Welcome to the termly update from Performing Arts. It has been an incredibly busy term for both our students and Performing Arts staff! Year 7 have been finding their feet with the new changes to their timetable and working within the specialist areas. It has been exciting to see the students use the specialist studios to develop and learn new performance skills. This term in Drama, Year 7 students have been studying ‘Physical Theatre’. It has allowed us to challenge them as creative performers, encouraging them to think differently when creating ideas ready for their end of term performance.
There have been many stand out performances this term and we have been impressed with the professionalism Year 7 has displayed whilst using the space. In Music lessons, Year 7 have been developing their music reading skills and have been experimenting using the keyboards and boomwhackers! In Dance, we have seen various sequences put together with a focus on speed and contrast.
Year 8 Drama lessons have been inspired by Laurel and Hardy, studying the key features of slapstick comedy and ‘Melodrama’ and needless to say, there were many impressive performances across the year! Students were challenged with the idea of creating a silent movie in their groups, featuring the stock characters of the Villain, Hero and Victim. Students had to explore exaggerated performance skills in order to successfully communicate meaning to their audience and wow did they do a great job!
In Music lessons, Year 8 have continued to explore walking the bassline and learning about the historical context of Blues music. There have been some fantastic performances from our students.
Year 9 kicked off this term in true Pantomime fashion...”Oh yes they did!” exploring various extracts from ‘Cinderella’, ‘Aladdin’, ‘Snow White’ and ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. It’s the time of the year where the Performing Arts team look forward to their annual Christmas night out to watch the students in their CHYPS Pantomime. Sadly, like many events this year, this is yet another event that did not take place due to COVID restrictions, but those who are involved in CHYPS have experienced some Pantomime in drama lessons. We are hopeful that live theatre will return to our stages once more and we will look forward to this event in January 2022.
Year 11 GCSE Drama students have had an incredibly busy term preparing for their Devising Unit Examination as well as preparing for their Mock Examinations. This last week, Year 11 have completed their internal devised examination, and we are incredibly proud of how hard they have worked in preparation for their exam during these incredibly challenging circumstances. Well done, Year 11.
To celebrate the end of term we would like to congratulate a number of students on their ongoing commitment to the Arts. A huge congratulations to both Poppy Preston 10HNR and Jake Morris 9 on achieving the ‘Outstanding Performer’ award for last half term. Both Poppy and Jake were commended with a special awards badge for their contribution to the Arts programmes and for demonstrating excellence in lessons.
Other superb performers we have nominated this term for excellence within the classroom, commitment to their subject and for being an all round performer goes to Kate Whitehead. Miss Benson, described Kate as a fantastic performer who demonstrates excellent leadership skills. Others nominated across the Performing Arts includes Lucy Walton and Sam Thompson who are both in 7BAT.
These students will receive a special award badge. Congratulations on all you have achieved this half term.
In addition to all the wonderful things going on in lessons, The Performing Arts team launched the Performing Arts Logo competition as a whole school Xtra challenge. Congratulations to all those who entered the competition, we had some incredible designs and Sophie Dickens from Marketing 438 said it was difficult to choose a winner, but the winner of the competition met the brief and reflected the Arts in the current climate. We are proud to announce that the winner of the Logo competition goes to Struan Bird in 7BHH.
Struan will have his design and logo featured on all of the Performing Arts future digital programmes, posters and school promotional material for Performing Arts events, as well as the profile image for Social Media platforms. The Performing Arts team have fully embraced their partnership with Marketing 438 and have enjoyed seeing the winning logo design go from page, to stage! Struan will also have the opportunity for a zoom call with the Creative Marketing team, where he can receive the feedback and they will talk him through the digital concept and process. Well done, Struan.
Our final Celebration to share with you, is our wonderful digital Christmas Concert that is due to be premiered this evening. There is a collection of Soloists, Duets, small group ensembles, readings, story telling, and a special addition of Mr Norris’ Christmas Poem; a huge thank you to those who are involved in the performance bringing Christmas spirit to us all, during these very challenging times.
Not only has the work of the students been celebrated by you, the parents and carers, but by our local elderly homes in and around the local area. Many of our elderly residents from local care homes usually enjoy the annual visit to the Coffee and Carols event to have a sing-along and a mince pie. As we were sadly unable to accommodate the event this year, we are delighted to be able to send our Digital concert link to the care homes this evening, in the knowledge that the residents have a little touch of the Wilmslow High School Christmas magic.
Thank you to Rachel Guyett, the ‘Partners Coordinator’, for supporting us with our hamper quest. Rachel, the team, and those who have donated, have played an integral role in supporting and boosting the wellbeing of our most vulnerable people in our community. A huge thank you to the families that donated to the hamper appeal, there have been many worthy appeals taking place in school and we are humbled by the volume of donations. You can see just how generous our community have been in the images below.
A special thanks to our local supermarkets Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, who help to support our appeal by donating products. Our Christmas elves have been busy making up the hampers, including a whopping total of 500 mince pies, bottles of brandy & sherry, chocolates, biscuits, nuts and nibbles. All of which will be delivered to the local residents in the care homes in and around Wilmslow. Thank you so much to those at home who helped us to support the programme, these donations and gestures will be gratefully received by the elderly in our community.
It is not too late to watch the Christmas Digital Concert, you can subscribe to the Performing Arts Channel on You-tube where the concert will be accessible by following the link:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtnZUv0wGvztLDvZ8ofT6Hg
From all of us in the Performing Arts team at Wilmslow High School, we wish you and your families Merry Christmas and happiness for 2021.