Performing Arts Report Term Three February 2008
Written by Josie Williams Community Arts Development Officer
Ability Follows Enthusiasm
The highlight of this term is undoubtedly our Ofsted report in which the school was given a grade 2 (good) for overall effectiveness. It is satisfying when an outside body confirms that we are doing things right at Commonweal! I have pulled out relevant sections relating to Performing Arts, but if you haven’t seen the full report it can be accessed via our school web site www.commonweal.co.uk and follow the link for ‘Parent Info.’
“The Commonweal School is a good school where students very much enjoy learning. They make good progress both academically and in their personal development. As a consequence, students attend regularly and behave extremely well.”
“The impact of the school’s performing arts status is evident in excellent provision for all students, not just in the specific areas of performing arts but right across the curriculum and through involvement with the local community.”
“They (students) show their concern for others through their many fund raising events for charities. Students are involved extensively with the local community; for example, through staging performing arts events in the locality and acting as ambassadors to their primary
feeder schools.”
“An outstanding range of well-attended clubs, performances, visits and other extra-curricular activities enriches students' development and students speak highly of this aspect of their school. The school stages a 'Clubs Roadshow' where the range of opportunities is showcased, which sparks the interest of many students and contributes to the high participation rates. The school's specialist performing arts status has had an outstanding impact on the curriculum and has enabled students with learning disabilities and/or difficulties to be better involved in the school.”
“Leadership of the specialist performing arts area is excellent and specialist status targets have been met or are well on the way to being met, especially in the school’s community work.”
News from the Music Department
Music competition. Over 100 students have been involved in the 3 categories - Factor X, Classical Brits and Battle of the bands. Round one began in early January and it has been even harder than last year to get to the list of semi-finalists! The final 8 in each category will be performing at lunchtime on the 11th, 12th and 13th February in the hall to a student audience and panel of judges made up of teaching staff at Commonweal. The final 4 of each category then perform on the evening of the 14th February in the Grand Final! This year the final falls on Valentine's evening which has led to a 'love' theme for the competitors! The winners in each category will enjoy a day in a recording studio and a copy of their winning track on CD as well as
a trophy.
The judges are Bill Mead, Heather Harris, Sue Derrick Maz Wakefield and Steve Pugh. Also on the judging panel is Nick Beere from Mooncalf Studios in Chiseldon who are supporting the competition by offering the recording studio prize at a reduce rate. Thank you Nick for your help and support.
Swindon Young Musician Of The Year. This year's was entered by Henry Wakelam (Year 8) and Matt Harris (Year 11) Both competitors performed well and Matt was awarded the title of Swindon's Young Musician of the Year in the senior category ! Congratulations Matt!
Spring Chamber Concert. You can see more of these two young musicians and many more talented Commonweal's music makers at this year's concert on the evening of Tuesday March 18th.... further details to follow. Swindon Big Band, one of our community partners, will also be performing.
Disneyland Concert . February term break sees the music department jetting of to France for a concert tour in Paris, including a performance at Disneyland! Photos and stories will follow in the next issue of Commonweal Matters.......
Little Shop Of Horrors. Auditions for the long awaited whole school musical have now happened and a cast list including actors, singers and dancers has been decided upon. Rehearsals for the show begin after half term with shows on the 9th, 10th and 11th of July. Details of how to purchase tickets will be issued nearer the time.
Club News.
Concert Band has been going from strength to strength this year in preparation for the trip to Paris. They have learnt new music with rapid speed and are performing at a very high standard! Forthcoming events consist of three concerts whilst on tour in Paris, including one on the Festival Stage in Disneyland itself! After half-term we will begin rehearsals for the annual Spring Chamber Concert taking place in the School Hall on Tuesday 18th March. Members of the concert band are also being invited to attend a concert at the Cadogan Hall in Sloane Square, London given by the band of the Life Guards who visited Commonweal School last term for a workshop.
Junior choir is going strong with around 30 members rehearsing every Monday lunchtime. Junior band numbers are continually swelling with at least 20 reliable players. Groovy strings, repertoire is now being learnt for the Spring Chamber Concert by all groups.
Senior choir numbers have increased this year with the addition of some new Year 11 members. As well as rehearsing for the trip to Paris at half-term the choir have been learning 'American Pie' ready for the Spring concert.
Jazz band has been put on hold this term due to the departure of Helen Pysanczyn who ran the club last year. Pressures on her time mean that she can no longer continue coaching the group. Many of our Year 10 students are hoping to resurrect the club in term four as part of their Bronze Arts Award and we look forward to hearing more from them in the future.
Outreach Ali Sutcliffe is continuing to visit Robert Le Kyng Primary School on a fortnightly basis to assist with the delivery of the music curriculum. Term one and two tied in with a Shakespeare scheme of work that the students are studying. Ali enhanced these lessons with her skills and also taught them to dance the Pavane. This term's unit is ‘The Sea’ and is based around music creating particular moods and pictures. The students at Robert Le Kyng are really enjoying the lessons and this helps with their transfer from Key stage 2 to 3 in September. Nick Weaver has been commissioned to write another song for the primary school students - this time for the spring chamber concert. The theme for the song will be recycling and we can't wait to hear it! The song will appear on our school CD , ‘Now That’s What I Call Commonweal – Vol 3.’ In term two Year 6 also learnt Nick’s song, ‘School Rocks’ which was performed at the Evening of Entertainment.
On 11th January we arranged for Rhythm Works to deliver drum workshops and a performance to all the pupils in King William St.
8th December families of KS2 and a few from KS3 took part in our Family Drumming workshop led by our community partner Music Alive. 27 people took part.
Outreach Music Tuition Helen Pysanczyn has scaled down her outreach work for Commonweal as this is now delivered in- house. Helen’s role now at Commonweal is to monitor quality of teaching delivered by Perri staff at our feeder schools. Many thanks to Helen for her help over the previous years. Janice Bennell from the Music Cooperative will take over administration of Commonweal’s free music tuition.
King William Street SchoolDrum tuition with Doug Mussard who takes eight students weekly. These students are on the Commonweal free trial programme. All students who have previously been on the free trial are continuing on a paid for basis.
Lethbridge Brass ensemble with Bill Ferrier. 8 students ( five Year 6 and three Year 4), who have had lessons via Swindon Music Cooperative, take part in a 30 min session at lunchtime. Of the Year 6 pupils there are 4 trumpeters and 1 trombonist. All of the ensemble will come to Commonweal in September.
Robert Le Kyng Woodwind lessons, with Rhonda. 8 pupils were on the Commonweal free trial, 6 have carried on with paid for lessons. Most of the students who have had a free trial have continued on a paid for basis. Instrument hire is now arranged through Relative Harmony in Wootton Bassett. Drum tuition, 8 to 10 pupils per week, one of which has continued on a paid lesson basis. We have a small problem at Robert Le Kyng. Dougie currently runs the drum club there on behalf of the Commonweal projects. However, the school can only accommodate him on a Monday lunchtime. Due to other teaching commitments, he is no longer able to make this time and the school is not able to accommodate him at any other time. The Music Cooperative are looking to find a replacement teacher.
St Luke’s Guitar tuition has been upped to 2 hours per week since September, this has been in response to demand. 7 students are on the list, 3 of which attend regularly. Composition work with Andre Pysanczyn, two hours a week. Free trial drum sessions delivered by Ash with 9 students.
Even Swindon Free trial drum sessions delivered by Ash with 8 pupils.
The objective is to introduce instrumental tuition over and above what is already at the schools rather than offering them free tuition as opposed to paid. The extra curricular project has not continued as the schools decided they didn’t want it.
The composition project has not continued since September as
the schools now have input from Ali Sutcliffe, Head of Music
at Commonweal.
News From the Dance Department
Five Boy 5 22 boys from Year 7, 8 and 9 took part in a 2 hour workshop with male dance artists Banxy and Jim Brown. The workshop fused contemporary, street and hip hop dance styles, enabling the boys to learn routines and create their own work. From this workshop 5 boys have been chosen by Swindon Dance to take part in a three day dance course in half term. They will work with 20 other boys from across Swindon, and be taught by Irven Lewis, one of the UK’s leading street dancers! Two year 11 students, Chris Thomas and Catherine Johnson, have been invited to take part in the half term course as teaching assistants.
Little Shop of Horrors Over 50 students from Year 7-11 auditioned for a dance role in Little Shop Of Horrors, the quality of performances at the audition was fantastic, and all student who auditioned have got a dancing role. Rehearsal will be starting soon!
Dance clubs Chris Thomas, Yr 11, leads KS3 boy dance club on a Monday lunchtime, an average of15 students take part. Yr 8 & Yr 9 dance happens on a Tuesday lunchtime with an average of 17 participants. Yr 8 dance with Hannah Pearce, Yr 11, takes place on a Wednesday lunchtime with an average of 15 students. Yr 7 dance on a Thursday has an average of 18. Friday is a space for GCSE coursework and rehearsals, which attracts an average of 20 students.
Besides this there are 4 Yr 10 girls Sam Burton, Ella Gibbs, Tara Scott-Browne, Jade Warburton who have choreographed a dance piece for Yr 8 to perform at the opening of the music competition on Thursday 14 th February. The girls meet lunchtimes and after school.
Dance Leaders Year 10 students have been teaching dance to students from Lethbridge and King William Street primary schools. 20 Yr 10 and Yr 11 students are taking part in the Sports UK Dance Leaders Course during their Core PE lessons. The course requires students to lead simple dance activities with younger children. These event also mean children from our primary feeder school’s enjoy our fantastic dance facilities.
Move It On 7 th March. 40 dancers from across the school will go on a trip to the UK’s biggest dance exhibition held at Olympia in London. The students will see a wide range of dance styles delivered on stage by top professionals. They will be able to browse the dance stalls to see the latest dance kit and college course available. There will also be the opportunity to take part in dance workshops and watch a variety of spectacular dance performances.
Dance Outreach Since September Louise Blake, our dance specialist, has been working with King William St School. Term one tied in with the feeder school’s scheme of work on Ancient Greece, with the aim of raising standards in dance and history. Term two was a scheme of work to enhance Earth and Forces and term three
King William are learning about electricity, forces and circuits
through dance.
Even Swindon Term one and two tied into a scheme of work relating to cartoons and term three and four focus on the Tudors.
Robert Le Kyng Term one and two Louise has been working on Street and Jazz dance and performance skills. Terms three and four sees a continuation of this with the provision on an after school club, with a focus on links to their topic work.
Families from our feeder schools took part in our Family Dance Workshop on 20 th January in which 42 people took part. This was coordinated by Josie Williams, Community Arts Development Officer and Emma Carter, Extended Schools Coordinator. It was supported by Family Learning - Learning and Engagement Team Community Directorate and endorsed by Artsmad.
News From Drama
1st Feb The Young Shakespeare Company came into school to perform extracts of The Tempest to enhance Yr 9 SATS in English. Prior to the show, the English department, worked on a cross curricular scheme of work written by Deirdre Fitzpatrick which uses drama techniques.
7 th Feb SK8 Angel play 153 students from years 8, 10 and 11 watched Sixth Senses latest production which is about a young man who loses his mother to cancer and how he comes to terms with the loss through skateboarding.
Outreach with Mrs Beckett
“When I started drama outreach at RLK in Sept 2007 the students had little experience of drama. They had done some work on still images with their teachers after their teachers had observed me teaching drama to previous groups at their school. A few students take part in drama out side of school so have an understanding of some drama techniques and are more confident performing than others.
I am teaching them similar skills to a new year 7 group who have not had experience of drama, focusing on their social/ group skills as well as introducing them to basic drama techniques which they will use throughout drama at Commonweal (still image, mime, role on the wall, hot seating, soundscape, playing a character, performing to an audience, and providing feedback)
Assessment : all students are working at or beyond a level 1 (Arts Council levels) Students will be completing an evaluation form (in the next 2 weeks) on the Hamlet scheme so that I can monitor the learning and if my objectives were met,” Mrs Beckett.
Term one, an introduction to drama and drama games. Introduced the Hamlet scheme of work which continued into term two. Term three focused on a scheme of work entitled, ‘ The Sea’, using poetry as a basis for drama.
Outreach with Miss Birkbeck During term one and part of term two Heather has worked at Even Swindon around a Yr 6 set book, ‘The Giants Necklace.’
She is available on a Tuesday once a fortnight to work with Simon McNulty, Head of Performing Arts, at St Lukes. “I have asked Heather to consult with us on ways to enhance our use of Drama activities and teaching techniques across the curriculum. These include games playing, role-play, discussion, listening, making presentations, group work and improvisation. They have a wide range of applications in all curriculum areas, in particular for exploring issues and ideas, for developing empathy, co-operation, and deductive and analytical skills, as well imagination, confidence and self-esteem,” he said.
We also financed St Luke’s Winter Festival. All partner schools took part in the Drama Focus Week in October which we commissioned 6 th Sense Theatre For Young People to deliver. On 17th January we arranged for Jake the Juggler, from Juggling and Circus Skills Club, who are one of our community partners, to deliver workshops with Yr 5 & Yr 6 from Lethbridge School. On 15th February Jake the Juggler delivered to KS2 at King William St .
Clubs
Year 9 Drama Club which took place with Mrs Beckett on a Monday after school has been cancelled due to lack of attendance. Sue Derrick to suggest plans to encourage up take.
Year 7 & 8 Drama Club In term one and two this was run by Debs Browning and the student were working on ‘Bad Girls,’ by Jacqueline Wilson. Term three onwards the club, which happens on a Wednesday lunchtime, is being run by Claire Parsloe and they will be looking at performance pieces and opportunities.
New from Nick Weaver Arts Technician
Commonweal School Radio . “Another project now coming very near fruition is the Commonweal School Radio (CSR) station, which has been a challenge to construct and set up. With a lot of help from our IT support staff, and Josie we launch in March. Training is now underway with those students that expressed an interest, and they are being tutored by local professional presente, ( and school patron) Shirley Ludford. Shirley wants to tie in with Commonweal and other local schools to provide programmes for the new Community Radio which will itself launch in early March.
With the departure of The Alfonz and Steaming Nina soon to follow, I have been working with Yr 7 and Yr 8 pupils to create some new bands for our Rockschool so watch this space for developments!
I had an interesting time at St. Lukes, for their winter festival and provided sound and lighting equipment. The students are challenging, but responded well to the programme of art and animation and we had a successful showing to parents and friends.
We want to release the third ‘Now that’s what I call Commonweal’ CD, so I have been encouraging singers, bands and musicians to get composing and will be gathering finished tracks in the next month.
It’s that time of year again and I have been busy editing dance pieces for exams and will shortly dive into the Yr 11 drama exams which
will call for all manner of sound fx music, and lighting plans. Its always a frantic time in the school calendar and a lot of hard work for the students but ultimately an exciting and rewarding experience
for everyone.
I have also become involved with the restoration of the Humpty Dump area situated behind the music blocks, and am working with Mike Walker to use this valuable school asset for the benefit of students and staff.
Our monthly Riffs evenings have continued and the first of the year saw very energetic performances from Steaming Nina and the P.I. band and a welcome return of former student Dominic French who just seems to get better each time I hear his song writing,” Nick
Forthcoming events
27th February Hands On Lighting workshop for all Yr 10 GCSE drama students period 1, 2 and 3.
28th February One For Me, Fairtrade play to all of Yr 8, Two performance one am one pm
7th March Move It, Dance exhibition Olympia, London, open to
whole school.
17th March Launch of CSR Commonweal School Radio in the hall lunchtime, live broadcast
18th March Spring Chamber Concert, KS2, KS3, KS4 staged at Commonweal School
29th March Family Juggling Workshop 2 – 5pm in the gym
7th, 8th, 9th, 10th 11th April Salto Dance Residency, term
break residence
11th April – Strictly Ballroom term break residency. TBC
23rd April – Joseph trip to London, open to whole school. The lead is Lee Mead, winner of BBC Any Dream Will Do
28th April all week. Work experience Yr 10 Big State Theatre at
The Wyvern
30th April – Swindon Festival Literature poetry slam wordshop in the hall period 1, 2 & 3
1st May 5 Boy Five dance sharing event all day and in the evening in the main hall.
10th May Final of the SFL Youth Poetry Slam at The Arts Centre, Swindon
22nd May Phantom of the Opera show in London, open to all years
14th June Family Mural Workshop 2 – 5pm
7th July all week school production of Little Shop of Horrors
The next Steering Group meeting is in the school library on
9th June 5.30pm
