors and their not so pleasant, but still lovely of course, singing of the songs. Bombarding me with questions and telling me just how much they loved the show; they asked me to thank the actors, staff, pit band, and everyone else for letting them watch and just for the overall brilliance of the Addams Family production.
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I just wanted to take the time to thank you so very much for the generous use of the two mini buses which took our Year 6 to see the Addams Family today. For some of our children it was probably the first time that they had been to a theatre. All of them were raving about the production. Here are some quotes:
“The effort from the cast was spectacular”
“I thought it was incredible how many lines they memorised”
“I liked how funny Uncle Fester was, especially when he kissed the moon!”
“I really liked how they kept a straight face”
“it was monumental!”
“It was a brilliant show”
Once again we thank you for your kindness and have a lovely weekend.
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We attended the Addams family last night and wow what a show!
It was outstanding and we were incredibly impressed by the quality of the production.
A real stand out for us was Ellis who played Wednesday, her singing was amazing and so controlled and her acting astonishing for someone of her age. It was a joy to watch her.
The girl playing Morticia was also very impressive and such a mature role was very well handled.
Neither of these two broke character throughout the entire show and I am sure credit must go to the departments that train your pupils both with their vocal training and their acting.
As keen theatre goers, performers and musicians ourselves, to see something of this quality from a school should be celebrated. We know how hard it is to get a production to a good standard and this absolutely surpassed all our expectations.
Well done to everyone involved and we look forward to being invited to another Winston musical event soon.
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Thank you so much for inviting us to your production this year. The children (and adults) had a great time.
It was such a professional performance and one the students can be justly proud of. Our children also loved the opportunity to ask questions of the cast – a nice addition this year.
Can’t wait to see what you managed to put together next year
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I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for the incredible work you put into The Addams Family making the production such a success.
As a parent, it is so wonderful to watch the children perform with such confidence and enthusiasm. The production was beautifully put together, but even more impressive was seeing how proud and supported the children felt on stage.
Experiences like this mean so much to our children. They help build confidence, teamwork, and a love for drama and musical theatre, so Thank you for creating such a positive and memorable experience for them.
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I know I spoke to you this evening but I just wanted to add to the undoubted avalanche of emails you will receive about how fantastic the show was!
It was so professional from start to finish and I truly forgot I was watching a school production (and my daughter who I didn't recognise! 😂)
I loved this show particularly, out of all the brilliant ones I've seen at Winston, because it gave so much chance for you to showcase the incredible talent at the school.
I'm so looking forward to seeing it again on Saturday. Many congratulations to everyone.
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I just wanted to congratulate you and your team on another excellent production! The show is brilliantly put together and I am just sorry I cannot make it to see another show!
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I just wanted to drop you an email after watching the school production last night.
I was blown away by the talent of the children and all the hard work that went into the show, also backstage, music etc. Amazing!
Our daughter has really enjoyed being a part of this so thank you.
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Mr Harrington-Tucker
