In October, The Moat School's Year 10 pupils took their production of the Bard's 'Much Ado About Nothing' to the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, as part of the national Shakespeare Schools Festival 2009. They performed alongside 3 other London schools on the night, with 500 schools taking part right across Britain.

Their performance was very well received by the audience and described by the organisers as 'engaging and full of vitality. It's clear these young performers really understand the humour of the play and the motivation of the characters'.

This year marks the third year running that the Moat School has participated in the festival, and each year the school encourages involvement from all Year 10 pupils, rather than just the GCSE Drama group. The Moat School's Director of Performing Arts, Matthew Potger, said: 'this is an invaluable experience for all the pupils. Not only does it promote a supportive feeling of shared achievement amongst the pupils involved as they move into their senior years, it also gives each of them a unique insight into a very challenging piece of text that they will need to respond to in depth in their GCSE English exam next year'.

Now, that's much ado about something!