Last academic year the Creative Arts Faculty had the opportunity to pilot a year 9 Arts Award accreditation group. Throughout the academic year the students have had one lesson a week which focused upon developing their knowledge, understanding, enthusiasm and interest in the Arts. They have experienced live theatre in the west end, Nottingham and at school. They worked collectively with our fantastic year 8 orchestra to produce their own musical theatre performance of the west end show Matilda. The students all took responsibility for different aspects of the show; some played lead acting roles, some were chorus members, dancers, singers, lighting technicians, sound engineers, stage managers, back stage hands, costume designers, choreographers and directors. The students took real ownership of the performance and worked extremely hard to create and produce an hour long performance which was shared with local trust and feeder primaries, a selected year 7 audience and to their families, friends and staff. All three performances were successful and the students thoroughly enjoyed the experience of performing to a live and enthusiastic audience. The final performance to the public on Wednesday 14th June was a fantastic opportunity for the Arts Award students and the Year 8 Orchestra to share all of their hard work, dedication, skill and talent with their families and friends. One parent in the audience said, ‘It was like a full west end show! She really enjoyed herself and was just amazed at what the students had put together.’ ‘I thought the whole performance was absolutely brilliant, and knowing how difficult the music is to play it is even more impressive. When I heard the Rushey Mead orchestra for the first time last year I thought it couldn't get any more impressive, but seeing the orchestra playing, while the choir sang, and the students acted and danced, was absolutely incredible - a real credit to you all.’ Mrs Bland Assistant Principal: Teaching and Learning The students have been gathering evidence throughout the year for the Bronze and Silver Arts Award qualification which was externally moderated on Monday 10th July. Our Silver candidate and some of our Bronze had the fantastic opportunity to deliver a workshop at a local primary school. This gave them the opportunity to develop leadership skills and some real life professional skills.
We had some fantastic results for the arts award and the students should be very proud of the work they produced. Matilda will be the culmination of work by Rushey Mead's Arts Award class in year 9. For their award, students have had the opportunity to see the show at the west end, have a workshop with the Royal Shakespeare Company and even have a skype call with Dennis Kelly, the man behind the hit production.
Students have taken on roles such as actors, dancers, assistant directors, stage assistants and technicians, working in both class based workshops and after school rehearsals. Joining them on stage, is Rushey Mead Academy's Music Scholars, who form the Academy's first ever orchestra in the schools long history. Forming the backbone of the music for the production, the Scholars have been routinely practising in and out of school, attending after school Orchestra rehearsals and rehearsing in their weekly Music lesson. We would like to invite staff, students and their families to see the show on 14th June, 7pm-8pm. Tickets cost : £3.50 for Adults, £2.50 for under 16's, £10.00 for a family ticket (2 adults, 2 under 16's). All money raised through the sale of tickets and programmes will go towards paying for this show and supporting future extra-curricular performances for the direct benefit of students at Rushey Mead Academy. This year`s Spotlight show, organised by Year 11 BTEC Music students, was a tremendous success with more variety of acts than ever before. The massed guitar club players got the evening off with a bang looking super cool playing with the Rushey Blues Brothers band; with very special mention for Fatima and Suneet from the Orchestra who played with the Brass section on two numbers.
I was particularly proud to introduce Mr Parmar and his Year 7 Tabla group as this has been a personal ambition to bring more Indian music into the school. The boys have studied hard and showed great discipline going through 28 increasingly technical patterns. They were followed by Rushil from Year 11 who is a more advanced Tabla player and showed us his skills. Rushey Orchestra Scholars made appearances as the Flute group, The String ensemble and also with two superb solo violin pieces by Kurren and Anjali. The Year 10 bands made a great first appearance with three songs that got the audience going; as well as some great impromptu jokes by a very confident performer, Usman, when a guitar needed tuning! What a pro! Particularly pleasing however has been the wonderful progression by Jabriil Nur in all aspects of performance over the last two years he is a natural musician. The outstanding part of the night for me was Shivam Vadher`s wonderful atmospheric performance of Beethoven`s Moonlight Sonata….. Shivam is an outstanding example of what having a Growth Mind-set can help you achieve. He has learned this piece with very little prior experience on piano… a wonderful achievement. This has been with the help of our excellent piano teacher Andy Price who has also worked superbly with Jabriil. This particularly successful evening finished off with a couple of rousing songs by the year 11 bands who left the generous and appreciative audience to great applause. ‘It was a great experience, and I loved watching the other dance pieces by the other groups especially TXS who were of Britain’s Got Talent’ Priyanka year 11 New Creations79 was set up 4 years ago by Ellie Phillips at Studio 79 to give schools, colleges, Academies and youth groups in Leicester and Leicestershire the opportunity to celebrate and share dance work. It also allows young people to experience what it is like to perform in a professional venue.
The event took place on Sunday 5th February and was a huge success for all of the groups involved. The day was challenging and exhaustive and students were thoroughly tested on their abilities to rehearse and perform. Throughout the day, the students participated in a dance workshop, performed a technical rehearsal and a dress rehearsal before finally performing in the showcase performance. The Dancers performed two very different pieces which required various different qualities and skills. The Indian dance piece demonstrated excellent energy, emphasis, projection, unison, strength, stamina and precision. The Contemporary Waltz required the students to show, elegance, extension, focus, good posture, alignment and musicality. All of the students involved exhibited great commitment and dedication, attending extra after school rehearsals and even organised additional practices out of their own volitions. They were exceptional ambassadors for Rushey Mead Academy and for Dance and an absolute credit to themselves and their families. |
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