A HARPENDEN school justified its specialist status in arts and media when it put on Gilbert and Sullivan s The Pirates of Penzance last week. The performance by students at Sir John Lawes School wowed parents, fellow pupils and members of the local commun

A HARPENDEN school justified its specialist status in arts and media when it put on Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance last week.

The performance by students at Sir John Lawes School wowed parents, fellow pupils and members of the local community who came to watch.

Although the comic opera made its official debut at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York in December 1879, the response to the production proved that the old classics are still the most popular.