Roding Valley Community Arts Programme

The first post of 2010

2010-02-03T12:31:00.007Z

Time for an update I think!!!

It's been a busy old time since I last wrote with lots of new projects up and running! My weeks are now well and truly packed with lots of exciting things going on!!!

In the last couple of weeks I have started working with a group of young people at "Grace Academy" who are an alternative education project that run out of Valley Hall on Valley Hill. I am going to be working with the group of 8 young people on a Tuesday morning to mentor them through the Bronze Level Arts Award. Our joint goal is to create a magazine with each of the young people taking on different roles in the production. They are documenting their work on blogger so you can follow what they are up to at the following addresses:

http://babyrangeproject.blogspot.com/

http://profileonbobmarley.blogspot.com/

http://cheriebphotography.blogspot.com/

http://bobinreallife.blogspot.com/

http://xbagsx.blogspot.com/

http://courtneysbags.blogspot.com/

I am really excited to see how this project progresses!

On Wedensdays we are running a project called iD (ignite Dance) from 6.30-8pm up at St Mary's Church. Working in partnership with ignite we are providing affordable dance classes for a group of young people aged 11-16. If last weeks class is anything to go by I think it is safe to say it is going to be lively but I don't doubt that we will have something amazing to showcase at the end of term so watch this space!

Thursdays continue to be Loughton Youth Theatre (LYT) day and it is getting increasingly busy! We are now running a 6-8 years group (LYT Kids) in partnership with Loughton Methodist Church from 4-5.30pm and continue to run out 9-12s and 13-16s groups in the evening from 7-9pm. With 73 young people aged 6-16 on the registers, Thursdays are always action-packed! This term LYT Kids are working on The Jungle Book and will be putting on a short showcase of their work for parents on the last day of term. The 9-16s are working on performance pieces based on the Stop the Traffik campaign (http://www.stopthetraffik.org/). We are still in the early devising stages but are very excited about what our performance day (20th March) has in store!!!

I was so busy thinking about this term that I almost forgot to tell you about last term! The 9-16s worked on a joint project to create an outdoor installation piece for the switch on of the Loughton Christmas lights. We are committed at LYT to pushing the boundaries and trying "different" approaches. This was certainly something different! Each of the 8 groups devised a piece which had certain boundaires attached to it - the only sound had to be pre-recorded (they weren't allowed to speak live on the night), it had to end with hanging a lampshade on a light bulb hanging from the tree and it couldn't be more than 3 minutes long. Check out the pictures!

Fridays also keep me on my toes! With Chigwell Disability Group in the morning and iG in the evenings I'm always ready for the weekend by the time I get home on a Friday night!

We are launching a new initiative this week at CDG called "Young Leaders" that involved a number of year 9 students from RVHS who have volunteered to come and help at the group on a rota basis. Each young person will come to the group once per half term to assist the service users in their art projects. We are very excited about getting this project up and running and it's with a huge thank you to Lauren Weaver (our placement student from Cambridge CYM) that we have been able to turn this dream into a reality!

iG (ignite Guitar) was piloted before Christmas as a project allowing young people the chance to take part in affordable group guitar lessons. Run in partnership with ignite, we have been able to purchase a number of guitars and are looking forward to the proper re-launch of the project this term in the new timeslot of 6.30-7.30pm on a Friday evening.

What's more, we have our usual Festival of Fairytales planned for February half term for 4-8 year olds, running this year at Loughton Methodist Church where we benefit from the cafe facilities for parents. This came from feedback we gathered from last years participants who were concerned about the amount of to-ing and fro-ing and time-filling on the High Road they had while their children were in our sessions - and worse, in between sessions for those with children in 2 separate age groups! We really do take all your feedback on board and where we have the resources and ability to do so, we will always try to put your suggestions into practice!

Other highlights to look out for are "Oliver with a Twist" in the Easter holidays - a play in a week project for school years 1-9 and our big summer musical project "Godspell" not to mention our One World Festival coming up in June!

You can now also follow us on facebook. Search "Jen Smith Communityarts" and request to be a friend for invitations to all of our upcoming projects coming out when they are launched, it is the best way to keep in the loop!

"I feel it coming together!"

2009-08-03T11:59:00.004+01:00

I can hardly believe we are on the third week of the holidays already! The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of song, dance and leg-warmers as LYT ran an intensive summer school to stage a production of Fame the Musical. M.D. Gordon teaches Bring on Tomorrow

Choreographer Oli believes he really is Carmen

Working from 10 until 4 each day, 21 young people took on the challenge to learn the full length musical in just 10 days before performing to a packed audience of over 100. Much fun was had by young people and staff alike and we are already in talks about which show to pick for next years summer project... watch this space!!!

African Arts Festival

2009-06-18T12:41:00.002+01:00

This week has been very busy!!! We have been running an African Arts Festival in recognition of World Refugee Day. Alderton, Staples Road, St John's and Oak View School have all been taking part in workshops in dance, storytelling and/or drumming with professional African Performers. The festival will culminate with a community event THIS SATURDAY 20TH JUNE... here's what will be going on, why not pop along and join in!!!

12.30: Short Drumming workshop

1.00: Performances of drumming and from E15 Acting students

1.30: Short Dance workshop

2.00: Performances from workshop and from E15 Acting students

2.30: Short DramaWorkshop

3.00: Performances from Drama Workshop and from E15 students

3.30: Storytelling

Plus we will have information stands from Traidcraft, Compassion child sponsorship, Samaritans Purse and Invisible Children. There will be screenings of media from these organisations, arts and crafts activities and an exhibition of photos and art work from Roding Valley High School's One World Project and all the week's activities.

Drop in for a relaxed cafe-style atmosphere and discover a little more about African Culture!

A rather overdue update!

2009-05-13T13:28:00.009+01:00

Once again I find myself apologising for having left it so long since my last update!!!

Let me fill you in quickly on all that has been going on!

Over the past couple of months we’ve been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to put a solid structure behind our community work which has led us into creating 3 strands for our projects:

* Dedicated Youth Provision
* Community-Based Learning
* Cross-Generational Programmes

Most of what we have been working on up until now has fallen into the dedicated youth provision category and we are now looking to branch out into the other two areas. Some exciting projects that are on the horizon include opportunities for parents to experience what GCSE classes in the arts are like, a project bringing teenagers together with the older generation to take part in a reminiscence project that will also teach the older participants basic technology skills (texting, emailing, downloading music and maybe even facebook!) and also the launch of our new Let’s Get Cooking programme!

So what’s been going on this past term?

We’ve continued our work with local junior schools, in the last half term I’ve been in Staples Road Junior School delivering the Victorians Drama Project which I ran last term at St John’s. The classes went really well as we learned about being a child in the Victorian era through creating the characters of a poor boy and a wealthy girl.

Loughton Youth Theatre has enjoyed its first term with two groups. I have continued to lead the younger group who started off working on a crazy story about a rat with no ears and a man in a purple hoody with pink spots, but from there we have landed in the middle of exploring what the connotations are of wearing a hoody and how people treat each other differently depending on what they are wearing. We have carried this into our devising project this term as we work on our piece called "Hood You Think I am?"

The older group worked with our drama tutor Oliver Miceli to devise a piece that they performed on April 8th as part of the Loughton Festival. It was a fantastic evening with great support from a packed audience. The young performers led the audience through a range of emotions to a poignant ending and then took questions from the audience and answered in character.

Chigwell Disability Group has become a creative haven on a Friday morning with painting, papier mache-ing, cross-stitching, scrunching and sticking and just about any imaginable art/crafty based activity. Our long-term placement student, Lauren Weaver, has been getting the normally reluctant participants dressed up in binbags and painting masterpieces while I have been working with Alison to create her epic animation “Killer Queen”. We are currently looking towards a whole group project to create a patchwork banner that shows the interests and skills of all the group members and we hope to hold an exhibition of all their work in the near future.

We piloted something a little different at Ignite this term, instead of our one-off monthly feature nights we have been running a 5 week short course in mc skills led by Youth For Christ’s resident MC, Mike Hojenski. We have been working with a group of between 4 and 8 to create lyrics and beats to make a finished recording. The group were fantastic and really poured their hearts into their lyrics and worked tirelessly on their beats even in the midst of technical difficulties or in Owen’s case, when I deleted the whole of his piece… I’m sorry Owen!

Then of course there was our Festival of Fairytales during February Half Term when 66 young people between the ages of 4 and 13 came along and took part in workshops based around the tales of Hans Christian Andersen. From Brave Tin Soldiers to Ugly Ducklings, Emperor’s New Clothes to Princesses and Peas, the young people threw themselves head-first into all of the activities and much fun was had by all!

Hot on the heels of the Festival of fairytales was our Easter Holiday programme to tie in with the Loughton Festival, again the drama studio became a hub of creative activity as we explored George and the Dragon, workshopped around the theme of Easter, street-danced and improvised! An action-packed week!

Also as part of the Loughton festival, a number of our students took part in a drama festival with students from Debden Park High School, both schools brought an array of monologues, duologues and an ensemble piece each which were judged by members of the Loughton Festival Committee and Felicity Hall, Arts Development Officer for Epping Forest Arts. Every performance brought something new and unique to the table and I most certainly did not envy the judges their task! Debden took home the trophies for monologue and duologue and Roding Valley won the ensemble piece... quite an achievement when we had blocked, learned and rehearsed our scene all with one day!!!

Today saw the last in the series of a short project I have been delivering to Year 5 at Alderton Junior School. I was asked to come in and assist teachers with making up some dance routines for the Summer Concert. The classes worked really hard to learn the steps, make up some of their own and then fit it all into an odd shaped performance area! Check out Class 5MC's rehearsal!

LYT Term 1 is a resounding success

2008-12-17T15:58:00.002Z

Well it's been possibly the fastest 10 weeks EVER! I can't believe that the first term of LYT is over already! It's been a great start for this new project and it's amazing to see how well the group has gelled together!

Having performed our devised piece at the switching on of the Christmas lights we spent the last two weeks of term having some festive fun and workshopping around a Christmas theme. Lots of laughs could be heard billowing out of the hall as we saw some interesting interpretations of Santa and his reindeer, considered a Christmas without presents and improvised exchanging imaginary gifts.

LYT opens it's doors again on January 22nd when we will be opererating 2 groups; age 9-12 and age 13-16. If you are interested in joining LYT you can contact Jen Smith on 07702852605 or by email at communityartscoordinator@googlemail.com

LYT members comments about Term 1:

I would recommend LYT to my friends because I always have a good time on a Thursday night!
BEST CLUB EVER!
I expected an extremely high standard of fun each week and it was!

Loughton Christmas Lights

2008-12-01T13:05:00.004Z

Friday was a big day for Loughton Youth Theatre as they took to the stage for their first ever public performance of a piece that they had devised in just 4 weeks around the theme of light. Over 200 people turned out for the performances from LYT and Staples Road Choir which were followed but the Mayor's official switching on of the lights and Mulled Wine and Mince Pies provided by Sainsbury's. There was a fantastic atmosphere of the community really pulling together.

Despite some issues with volume, LYT did a grand job and I think we are all excited to get stuck into our next project!

Chigwell Disability Group came along to support the event with torch lanterns that they had been making over the past few weeks.

Stuff and Nonsense!

2008-11-18T15:08:00.005Z

I've been working on a new project with years 5 and 6 at St John's C of E School in Buckhurst Hill. Each class is taking part in 5 hours worth of workshops based around scenes from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

Each of the classes are working on different sections of the story and are creating some colourful interpretations of well-loved characters such as the White Rabbit, the crazy Cook and Alice herself.

That Friday Feeling...

2008-11-10T11:39:00.005Z

Friday night saw the second monthly Feature Night at Ignite with opportunities for young people in school years 7-11 to take part in free workshops in drama and tea-light holder painting. Over 40 young people took part in at least one of the activities and the feedback was extremely positive.

The young people were asked to leave comments about sessions on cards that could be posted into "the comment box". My personal favourite was "Jen is da best"... I wonder why?!

"Light" by LYT

2008-11-10T11:31:00.003Z

It's all go at LYT for the next few weeks as we prepare for our first EVER public performance at the switching on of Loughton's Christmas Lights on November 28th.
The group started work on Thursday night to devise a short piece based around the theme of "light". Some of the ideas that came out of the session are really promising and I'm pretty sure we're going to end up with a really great piece that will incorporate ensemble work, movement, singing and some pretty interesting characters! Watch this space for more details about time and location of the performance and for more information about the other events happening to mark the switching on of the lights!

Halloween at Half Term

2008-11-03T15:08:00.006Z

"Skeletons dance by, clickety-clack. Their snapping teeth go snickety-snack."

It was a busy half term at Roding Valley last week with more than 50 young people between ages 4 and 12 taking part in Arts Workshops based around a Halloween theme. With 5 different workshops available for 3 different age categories, the school was bustling and the creative juices were well and truly flowing!

Halloween Workshops for 4-12s

2008-10-14T11:46:00.003+01:00

Roding Valley Community Arts will be running a programme of arts activities for 4-12 year olds over October half term based around the theme of Halloween:

Monday 27th October: Drama

Tuesday 28th October: Dance

Wednesday 29th October: Art

Thursday 30th October: Music

Friday 31st October: Storytelling

All sessions will run in the drama studio at Roding Valley High School at the following times:

4-5s: 10am-11am

6-8s: 11.15am-12.15pm

9-12s: 1.15pm-3.15pm

These relaxed workshops will encourage the young people to use their imagination and creativity, and develop self-confidence and social skills in a fun and friendly environment.

For more information contact Jen Smith on 07702852605 or at communityartscoordinator@googlemail.com

First Feature Night a Resounding Success

2008-10-08T12:23:00.008+01:00

The Ignite centre is open every Friday night from 7-9pm for young people in school years 7-11. The Friday drop-in has been running for 4 weeks with regular nights providing lots of things to do from games consoles to pool, table football to karaoke.

However, once a month, Ignite on a Friday Night will be holding a Feature Night in association with Roding Valley Community Arts, Voluntary Action Epping Forest and Royal Society of Arts. The first of these Feature Nights took place last Friday with opportunities for the young people to take part in DJ-mixing and Hip Hop workshops with professional artists. With 72 young people turning up for Ignite and 55 taking part in at least one workshop it was a busy night!

The feedback from the young people and volunteers a like was on the whole extremely positive and we are already planning next months Feature Night which will take place on 7th November, watch this space for more details!

Great start for the new LYT

2008-10-08T12:12:00.003+01:00

Loughton Youth Theatre opened its doors for the first time last Thursday night with a full register and names already down on a waiting list.

The group of over 20 young people between the ages of 11 and 16 spent their first session at LYT getting to know each other and considering what "theatre" means to them. The responses were wide and varied, paving the way for some really interesting work to be formed over the next 7 weeks before our first public performance at the switching on of Loughton's Christmas lights.

This week the group will be focusing on physicality and how we can use it to create characters as well as getting our teeth into making our own scenes.

If you would like to placed on the waiting list for next term you can contact me on 07702852605 or by email at communityartscoordinator@googlemail.com

Launch Night

2008-09-26T14:38:00.006+01:00

Are you aged 11-16?

Are you at a loss for what to do on a Friday night?

Why not come along to the launch night of Ignite's monthly feature nights at the Ignite Centre, St Mary's Church, Loughton High Road?

Date: October 3rd

Time: 7-9pm

Featuring: Hip Hop artist and DJ giving short workshops

and a chance to bust some moves on the dance floor

For more information contact Jen Smith at communityartscoordinator@googlemail.com

These feature nights are being funded by Voluntary Action Epping Forest in association with Royal Society of Arts, and Roding Valley High School

A Step Back in Time

2008-09-25T13:57:00.006+01:00

I spent most of yesterday at St John's C of E School working with the year 3 and 4s on their topic of the Victorians using drama.

We spent the first part of the workshop working on basic drama skills about movement and voice and expression before taking some time to have a think about what it was like to be a child living in Victorian times. We particularly looked at what it was like to be a poor child and the differences between their lives and ours today.

We discussed how the children didn't have an education and had to work in factories, mines or as chimney sweeps compared to how children today go to school and get to do lots of fun things like drama and tennis as well as getting to learn how to read and write and do maths.

We then used all of these things that were discussed to make a Victorian factory machine out of our bodies and voices and we talked about how dangerous it would have been for the children to have worked with them.

To finish off we made some frozen pictures of children today and children in Victorian times.

It was a great start to this project which will run right up until half term.

Introducing... Loughton Youth Theatre!

2008-09-11T14:30:00.011+01:00

It is with great pleasure that I can announce the launch of Loughton Youth Theatre!

RVHS Community Arts Programme are working in conjunction with St Mary's Church, Loughton and Epping Forest Arts to deliver this exciting new opportunity for young people aged 11-16.

Beacon (bee-kuh n) noun A person or thing that illuminates or inspires

LYT seeks to be a beacon for the young people it serves and for the greater community of Epping Forest by providing opportunities for 11-16 year olds to question, explore and ultimately shine through the performing arts.

We will spend the first term exploring an exciting mix of workshops to get the creative juices flowing before devising a short public performance to mark the switching on of Loughton's Christmas lights.

This unique and innovative new opportunity offers great value for money at just £25 for a 10-week term.

When and where is it all happening?

Thursday Evenings
7-9pm
St Mary's Church New Halls

Beginning October 2nd (no session during half term)

In light of the overwhelming interest in the Summer Programme, places are expected to fill quickly, so get in quick before you miss the chance! For more information and to book please get in touch by email at communityartscoordinator@googlemail.com or by telephone on 07702852605

Bit of an epic entry...

2008-08-19T16:47:00.005+01:00

With our summer programme out of the way I think it is about time that I filled you in on all that's been going on for the Community Arts Programme over the past few months and the exciting things that we have lined up for the next academic year!

So I think I mentioned somewhere in a blog entry a few months back that I was working up at Alderton Junior with the Year 6s on Shakespeare's "Macbeth"... The project went fantastically well and I thoroughly enjoyed getting my teeth stuck into some of the Bard's great work (more on that to follow with the Shakespeare Schools' Festival!). The book that the young people were working from told the story in a very basic format without the tricky Shakespearean language. I soon mixed things up a little bit and introduced some more complex language and parts of the plot. We focused in particular on Macbeth's motivation and the role of Lady Macbeth in the events of the play. Everyone really threw themselves into the work with real gusto and we saw some fabulous results week after week from some quite abstract pieces of physical theatre that depicted Macbeths motivation and his inner turmoil to a game show trial of Macbeth versus Lady Macbeth. I've been asked to run this project again at Alderton next year so I'm already looking forward to that!

The Art Deco project with Staples Road continued to run successfully until the end of term with the Year 6's completed phone boxes to be displayed at RVHS for their start in September.

St John's World War 2 project also ran successfully until the end of term and after a meeting with Mrs Marbe we have some exciting plans for next year's provision.

As the numbers of students in Red Class dwindled as they each settled into their new classes for next year we enjoyed some more general arts workshops and took advantage of the opportunity for some one to one working. I am looking forward to editting together the video footage from this programme (once I get some guidance from Mr Perera on the software!).

Our short summer arts programme ran from 4th-7th August in the Drama Studio here at RVHS and was a resounding success. With classes full everyday and a waiting list in place for any cancellations, I am very excited for the future expansion of our programme! The programme consisted of the following sessions:

Monday 4th: Play-in-a-day - devising physical theatre versions of 2 of Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes
Tuesday 5th: Street Dance - creating a short dance piece with a running narrative
Wednesday 6th: Musical Theatre - working around "We're All in This Together" from High School Musical
Thursday 7th: Arts and Crafts - creating shadow puppets and mock stained glass

The programme was open to anyone aged 8-13 from any school with a large part of our overall aim being to bring together young people who are due to start in Year 7 here in September. The transition from Junior School to High School is never easy but we hoped that our summer programme would help young people to feel comfortable in the building, get to know some other students who will be in their year and also to meet some RVHS students (and see that just because they are older they really aren't that scary!). Judging by the feedback it seems we have achieved what we had hoped with the young people who attended.

And as for the future... I am continuing to work with Chigwell Disability Group on a Friday morning, working to the Arts Award syllabus. I am also currently in the early stages of setting up a project in collaboration with Connexions to provide the Arts Award programme for a group of young people who are NEET.

Starting in October RVHS and Voluntary Action Epping Forest in conjunction with the Royal Society of Arts will be providing Arts Feature Nights monthly at "Ignite" (St Mary's Church's Friday night drop in). Also in collaboration with St Mary's along with Epping Forest Arts, RVHS Community Arts are looking to set up a Youth Theatre... more info on this to follow.

And as if that wasn't enough we will be continuing our work with local schools as well as developing a programme of adult evening classes and some more exciting projects which I will let you know about once they are more definite!

Lastly, we are looking to create a logo and some branding for the Community Arts Programme... all help and suggestions on this will be most appreciated so please do get in touch at communityartscoordinator@googlemail.com

Jen

Inside Out Family Fun Day

2008-07-28T10:27:00.002+01:00

I was contacted by Vineyard Church a couple of months ago about a project they run in the summer on Oakwood Hill Estate called "Inside Out" when they "take the church out of the building" and provide help with DIY and gardening to those living on the estate who would like it. The week rounds off with a Family Fun Day held out on the recreation ground on the Saturday. It was the Fun Day that I was asked if I would be interested in collaborating on. So RVHS Community Arts helped out in a couple of ways. Firstly we provided a Street Dance Practitioner (Ian Black) to run drop-in lessons on how to bust some funky street dance moves and secondly I worked alongside Dave Ross from Vineyard as well as a host of young volunteers from St Mary's Church to run the "Cre8" tent where people could have temporary tattoos, paint a tile, mug or tea-light holder, try their hand at spray painting using stencils and even leave their mark on a specially-made graffiti wall.

Arriving at the recreation ground at 10.30am there was already a hub of activity with lots of people mucking in to put up tents and stalls, inflate giant human-football and bouncy castles and also erect the main stage and sound-check with the bands. By 1pm we were ready to go and soon the place was buzzing with lots of people. We had a steady and constant stream of people coming through the cre8 tent and it was fab to see so many people finding ways to express themselves creatively. I noticed a huge amount of young people decorated their tiles and mugs specifically for someone that they loved: parents/grandparents/friends... and lots of the patterns/pictures included sunshine, rainbows and flowers... it's nice to have a positive story about young people to tell when the papers are always so full of negativity.

So all in all I think lots of fun was had by everyone who came down to the rec. ground on Saturday and I look forward to more collaborative work with the guys at Vineyard in the future!

About time for an update...

2008-07-22T09:01:00.008+01:00

It seems to just be a monthly affair updating on here at the moment... I must get back into posting regularly!

So, what have I been up to lately and where are we at with the Community Arts Programme?

I have now completed the Macbeth project at Alderton and the Art Deco project at Staples Road both of which seem to have been a success... I will know just how much of a success when I get the evaluation forms back over the next couple of days.

I've also been working with Chigwell Disability Group on a Friday morning. I've spent quite alot of time here working with Alison on creating characters for an animated film that she is hoping to make about celebrities that she can't stand... here she is with Vernon Kay:

We also had a group of Year 10s performing at a Variety Performance celebrating the opening of St Mary's church on the High Road. Despite some technical hitches the group performed excellently and with a high degree of professionalism... especially Sam whose backing track caused the break to brought on early while the technical team sorted out the problems. He started the second half with a bang though playing the extremely difficult "Canon Rock".

Ever seen a phone box like this?

2008-06-30T12:23:00.008+01:00

Well I am two weeks in to a new art project at Staples Road Junior School and so far it's going really well. The school had asked for some help with drawing and sketching and had requested that the project also tie in with their upper school topic "Britain in the 1930s".

My Parry, Head of Art here at RVHS, and I got our heads together to come up with a project that would take in all of the elements that the teachers wanted to cover. We discussed Art Deco, stained glass windows, icons of the 30s and eventually came up with this... Red telephone boxes (designed in 1936) with Art Deco style stained glass windows! Check out the phone boxes from Class 6...

Each pupil was given a small section of a picture of an Art Deco window and we worked on scaling these up onto A5 card. We used a technique of mapping out the shapes and the pupils all did really well at recreating their pictures on a larger scale. We then looked at some really interesting paintings by Damien Hirst that used real butterfly wings and looked as if they were stained glass windows (http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/beverly-hills-2007-02-damien-hirst). We discussed the painting and the use of shapes before picking our own favourite shapes and patterns from the Art Deco style to fit into our A5 window pieces.

Both the classes I have worked with so far seemed to really enjoy the workshop and lots of hands went straight up in the air when I asked if there was anyone at the beginning of the session who thought they wouldn't be able to do it but had changed their mind now that they had seen their finished piece... and that was what the session was all about, gaining confidence and new skills.

So, lets hope the next 3 sessions go just as well!

Busy busy!

2008-06-25T09:59:00.006+01:00

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted on here! Things have been so busy that I've just not had a chance to sit down to write the blog...

My weeks are now very full:

Tuesday pm: Oak View School

Wednesday pm: St John's C of E School

Thursday pm: Staples Road Junior School

Friday am: Chigwell Disability Group

Friday pm: Alderton Junior School

We have lots of exciting projects running with these schools over this last half term of the school year which you will hear and see more about over the coming weeks. I will be working with Chigwell Disability Group right through the summer and again I'll keep you posted on that.

Last Saturday saw a group of 8 girls from years 7 and 8 here at RVHS take on a new challenge at the Tottenham Carnival. The girls took part in a workshop with Belly dancer and choreographer Anne White before taking to the stage (twice!) to perform what they had learnt. I think students and staff alike had a fantastic day... with over 100 photos to prove it (Miss Harvey got a little snap happy!)... here are just a few:

9.30am: Setting off for Bruce Castle Park

12.30pm: Workshop with Anne White

1.45pm and 3.oopm: Performance on stage
5.30pm: Couldn't stay awake waiting for the train!

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down!

2008-05-23T10:16:00.004+01:00

Yesterday was my last day at St John's C of E School delivering drama sessions as part of their "Arts Week".

I spent the morning working with Reception 1 doing lots of games and drama about "The 3 Little Pigs". The group were very enthusiastic and worked really hard. I was particularly impressed by their "active listening".

After playing lots of different games the class took it in turns around the circle to tell me the story of the 3 little pigs before having the chance to get up on stage and act it out.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the time I have spent at St John's this week and I'm looking forward to starting a new project with them on Wednesday afternoons after half term when I will be working with year 5/6 on World War II.

Who Ate the Gingerbread Man?

2008-05-21T15:58:00.004+01:00

What a productive day I had at St John's today! In three hours a group of 13 Year 5 students managed to pull together their own version of a fairytale whodunit called "Who Ate the Gingerbread Man".

The students worked tirelessly in sweltering heat (we were in the conservatory with the sun beating through the roof and windows!) to put together a play that lasted between 10 and 15 minutes. At afternoon assembly the cast of 13 presented their work to the whole school who lapped it up and laughed in all the right places.

Every single member of the group did a fantastic job and they created some really fantastic interpretations of well known fairytale characters as well as a few new creations of their own!

In the end it turned out to be the Ugly Sisters who had committed the crime while the other suspects - Little Red Ridinghood, The Wolf, The Beast and Pinnochio - names were cleared.

It's been a crazy, busy and tiring day but I think everyone involved in Play in a Day today will agree it was worth every second!

Where the Wild Things Are

2008-05-20T23:47:00.005+01:00

Over the past few weeks my sessions with Red Class at Oak View School have been based on "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak. The pupils have been doing fantastically well and we have been seeing some great characters coming out in these sessions.

The class teacher has started to compile pictures from these sessions into a book so that the class will have their own version of the book with themselves as all the characters and illustrations. It looks really fantastic and I can't wait to see more of the pictures!

After half term we are also going to have a look at another book called "Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees. We are going to see if we can join these two stories together to make a new story.
As always I will keep you posted!

St. John's Arts Week

2008-05-20T23:33:00.005+01:00

This week I'm being kept on my toes delivering lots of drama workshops at St John's School in Buckhurst Hill as part of their Arts Week programme.

All the children are spending the week taking part in lots of different arts activities and what's even better is that they don't need to do any of their normal lessons!

So far I have worked with a Year 6 group on Improvisation and Devising and also with 2 Year 2 classes on Jack and the Beanstalk. We also had a group of Year 10 students, along with Mr Thorn, perform two of their GCSE devised fairytales at a whole school assembly this morning before take a group of Year 4's for a post-show workshop. Mr Thorn tells me that the students from RVHS were an absolute credit to themselves and the school.

Tomorrow I will be working with a group of Year 5's all day to create a play that we will present at afternoon assembly to the whole school. It is going to be a really busy and probably stressful day but I'm sure it will be worth it and I will let you know how it all goes and hopefully have some pictures to put up too!

Rome wasn't built in a day

2008-05-16T20:47:00.005+01:00

Thursday afternoon was the last of my Roman Buildings Collage Sessions at Staples Road Junior School. I was working with Class 5 and their teacher Mrs Howarth this week and we tried experimenting with different colours for our buildings. The results were really fab!

Five weeks ago I embarked on this project feeling a little unsure about how it was going to turn out but now lots of PVA, magazine clipping and a Roman City's worth of buildings later, I have to say I'm thrilled with the results!

Now, having worked with the five classes in the lower school (years 3 and 4), I shall be spending our last Thursday afternoon slot before half term assembling the buildings into a display on the wall. The display will also have lots of photos from the sessions.

The Three R's

2008-05-16T20:26:00.004+01:00

This week I spent some time in Chigwell Row Infant School working with the children on their "Eco Week". On Wednesday I worked with four groups doing drama based on the countryside code and the three R's "reduce, reuse, recycle". All the pupils did really well and seemed to have fun.

On Thursday morning I worked with the children again but this time on collage. We recapped all that we had learned the day before and used our three R's for our collage. The children's work was fantastic and I went back to the school this morning to take some pictures of the finished pieces now that they have been displayed on the wall in the school hall.

I really enjoyed working with the children and staff at this tiny school and I'm looking forward to working with them again in the future!

Arts Award Careers Convention

2008-05-13T11:57:00.006+01:00

This morning we were lucky enough to have a group of professional arts practitioners in to work with our Year 9s to help them with their Silver Arts Award.

As part of their work on the Silver Award the students have to meet and find out about an arts professional, with so many students undertaking the award Miss Harvey and I worked to get as many practitioners as possible in to hold an Arts Careers Convention. The practitioners we got were:

Philip Melling - Artist/Designer/Maker and Workshop Leader http://www.philipmelling.co.uk/

Tomorrow's Warriors - The education branch of the Dune Music Label http://www.tomorrowswarriors.org/

Sandrine Anterrion - Designer/Artist/Singer/Dancer http://www.redglasssky.com/

Ian Black - Musical and Community Theatre

Jen Smith - RVHS Community Arts Co-ordinator

The students were split (as far as possible!) so that everyone was in a group with a speaker that worked in the area that they were learning about for their project, with the exception of some photographers in my group for which I can only apologise!

The morning seemed to go really well and we are looking forward to working with these artists again in the future. It was really fantastic to have such experienced professionals volunteer to come in and work with us for free! So thanks to you all!!!

If you would like to find out more about Arts Award you can visit http://www.artsaward.org.uk/

Jen

Photos from the Talent Show

2008-05-07T15:03:00.008+01:00

West Hatch High School's "That's Right" (above) and Amy Berlyn (below)

Prudence Snellgrove from Debden Park High School singing and playing Kelly Clarkson's Because of You

Paige Wilkey from Roding Valley High School playing and singing (along with her sister Joely) Time of your Life

Jessica Powell from Debden Park High School dances to Pirates of the Carribean

Lauren Haines from Debden Park High School performs her winning monologue

John Wilding from West Hatch High School sings Heaven

Roding Valley's very own "Day Glo Freaks"

Photos by Gareth Davies at Debden Park

Public Performance well received

2008-05-06T09:13:00.004+01:00

Our second event as part of the Loughton Festival took place on Saturday 3rd May. 7 students from years 7 and 8 again did the school proud as they conducted themselves professionally in a performance at Loughton Methodist Church.

The group met in the Drama Studio here at RVHS for a last rehearsal before walking up to the church to present their devised piece. The audience was made up of friends and family as well as members of the public who were there to hear talks about George Granville Barker (a local-born poet) and James Hilton (author of Goodbye Mr Chips and Lost Horizon).

Debden Park kicked off the performance section with a stylised interpretation of Barker's poem "Channel Crossing" before we took the stage with our devised piece based on themes from Hilton's novel "Lost Horizon". The group, who were initially brought together during our Easter "Play in a Day" workshop, worked on the idea that "one man's paradise is another man's nightmare". The piece followed two characters journey's as a plane crash-landed on a remote, tribe-inhabited island and was received well by the audience.

Again, pictures will follow from this event.

Jen

And the winners are...

2008-05-06T08:47:00.004+01:00

Well after all the stress in the lead up to Friday's final of the Inter-School Talent Show, it went (fairly) smoothly! After a mad rush to get the hall ready when school finished, we had a fantastic programme of performers from each of the three schools and I'm glad I didn't have the job of picking the winners!

The winners were:

Drama: Lauren Haines from Debden Park High School

Music: John Wilding from West Hatch High School

Dance: Ellen Cameron from Roding Valley High School

Everyone who performed on Friday really did their schools proud and were a shining example of the vast amounts of talent we have among us in the Epping Forest District. These young people have also shown a great amount of dedication and commitment as it was abundantly clear to the audience how much effort and rehearsal each act had put in to their performance. From Roding Valley, it seems only fitting to make mention of Jake Lee (10Q) who learned to accompany himself on the piano for Friday's final.

Jen

Roman Collage with Class 2 at Staples Road

2008-04-30T15:14:00.000+01:00

I spent two very noisy and busy hours with Class 2 at Staples Road today working on making collages. This is the third week that I have been at Staples Road on a Thursday afternoon, each week working with a different class to make Roman buildings using collage.

All three classes so far have done remarkabley well and we are beginning to gather quite a number of buildings! I have two more classes to work with in the lower school before we will put all the buildings together in a frieze to create a Roman city.

Talent Show Finalists Announced!

2008-04-28T14:52:00.001+01:00

This Friday (2nd May) Roding Valley High is hosting the final of an inter-school Talent Show with acts from RVHS, Debden Park High School and West Hatch High School. The event is part of the Loughton Festival 2008 and will see 21 acts compete to win trophies for their schools.

The Contest will be judged in 3 seperate categories - dance, drama and music and looks to be a great few hours of entertainment!

At Roding Valley alone over 30 acts auditioned with 7 going through to Friday's final. I can now reveal, hot of the press, that the finalists are:

The Day Glo Freaks - band from years 7 and 10
Le Petit Pomme de Terre - dance group from year 8
The Wilkeys - Duet on guitar and vocals from years 8 and 10
Ellen Cameron - Solo Dance from year 9
Lizzie Mitchell - Monologue from year 9
Jake Lee - On vocals and piano from year 10
Danielle Barton and Holly Kinsella from year 10 singing a duet a capella

The standard of the auditions was really high and it was no easy task picking the finalists, especially since it was important to have a range of acts and age groups to represent our school.

So now it is a mad rush to get all the other bits of organisation done for Friday's final, in amongst GCSE showcases and practical exams that are taking place in the school!

Jen

The Launch of the long-awaited blog!

2008-04-22T11:36:00.000+01:00

Hello and welcome to the first post on our new Community Arts blog!

I have been working here at the school since the middle of January and one of the things on my "to do list" since then has been to start up a blog... well finally I've gotten around to it!

I would really like for this blog to be interactive and it would be great to have as many students and participants as possible able to add to posts and to leave comments. I am working through the logistics of this and will get back to you with more information as soon as I can!

For just now let me fill you all in on what I've been up to over the past little while...

The second week of the Easter break was jammed packed with Performing Arts Workshops that were run in the Drama Studio here at RVHS. I delivered these sessions along with visiting practitioner Ian Black who is a student up at East 15.

I think the general consensus was that everyone had a lot of fun as well as learning some new skills and making some new friends.

I am also working in Oak View School on a Tuesday afternoon with Red Class. We are exploring the forest using movement and music and we're hoping to incorporate some visual art into the sessions too. The pupils have been doing fabulously well in the two sessions we have had so far and they seem to be enjoying the work we are doing which we are building on little by little every week. It is hoped that we will be able to create a short DVD to track the pupils progress throughout the project.

Thursday afternoons are very exciting for me at the moment as I am working in Staples Road Junior School with years 3 and 4 to create Roman buildings using collage. This project has been a real challenge for me as I have not led a visual arts project since I was in my first year at university but it seems to be going really well and I am thoroughly enjoying working with the young people to create what we hope will end up as a frieze of a Roman City.

I round the week off in Alderton Junior School on a Friday afternoon doing drama and movement based on The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. Last week was the first week of this project which is going to culminate in an informal sharing of work between the three year 5 classes. So far the young people have shown some really fantastic pieces of movement and I am looking forward to seeing what we can come up with together.

So, that's a little taster of what I'm up to at the moment. The final heats of for the Inter-School Talent Show are tomorrow so I will be back to let you know the outcome of that!

Jen