Ricards Lodge & specialist arts status

Over the last month I've been at Ricards Lodge School in Wimbledon for three seperate events, the most recent being the award of specialist school status for the arts. To celebrate this award, they had a celebration event at the school last Tuesday which included a performance of Shakespeare, Charleston dancing and an egyptian dance performance with recycled dresses to the Bangles hit 'Walk Like an Egyptian'. The event was a brilliant perfomance, and my congratulations goes to the head Alison Gerrard and all her staff on achieving this status, they also managed to raise £50,000 in sponsorship which is no-mean achievement. The students are also a credit to their school, and I thought their performances were outstanding, indeed it would put many of the X factor constestants' to shame!