Term three, half way through the year and much to report regarding the school’s performing arts activities! We are on target with our Performing Arts work experience having reached our 10% of cohorts in PA placements. Next year the target is 15% and Trident have promised to find half and the other half will come from our in-house programme which successfully ran this year as a pilot between ourselves, Connect 4 and Big State Theatre Company.
Incidentally this years’ candidates are entering the One Act Play Festival at The Arts Centre on the afternoon of Saturday February 24 th, tickets available from the Box Office tel: 01793 614837. Their play is a self penned comedy entitled, ‘Deadline’ which is rather good!
In my role as Community Arts Development Officer I am always on the look out for opportunities for our students. When we were approached by production company Twenty Twenty Television regarding their search for students to audition for a new CBBCs programme I spread the word via the schools bulletin and a number of students filled in application forms.
It was a kind of magic for Verity Dams, age 12, a keen drama student at The Commonweal School. Verity auditioned for a new CBBCs programme in which 14 lucky youngsters competed to become the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
The net was spread nationwide asking young people to share their magic skills. Verity got through the paper auditions and then the semi finals in Cardiff and a week end in January she went to Hockston Hall in London to compete against 50 other young people at the grand final. Sitting on tenterhooks to see if she has gone through to the last 14, Verity spoke of her experiences “I went down with my Mum and Dad and Mum kept fussing. I felt nervous but my adrenalin kept me going. Magic interests me, I love performing and making people happy. When we arrived there was lots of waiting and interviews, it was like an endurance test!”
Verity was filmed with Barney presenter from CBBC Smile’ doing a trick in which things came out of a magic scroll. Unfortunately she didn’t make it through to the final selection but the experience was interesting and has raised her confidence levels.
Trip to see Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra the evening of Thursday January 18 th 49 students from across the year groups went to see the BSO play at the Coulston Hall in Bristol. The concert included Copland – Fanfare for the Common Man, Joan Tower – Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman no 1 and Beethoven – Piano concerto no 5 (Emperor).
The trip linked to the GCSE area of study, ’orchestral landmarks’ and ‘music for special events.’ “The trip was hugely successful and our students behaved impeccably.” Commented Alison Sutcliffe, head of music.
Poetry Live! 2007 @ Osney Mead, Oxford. On Wednesday 24 th January 100 Yr 11 students and 7 staff went to the Poetry Live event in Oxford. This annual event brings poetry studied in Yr 11 to life. “We heard from six poets, John Agard, Gillian Clarke, Carol Ann Duffy, Imtiaz Dharker, Grace Nichols and Simon Armitage. As John Agard had previously said,’Poetry can sound different when someone else reads it.’ The students were lucky to get tips from the chief examiner on how to improve their work reinforcing what the teachers have been saying all along. As a souvenir of the day, everyone received a booklet that included some of the works and some information about the different poets of which the students are studying. An informative and enjoyable day out.” M Hall.
Dance trip to premier performance of Mission Reposition. 21 students from Yrs 7,8 & 10 went to see this inspiring performance at Swindon Dance on Friday 26 th January. The performances were based on themes of cultural heritage and reflections on being female, encompassing a diversity of music and dance styles ranging from contemporary to martial arts and Brazilian. The students were spell bound and undoubtedly have taken many ideas and thoughts which they can use in their classes and dance clubs back at school.
As part of our diversity and inclusion objectives I have joined the Top Hat, Dance, Arts & Disability Network, Swindon. This group has representatives from Reach Inclusive Arts, Swindon Dance and Upham Road Centre. I will report further on this as things develop.
Now That’s What I Call Commonweal Vol Two Following the success of our first album we are currently advertising for students, staff and parents to perform an original track for release in May. This will be recorded by our in-house technician Nick Weaver. Students have performed tracks from the first album in assemblies and already musicians previously unknown to us are crawling our of the floor boards. Which goes to show that real projects work.
Commonweal Music Competition This event put together by our new music department began with initial auditions in January. Over a 100 students took part in this fantastic competition which was broken down into three categories, an X -Factor style singing contest, Classical Brits and Battle of the Bands. During the week before end of term students battled it out in the semi finals which were played to a packed audience in the main hall during three lunchtimes.
The auditions so far have uncovered all sorts of hidden talents – particularly in year 7 with a number of extremely talented pianists making it through to the semi-finals. The singing competition had the highest number of entrants who were put through their paces in front of an ‘X-Factor’ style panel of judges made up of music teachers at the School. Many renditions of numbers from the popular new musical ‘High School Musical’ were heard alongside Shirley Bassey and Eva Cassidy.
The battle of the Bands has given a lot of the bands something to work towards and is proving to be a huge success. The prize up for grabs is a day in a local recording studio ‘Dumb Yank Productions’. The winners from each category will have the chance to record their piece and be given a fully produced CD to take away with them.
Along with the top three performances in each category there will also be performances from our guest celebrity judges- percussionists Owen Gunnell and Henry Baldwin. The two guests also delivered workshop with Commonweal students on the afternoon of the 15 th Feb to further their percussion development and awareness. “There is a lot of talented percussionist in Commonweal and the general standard of music is very high.” Said Owen Gunnell.
Winners were Corine Conway, Yr 8, in the Vocalist section. Tom Thorpe, Yr 11, in the Instrumentalists. Winning band, back row was The Alfonz who are Yr 11 comprised of Adam Wiltshire, Charlie Rowe and Sam Lee
Finding The Will Workshops. On Tuesday February 6 th Drama and English joined forces to work with this company to discover more about Macbeth. 90 Yr 7s took part. “Students responded well to the work which involved performing with actors.” Heather Birkbeck, head of drama.
Animal Farm show and workshop. On the evening of Tuesday 6 th February96 students from Yrs 10 & 11 went to the Arts Centre to see this one man show. These were students from Drama and English and enhanced their GCSE work. The following day Guy Masterson the actor who originally adapted the classic Orwellian novel came into school to deliver workshops. “He ran two workshops on the political background of the play and how to portray the physical presence of the central characters. A brilliant workshop from a brilliant mind.” Heather Birkbeck, head of drama.
“The students really valued the opportunity to discuss the physicality of the key characters and the current political satire evident in the previous night’s performance.”
Young Apprenticeships in Performing Arts In brief the bid for this exciting initiative has been submitted and we are committed to offering it within the Options Programme.
The Witches by Roald Dahl The drama department are working on this production which involves 25 actors from Yr 7 to Yr 10. It will be performed on the school’s main stage on the evening of Thurs 7 th, Fri 8 th and Sat 9 th June. On the Saturday there will be a matinee performance. On Wed 6 th June there will be an opportunity for our feeder and specialist schools to watch the dress rehearsal.
News from Nick Weaver – school sound and lighting technician
Rockschool With our Riffs concerts now a regular monthly event, I have been able to offer the opportunity to some of the younger bands to play in this community venue. They have embraced this chance and gave enthusiastic and confident performances.
We will also be bidding a fond farewell to ‘The Whitehouse’, which has seen many students through its doors to facilitate rehearsal space for school events and concerts. The new mobiles are now available to us, and we will be moving in after half term.
Primaries After recently lending some sound equipment to Robert Le King, it was suggested that we take some Commonweal students in to perform. This would include the P.I. group, some of whom are ex-pupils. This will be in conjunction with the music department who will incorporate this into the Yr10 students’ coursework.
Training I continue to train my lighting technicians and have had interest from others to learn lighting and sound. I have been able to offer the students experience in school events, where they operated the lights on their own and do a fantastic job.
Drama Outreach
St Lukes “ We are continuing to work on ‘Lord of The Flies’ and the workshops so far have been really positive. However, restrictions due to lack of time and snow have hampered progress. We are looking at ways to resolve these issues.” Debs Browning.
King William St
Ruth Beckett delivers drama to one class ( 30 pupils) of Yr 4 &5 once a fortnight.
Sep - Oct Games/warm up activities to encourage students to work together. Creating drama from a poem. Nov - using techniques such as ‘Role on the Wall’, ‘Still Images’, ‘Thought Tracking’, performing and evaluating. Dec – Christmas themed session creating images related to Christmas. Introduction to mime and mirror work which has lead on to looking at physical theatre in
Jan – Feb.
Drama Clubs
Monday Drama Club have devised their own scripts and are rehearsing alternative fairy stories which they hope to perform in our feeder schools. Average of 15 attend from Yrs 7 & 8
Thursday Drama Group are working on a movie trailer of Big Brother, it looks at the thoughts and views of Reality TV and will be shown on the Commonweal web site. Average 0f 12 attend from Yrs 7 & 8.
Dance Clubs
Tuesday Lunchtime
Dance Club Yr 7 with Miss Blake in the Dance Studio. Attendance 20
Wednesday Lunchtime
Dance Yr 7, 8 & 9 in the Dance Studio with Eloise Harding and Hannah Pearce. Attendance 15
Thursday Lunchtime
Dance for Performance Yr 9,10 & 11 in the Dance Studio with Miss Blake. Attendance 15
Friday Lunchtime
Rehearsal space for all students in the Dance Studio with Miss Blake. Attendance 10 – 20
Music Outreach by Helen Pysanczyn
1.Composition Andre is working with yr 6 students in King William St, Robert Le Kyng and Even Swindon and with some yr 8s in St Lukes.The aim this term is to write music for a story.
He has been working on composing techniques such as Rondo, canon & ternary forms, call and response, composing to a given stimulus (such as colour, character, emotion and environment.)
Tom Harris and the Black History Group will be visiting the schools to give the children some input on Caribbean stories and history. The aim is to use this experience as a stimulus for some compositions after Feb half-term.
2.Instrumental Lessons Laurie Parkinson is teaching brass at King William St. He has 8 students. Rhonda Towner has had to ask for another Co-operative teacher to help her teach woodwind at Robert le Kyng as 100% of the last cohort continued with paid tuition. Once this group goes up to Commonweal in September, she will be able to take up the tuition herself at Robert Le Kyng. She has 8 students and Laura Styles (the new teacher) has 6.
Ashley Pullen is teaching drums at St Lukes, and Even Swindon. He has about 15 students. Doug Mussard is teaching drums at Robert le Kyng and King William Street. He is using the time to introduce the children to percussion through a lunchtime drum club. Steve Curtis teaches guitar at St Lukes. He has approximately 4 students.
Evidence is that a large percentage of the students continue with lessons on the pay-as-you-go-scheme. This has had knock-on effect of more instrumentalists starting year 7 with some musical experience. The music department at Commonweal has suggested that those children receiving instrumental tuition at primary level have a better understanding of musical concepts in year 7.
3.Extra-Curricular Singing Debbie Lovell is taking a singing group at Even Swindon. Lethbridge School has requested not to have any music projects this year. However, Lethbridge hope to perform at the KS2 & KS3 Spring Chamber Concert in March.
Music Clubs
Clubs
Concert band Numbers are increasing with the addition of a year 7 saxophonist and year 8 clarinet player as well as a year 11 tenor horn player and trombonist. Students are very dedicated to rehearsals due to the forthcoming tour to Paris next year. Nearly all members have signed up to the trip and are very excited about it.
Choir The Commonweal Music Competition has uncovered a large number of very good singers and so has encouraged the choir to grow. Numbers are now over 30 some weeks and all seem to enjoy rehearsals. We are learning the national Red Nose Day Song ‘Make Someone Happy’ for out Spring concert as well as a Gospel-inspired track written by our very own Nick Weaver. We have had a very positive response to the Paris trip from members of the choir.
Junior band Numbers are at a steady 20 and students are attending regularly. Currently working towards the Spring chamber concert and sounding great!
String group Numbers range between 12 and 14 members and rehearsals take place on both Friday lunchtime and Monday after school to allow all to attend. We aim to perform at the spring chamber concert.
Flute choir Run by peripatetic flute teacher Jen Bamford on a Monday lunchtime. Numbers have increased and they will be taking part in the AS level recitals accompanying Natasha Kami.
Commonweal Jazz Club The aim is to offer a jazz club that differs from SYM or concert band in that there is little reading; more listening, playing by ear and improvising. HP has been taking a weekly rehearsal since September. There are 10 on register but attendance is patchy. As a result, a new strategy will be tried after 1/2 term:
12:40 - 1:00 - Advanced jazz club. For those students who have experience of playing by ear and improvising.
1:05 - 1:25 - Beginners jazz club. For those who have never tried improvising or playing by ear before.
Forthcoming Events.
One Act Play Festival.
Watch The Fox Theatre Co, Yr11,
Sat 24th February at The Arts Centre, Swindon.
AS Level Recital Our 9 year 11 AS students have now received the date for their recitals – 15 th March. We are therefore holding a mock recital on March 6 th open to friends and family.
Fair Trade play to the entire of Yr 8 on 14th March. This is a drama/Geography event and also is part of our commitment to Artsmark Gold.
Spring Chamber Concert
Evening of Tuesday March 27th in the school's main hall.
Move It Dance Show, London, Fri 16th March, aimed at GCSE Dance students and dance club participants.
Choir venture
The Wessex Concert Orchestra have asked for the Commonweal School to provide a choir to sing in their next concert at the Phoenix Theatre, New College on 31 st March. They will be performing the theme from the film ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and the choir will be singing the soprano line along with an adult choir.
Playmakers Easter Drama project for Gifted & Talented in association with Sixth Sense Theatre Company and The Wyvern Theatre. Mon 2nd - Sat 7th April (performance on the Sat).
Young Shakespeare Company workshops 17th April. Aimed at English and Drama students in Yr 9 to enhance studies. The Tempest
Swindon Festival Literature Youth Poetry Slam. Final at The Arts Centre Saturday 12th May commencing at 11 am. Workshop in Commonweal to Yr 8 on the morning of May 1st.
Drama exams for Yr 11 April 25th, 26th and 27th. Evening performance date TBC.
The Witches - Drama Production Eve - Thurs 7thJune.
Eve - Fri 8th June.
Eve & Matinee 9th Sat
PTA Summer Fair Saturday 7th July to incorporate Performances of music, drama and dance to include Yr 6
