On Wednesday 2^nd July, our FHS community gathered for an incredibly special event: our first ever Summer Arts & Music Festival.

The evening began with the grand unveiling of our Creative Perspectives on Climate Change Exhibition. The culmination of our yearlong interdisciplinary initiative with climate action charity Cape Farewell, the exhibition was comprised of reflective, imaginative and very beautiful artworks by our pupils, Francis Holland Prep pupils, partner primary school pupils and world-renowned artists affiliated with Cape Farewell.

The Creatives Perspectives project has consisted of over 25 workshops throughout the year involving every department in the school and the work produced by the girls – in a vast range of disciplines including drama, art, dance, geography, song, poetry, dance, creative writing and more – has been truly extraordinary. Our guests marvelled at selection of this work at the exhibition, with one remarking, “it does feel a bit like Tate Modern, doesn’t it?!” – we quite agreed!

This project has been about creative thinking, storytelling and making people think about a really important topic – the girls have certainly done that and we are incredibly proud of them all. We are also hugely grateful to Cape Farewell for their inspiration, imagination and innovation, to all the talented external workshop providers and to every member of our staff who has made their own unique to the project. We are already planning our next Creative Perspectives project for 2026 – watch this space!

After wonderful speeches by Mrs Haydon, Mr Edes, David Buckland, Founder of Cape Farewell, and Octavia in Year 12, our guests took their seats in an ethereally sunset sun-drenched playground for the second part of the evening’s proceedings – our Pop & Jazz Concert. It was a vibrant, exuberant affair and a dazzling celebration of the power of music within our community. Huge congratulations to all our talented and dedicated performers and an enormous thank you to Miss Vickery, Mr Mercer and the Music Department.

An exceptional way to celebrate the end of an exceptional year at FHS – thank you so much to everybody involved!