What a privilege it has been to work alongside Year 2 over the past month. Because they are going as a cohort to see the ballet ‘The Little Mermaid’, Mr Spink and Miss Savage thought this would be an ideal ‘hook’ for their arts fortnights. Therefore through dance, drama, storytelling, writing and art, we explored and captured a little of the magic of Hans Christian Anderson’s beautiful yet in places tragic story.

Sprats and herring provided the fish for our observational drawings which we created using charcoal, graphite, pencil, felt tip and watercolour. Similarly the wonderful shell drawings used these materials as we hatched, dotted, dashed, cross hatched and circled.

Miss Allison worked her magic as she choreographed another memorable dance. Parents and interested adults were the willing audience so that Year 2 could perform and spread the happiness and enjoyment of their routine.

Here are just some of the lovely comments:

“I loved seeing the children enjoying the dance. Watching them work together was a joy.” Grace D’s dad

“Lovely dancing, smiley faces and everyone looking happy!” Jemima’s Grandma

“The kids worked really hard on the dance; so happy and so impressed with everyone’s effort and behaviour.”

Fine motor skills were the order of the day as we created the willow fish. Weaving of tissue paper, wool and beads ensured that all had their own unique look. Meanwhile, quite a scary looking piece of artwork of a mermaid holding a swordfish inspired their own watercolour and charcoal mermaids!

Through drama and storytelling we immersed Year 2 in the story. Their narrative writes were wonderful.

Mehuli’s mum beautifully shared the purpose of the fortnight in her appreciative comment. It captures the why and heart of what we do:

“The whole performance was really splendid. I really liked the fact that so much creativity is being evolved in each pupil. I am really pleased to see my daughter grow up in the truest sense.”

Year 2 loved sharing their learning with parents and interested adults. Thank you for coming!

Well what a fortnight. Year 5LM certainly entered into the drama of Act 3, scene 4 in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Drama-with an encouragement to exaggerate movements, experiment with levels and to use physical contact- certainly helped in portraying the thoughts, feelings and emotions of the characters involved.  Miss Allison was also able to draw on your ability to do this in the dance, so that as a class you performed an amazing, if somewhat eerie banquet.  Well done for nailing those timings, working collaboratively and bringing the confusion and madness of Macbeth himself to the audience.

These comments will hopefully encourage you as you take part in the School’s Shakespeare Festival at Leeds Carriageworks Theatre on November 3^rd.

“The dance was very clever and it’s wonderful to see their confidence. I can’t wait for the 3^rd November!”

“The dance told a story and everyone looked like they enjoyed the performance.”

“Dance was amazing-I don’t quite know how you manage to pull it all together.”

Personally, I was very impressed with your Modroc banquet bowls! Although messy, requiring perseverance (the tissue paper and glue wrapping paper in particular) as well as the fine motor skills in covering a spherical shape you all succeeded! In addition, you all worked so hard on your feather drawings. Well done for some wonderful observational drawings, exploration of drawing materials and use of watercolour.

Your writes included a description of the painting ‘Banquo’s Ghost’, Lady Macbeth’s rant at her husband’s behaviour and the ravens account of proceedings at the banquet. Well done for all your hard work and using the learning environment to support learning-especially in spelling.

Thank you parents and interested adults for sharing and celebrating Year 5LM’s learning. We are so pleased that these afternoons give you an opportunity to spend time with your child discussing their successes and challenges as well as giving you an insight into the process.

Some of the lovely comments shared about what was really liked:

“Teachers are willing to take time and explain…the art work is out of this world…the communication with family so that they see how well their child is progressing.”

“Hearing my son speak so passionately about an area of work I never thought he’d be interested in.”

“The interaction…the cafe to sample/purchase…the opportunity to see the resources available…the children’s enthusiasm and progress…fantastic workshop.”

Our learning this fortnight in the studio, hall and school grounds encouraged:

• dramatic battle scenes
• percussion accompaniments to Act 1 Scene 3 and a confidence to perform
• an opportunity through dance and movement to capture the emotion and intensity of Macbeth the warrior as well as the influence of the witches on his life-thank you Miss Allison for your wonderful choreography yet again!
• the accurate weighing of ingredients for shortbread
• the discovery of and use of new vocabulary found in the narrative stories of Macbeth
• creativity in the making of witch Modroc masks and an exploration of mark making
• observational drawings of objects for spells burnt in a fire pit

Year 5RA, your enthusiasm, team work and hard work over the past two weeks was certainly celebrated with your parents and other interested adults on Friday. You overcame various challenges in your learning from that of confidence and embarrassment in performing, wrestling with new vocabulary to enhance your writing, knowing the number of grams in a kilogram as well as exploring and using new art materials to create. You should be very proud!

Thank you to Y5RA parents who took the time out of their busy day to join in this celebration of learning. Hopefully, the opportunity to see, experience and chat through your child’s work was beneficial and enjoyable for you too.

Here are just some of the lovely comments from the afternoon:

“The children were really confident and enthusiastic. It’s amazing how they remember their lines and routine.”

“The art work was amazing! I really liked the dance and the way the children worked together. Well done!”

“The dance was fantastic. I really enjoyed seeing what the children have been doing and learning. The biscuits were tasty too.”

“The incorporation of learning retention with performance is great (artistic performance).Great for active children as well as those with literacy skills.”