The 5th Year Drama, Film and Theatre Studies class had a wonderful masterclass with Sound Designer and Composer Jody Trehy last week. Jody spoke to the class about his experience working in the music industry in Dublin, and his passion for musicals, and particularly how they are an under-appreciated artform, with great potential for subversion. He described the different roles of producer, director and composer, the process and challenges with getting projects funded, and the amount of dedication and years of work that's involved.
He spoke about his most recent project, a musical that he is adapting from a 1948 film 'The Boy With Green Hair' for Cruinnú na nÓg in June.
He described the film: 'THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR was first an old technicolor film made by RKO in America, (dir. Joseph Losey: 1948) and subsequently a play staged in the early 1950’s. It tells the magical tale of a young WW2 orphan, Peter, who ends up living with a distant relative called Gramp. One night, Peter’s hair mysteriously turns green. At first his hair is a cause of great amusement around the town until people become fearful that his peculiar condition will spread to their own children.'
Jody encouraged the class to think about this film as an allegory about war and intolerance, and a reflection of the hysteria of the 1950s 'red scare' (which the 6th years are currently analysing in Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible'). Jody took the opening scene from the original film and showed the class how he goes about scoring and writing lyrics, breaking down different elements in the scene. His process was incredibly illuminating for the class. Thanks to Jody for so generously giving his time to the class, we very much look forward to seeing his work staged in the summer.
Ms Talbot
The 1st years completed a zombie lab today where they used their scientific methods and thinking to identify patient zero from the zombie suspects. Using measuring skills, pH, observation skills and much more they successfully identified the source of the outbreak!
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The TY Horticulture class were out in the Autumn sunshine planting Spring bulbs using the chaos planting method. This is when a multitude of different spring bulbs (Hyacinths, Daffodils, Tulips, Crocuses, Narcissi) are mixed together and randomly planted so that we have a mixture of flowers and patterns emerging in the spring. It mimics nature and so is more enticing to pollinators and native insects that need the food in Spring.
Stratford is celebrating Maths Week 2026 (12th - 18th October) with daily activities around the school, at breaktimes and in Maths classes! The tutor-time daily quiz is proving to be extremely competitive as each form group tries to solve it and then run to find Ms Matthews in order to win the box of chocolates!
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