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Year 5 Blog 2018 – 19

Friday 19th July – it’s showtime!

The weather held this morning so we were able to walk through the performance outside. We had to tweak seating positions; get used to getting up onto the stage and back off again safely, and address the volume issues when speaking and singing outdoors.  Y1 and Y2 from Nelson Infant School were our first audience at 11am and then we performed to families, sponsors, our contributing families and Y6 in the afternoon.  It was AWESOME!  The kids were amazing.  Every word spoken and sung was clear so the stories were easy to follow.  Thanks to all involved in bringing this extraordinary project to fruition.

Thursday 18th July – rehearsals

The weather forced us inside for our first stage of rehearsals for our show.  Duncan marked our the layout on the whiteboard before talking us through how the show will work. We then walked it through to get ourselves familiar with the sequence before we topped and tailed each element to get used to the cues.  After lunch we did a complete run through.  The children did really well at remembering the order of things. The main thing we need to work on tomorrow is volume!

Tuesday 16th July – CYIA! rehearsals

Just a couple of photographs from this mornings hard work.  The children are continuing their programme of half hour singing rehearsals and half hour drama rehearsals.  In the drama workshops the children were refining their interludes and learning all about voice projection Vs shouting, and the importance of stillness Vs swinging arms and fidgety feet!

Tuesday 16th July: Lord Mayor’s Parade award ceremony

As second place winners in this year’s Lord Mayor’s parade we were invited to attend a special award ceremony hosted by the Sheriff at City Hall.  The ceremony took place in the Westwick Room where we took our place alongside the other winners. We received a certificate, rosette and a prize of £200!  After the ceremony we enjoyed refreshments and a quick conversation with the other winners.

Wednesday 10th July – CYIA! drama workshops

Duncan from The Common Lot returned to WJS today to start working with classes to develop dramatic responses to the migration stories.  These dramatic interludes will sit in between the songs in the show and will ensure that all 7 of the original stories are represented in the performance.  Children read back through the stories and discussed the elements that they wanted to communicate and how this might be done.  Drama workshops and song rehearsals continue tomorrow.

Busy weekend for our young artists

Lord Mayor’s Parade and Anglia Square – a love story.  Over 85 of our kids and their families were involved in two big arts events this weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, despite clouds and rain, 80 of our kids turned up on Newmarket Road ready to play their full part in the wonderful Lord Mayor’s Celebration Weekend parade.  Ocean-themed digital soundscapes were created live; an indefatigable samba band led from the front; dancers locked in well rehearsed formation, and ranks of puppeteers represented the beauty of our oceans and what could happen if we don’t look after them!  The awesome tower costume presided over our parade chapter to gasps of awe, wonder and a little trepidation from the crowded pavements.  Thanks to all involved for making it such a huge success. Coming second was the icing on the cake!

On Sunday evening, 7 children from Year 6 joined The Common Lot for their new show Anglia Square – A Love Story.  The children performed their original song Anglia Square Despair – written with Duncan and Charlie – to members of the public as part of the ‘walk about performance spots’ that made up the middle section of the show, before joining the cast for the moving finale at the heart of Anglia Square itself as the sun set.  We will be performing again on Thursday night.  Please join us – you won’t be disappointed.

Thanks to all children, staff and families who have supported our school’s contributions to this weekend’s celebrations.

Here is a selection of images. More will be added as they come in!

 

Getting ready for the parade – Saturday afternoon

Views from the parade

Anglia Square – A Love Story.  Sunday night

Lord Mayor’s Parade – last day of preparations

Costumes, props and puppets have been allocated, named and boxed up and ready to be loaded into the van.  The tower has been disassembled and the batteries are on charge.  Final rehearsal on the playground to synch up the digital soundscapes, samba, dance and processing puppets.  It was hot, heavy work but it looked amazing. Simply can’t wait for tomorrow.

For those of you joining us arrive on Newmarket Road from 3.15pm.  We are number 21 in the procession so look out for the numbers on the pavement or ask a steward.  Labelled water bottles, sun cream and hats, and don’t forget your tees and costumes.  See you there.

 

Sports Day 2019

Sports day was held last Friday with all children in the school taking part in a range of sporting activities. All children were amazing and thank you to all of the families that came along to support the children. It was a really wonderful morning of sport.

After the sports were over we held our annual purple picnic. With plenty of stalls selling cakes, scrunchies, pot plants and face painting – we raised £270 for Nelson’s Journey.

Thank you for all of your continued support!

Lord Mayor’s parade – final preparations

Maple class working on the coral netting to cover the sound system; dance rehearsals; samba and digital; Ray on tower technicals and deconstruction.  We have our first full dress parade rehearsal tomorrow. Thursday is a flex day for adjustments and Friday is final rehearsal and pack up ready for the big day.  Can’t wait!