School celebrates 100 years of its Christmas service

A school is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its take on a traditional carol service.

Loughborough High School is thought to be the only school in England that still performs the service, known as the Tableaux.

It involves Year 13 pupils recreating the Nativity story as depicted in old master paintings, set to choral music, hymns and readings.

This year's performance coincided with the 175th anniversary of the school.

Year 13 student, Georgia, featured in a part of the Tableaux known as the "grey scene", which involves pupils dressing head to toe in grey.

She said: "It's so fun, I love getting painted and I love my pose.

"I think it's quite special, it's very memorable as well, because you don't really see many people doing this kind of thing."

This year, an extra scene has been created to celebrate the centenary year.

Nicky Bouckley, director of music at Loughborough High School, said: "We've been really lucky this year, because it's our centenary year, we've actually got two completely new pieces of music that we've been working on.

"We actually commissioned a piece that goes alongside the new Tableaux, which is really exciting."

The new scene is based on the Wilton Diptych - which depicts Richard II kneeling before the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus - and features alumnae from the class of 1965 to the class of 2020, some of whom are current staff at the Loughborough Schools Foundation.

Each set used in the Tableaux has been hand-painted and some of the props date back to the 1950s.

Between each scene, a team of students work to move the sets with minimal noise.

Natalie Smith, art teacher and scene director, said a new motto had been created behind the scenes to mark the centenary year, which is "100 years of standing still".

"The kids just love it and they've been running with it," she added.

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