Ratton’s 2025 Performing Arts Winter Showcase
This article was written by one of our Young Reporters, a scheme that gives 14 to 18-year-old school students a chance to write for a real newspaper. Find out more at the Young Reporter website.
The Ratton School Academy Trust, known for its excellence in the arts, hosted its annual winter showcase in early December 2025.
“There’s never a dull moment in Performing Arts at Ratton”
- Mrs.Potten, Curriculum Leader for Drama
The students were given the opportunity to display an array of talents, from acting out ancient Greek plays to dancing to K-pop hits.
Family and friends alike were invited to view a glimpse of the performing arts at Ratton.
The students worked immensely hard, staying straight after school till the late evening, most performing in multiple events.
The evening opened with Minor Details, the school’s audition-only acapella choir, singing festive carols like “Silent Night”.
Following them, the Year 10 dancers performed to “A Linha Curva”, a piece they study at GCSE.
The school’s orchestra, Ratton Players, comprised of percussion, strings, woodwind and bass, performed songs ranging from “Walking in the air” to “Scotland the brave”.
Year 10 Drama students performed a duologue of “Antigone”, an ancient Greek play that the students study as their introduction to scripted work at GCSE.
Langney Primary school were invited to perform a couple of songs, and the entire hall joined in with their phone lights at their performance of “Yellow”.
The school’s Jazz band came next, with saxophonist, singer and drummer stealing the show with “Santa Baby” and “Night Train”.
Year 11 dancers followed suit and set fire to the stage with their invigorating performance of “Burn”.
A group of year 10 girls performed “Spaghetti” by the K-pop group “Le Sserafim”, truly showing off their talent and passion for dance.
Ratton School offers a performing arts scholarship for students excelling in Dance, Drama and Music.
They have additional lessons in the arts and are working on “Bugsy Malone,” in which they performed some songs and scenes.
The school is famous for the magnificent annual musicals that they perform at the Hippodrome, last year even earning a national award for their “Night At The Musicals”.
“Over 100 hours of rehearsals, production meetings and set building/costume making go into every Ratton show.”
- Mrs.Potten
This year's production, being the school edition of “The Adams Family", is truly marvellous with the immensely talented dancers, ensemble and cast members.
They gave the audience a taste of their work so far by performing the opening number “When You’re an Adams”, earning tremendous applause all around.
Rinceoiri Ratton, an advanced Irish Dancing group that has performed in a variety of venues throughout Eastbourne, performed “Breakout”.
To end the showcase, the Minor details returned with a soulful performance of “I’ll be home for Christmas”.
