A celebration of the Arts

And expressing yourself!

"If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician […] I cannot tell if I would have done any creative work of importance in music, but I do know that I get most joy in life out of my violin."

Albert Einstein, What Life Means to Einstein, 1929.

We can all acknowledge the importance of science to contemporary life. Technology abounds.Testaments to our scientific advancement can be found in the phone in our pocket; the satellites in our atmosphere; in the hard work of our doctors and biologists as they research coronavirus vaccines and root out new variants…However, even in this new age of science, we can never underestimate the value of the arts and humanities.For they, too, are at the core of our everyday existence – as we have all discovered over the past ten months!How much more difficult would the last year have been without the welcome relief of art, film and music?Indeed, our most local major poet, R.S. Thomas, wrote a great deal about the dissatisfactions of the scientific worldview, unillumined by art and beauty:‘They brought no edifyingInformation back. It was the moonGoddess they went to inspect,Her gold hair, her gold thighs.An absence of beautyOppressed them…’(Astronauts, lines 1-6)

Without art, Thomas suggests, we would be cast adrift; left bewildered and unable to cope with the world around us…Our current Head of Art and former alumni, Mark Sherrington (RS) describes creativity as ‘part of your being; your essential self; your body and soul… And, as such, it needs to be used – you have to express yourself to remain well.’ Likewise, the theme of this year’s Children’s Mental Health Week (which ran from the 1st to the 7th of February) was “Express Yourself.” Clearly, creative self-expression is vital to a happy school life.As much as anything else, the humanities are the lifeblood of Rydal Penrhos School. Our school community would be far poorer without our regular art exhibitions, poetry competitions and our brand-new, school-wide reading initiative – many of which have continued online, throughout the pandemic.Therefore, we have decided to celebrate the humanities in this newsletter, highlighting brilliant creative work by our students, past and present. Expect to read a great variety of interesting articles on art, literature, music and even film! So, please, take the time – something we all seem to have a lot of at the moment! – to relax and enjoy the work shown here… It’s an exciting time: so much brilliant creative work is being done by both our alumni and our current students… We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!An Alumnus.