Dear friends,

Welcome to my controversial view on George Osborne’s house. Fortunately, on Tuesday the 25^th of January, our Shakespeare performers were chosen for an exclusive trip to number 11. Luckily, there was no traffic on the road so we rapidly blazed down the motorway. We participated in games such as ‘would you rather...’ and 21 dares during the tedious drive. We were extremely privileged as only five schools out of 1000 could go.  Simon, me, Cartia and Michael (a.k.a -  Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Miss Maria and Malvolio) were chosen. St James (from east London) was also picked and they were particularly nice school. Taking in the majestic views we saw: the London Eye, Big Ben and statues of huge political figures.

When we got to the ominous, black gate there were terrifying looking men clutching their massive rifles between bulky arms, frowning down at us like we were insignificant ants. From their expression, it seemed as if they would shoot us with the bone shattering bullets without a shred of consideration. When we got in the gates there was a scanner that briskly checked that we had no suspicious weapons hidden inside our bags. Finally we were at the big, black door and, seizing the opportunity, Mrs Flynn insisted we took a selfie. Here is one we took- though it looks more like a normal photo or mug shot.

Shortly after, we entered into the ample house of George Osborne; though it looked more like social gathering location. It had no personalised features and we could not take our phones. Only the distorted, picturesque drawings of cartoon counsellors made it feel quite homely. We were then escorted upstairs to a room nearly as big as the hall with a tiny stage. There we had to simultaneously participate in practices to be fully prepared for the performance. That took about a few hours (other schools practiced too).  As we were cooped up in tiny room where no one spoke at all, it was as silent as a deserted, barren land. Well… until we were taken downstairs to eat in the conference room where we met George Osborne! To be honest I was expecting him to be much, much, much older than he appeared to be. He was extremely nice and I suspected that he had just come from a meeting. Although he did not hold the event he knew about it as Francis Osborne (also known as the counsellor’s wife, held the festival). Meanwhile guests were arriving into the house like a swarm of bees into a hive. Upstairs, while we were having crisps and sandwiches, there were served some quite affluent seeming foods. Finally…it was time. We had arrived with the other primary and secondary students and were briskly informed to stay close to our wings. As the Francis Osborne and a Shakespeare School festival holder introduced the show, tension and trepidation was brewing. But fortunately, everything went well, as none of us seemed to actually care about the eyes staring inventively at us. The performances were amazing, in their own way, as some were supposed to be scary and somewhere had the intent to hilarious. After that we had to back to Luton. So that is it, the end. Hope you enjoyed this blog.

Seth - Year 6