Lights, Camera, Action at HCS!

HCS was transported back in time last weekend, after the school and its stunning grounds were chosen as location for two BBC educational films about the lives of Florence Nightingale and Elizabeth Fry.

A small group of HCS Prep School pupils were chosen as extras for the films, and for two days, parts of the school were awash with lights, cameras and crew. Visitors to the school may have been surprised to see orphan Victorian children running inthe grounds, Florence and her sister Parthenope being taught by
their father in the Principal’s Drawing room, and nurses with suitcases on the gravel drive, leaving for the Crimea!

Prep School pupil Jenny, aged 10 was chosen to play the part of Florence’s sister Parthenope. “I had a great day. The best part of it was when I had to mess up Florence’s pencils!” she said.

Lambent Productions are making the programmes for BBC Education, which will tell the stories of Mary Anning, Harriet Tubman, George Stevenson, Elizabeth Fry, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Florence Nightingale. The six ten-minute films, for children aged between 5-7 years old, will aim to bring science,
history and geography to life through their personal stories. The films will use physical theatre to inform the action, accompanied by narration, music and a touch of magical realism.