Pupils from a Putney prep school got the opportunity to perform plays at a Latin festival.

Falcons School for Girls were invited to ‘Ludi Scaenici’, a Latin play competition hosted by Westminster Under School, to showcase their Latin skills.

A duo of year five groups put on a performances of ‘Fasciculi’ and ‘Probitas’, both written by Andrew Downey who created the festival.

The pupils’, who have only been learning Latin for 30 minutes a week since September, performed a five-minute play entirely in Latin at the festival on Thursday, May 24.

Students from the independent school were given an award for their production of ‘Fasciculi’. The judges John Taylor, formerly head of Classics at Tonbridge School and author of several Greek and Latin textbooks and Holly Edwards, teacher of Classics, highly commended the performance, commenting on the ensemble acting, props, costumes and the body-percussion rainstorm that opened the piece. John Taylor described it as having a ‘huge impact’ on the audience.

The Putney-based school is the first primary school to have been invited to the festival where they performed alongside pupils from a selection of London secondary schools including City of London School for Girls, Queen’s College and Westminster.

Diana Hillier, head of drama and history at Falcons School for Girls said: “We were delighted to be the first school of primary age to be invited to perform at the festival. The girls were competing against children five years their senior, but they held their own and were excellent ambassadors for the school."