Trestle Theatre Company

Posted: 12th October 2018

Making Masks.

The Trestle Theatre Company visited St Augustine’s Priory on Monday 1st October to run workshops to enhance the girls’ experience and practice of Drama.  Here Mrs Brown, Head of Drama, describes the day:

‘Professional practitioners from the Trestle Theatre Company, based in St Albans, came into school on Monday 1st October to teach some pupils from Lower IV to Upper VI how to create characters using Trestle’s signature half masks.

  

Pupils were introduced to the stock characters and their mantras, such as The Trickster with his catch-phrase “Bit of this, bit of that”, which captured the essence of the ‘Dell boy’ archetype. It was fascinating to see how quickly our talented girls transformed into these curious personas.

  

It was so satisfying to see the girls being be bold in their physicalities; empowered by the masks’ attitude. It was clear to see that this mask performance style would be very useful in their Drama studies. I know it has already been worked into a concept of Anouilh’s ‘Antigone’ at A Level, as a rehearsal tool to help an actor playing a guard to find his inner ‘cheeky chappy’.

Pupils commented that it was great fun and really fascinating to learn a new drama form. This workshop was just one part of the Drama Department’s mission to enable pupils to enjoy Drama to the full.’
  

Categories: Senior Sixth Form Whole School
Strengthening Our Community: The Return of Boys to our Preps and Pre-Preps

We are excited to share that, from September 2026, boys will begin moving up from our Nursery into Reception, marking the gradual reintroduction of boys into our Prep and Pre-Prep School.

This step reflects growing interest from families who value our strong holistic ethos and unique grounds and setting and would like their sons and daughters to share their educational journey together.

At St Augustine’s, our strong sense of community, academic excellence, and deep care for each individual child remain at the heart of everything we do. This is a natural evolution of our school rather than a change to who we are, building on our strengths and allowing us to offer the same joyful, inspiring education to even more children.