10th June 2022
For our Reception parents and those new to our school, each year we provide a week of Arts enrichment for our children. Children across the whole school are treated to a plethora of music, dance, craft, art, cooking, designing and making. We invite experts in the field of the Arts to join us in school to help make the week an extra special learning experience for all.
This year our Arts Week theme was ‘Platinum Jubilee’. It might have just been our best Arts Week yet! It certainly felt spectacular after 2 years under Covid measures.
The week began with a BOOM! We were fortunate to have Teresa from PlayTaiko with us for the day. Teresa introduced the whole school to a performance of her Taiko drumming; a form of Japanese drumming, on a range of huge drums. Teresa then worked with KS2 in workshops throughout the day. Teresa has played and taught for over 20 years and taken her drumming to the tops of mountains, lake-sides, theatres, class rooms and town squares across the UK, Japan and beyond!
The lovely Sophie Titchmarsh (Reception’s Grace’s Mummy), a talented textiles artist, came into school to work with children all the way from Reception up to Year 6. Every year group had a different creative objective which would culminate in a beautiful collaborative Jubilee wall hanging. Some children printed using rollers sponges and shapes, others painted or drew designs onto the fabric. Some children cut, stitched and collaged. It really was a whole school effort! Those attending our wonderful jubilee family picnic celebrations will have seen our patchwork wall hanging. It is now proudly on display in our school hall for all to enjoy.
On the Wednesday of Arts Week the children were fortunate to be visited by Cyril Bennis, friend of Alveston and chief volunteer at Stratford Swan Rescue. Cyril talked to the children about the swans he cares for, his role and what the children could do to help keep the Queen’s swans happy and healthy. As always it was a fascinating visit and the children learnt a great deal.
The children were treated to various musical performances throughout the week. Miss Peterson who piano tutors some of our children was up first, sharing her knowledge of the oboe. She discussed the various elements of the instrument and played us a few fabulous pieces. This was followed by some superb performances from our own budding musicians; Emma (Y6) on the piano and Charlie and Matthew (Y4) on guitars.
On Thursday the children experienced another exciting musical assembly with Shulah and Catherine from Orchestra of the Swan. Reception, Year 1 and 5 were then lucky enough to enjoy punk and disco themed workshops where they were introduced to various musical skills including body percussion!
Reception and KS1 completed dance workshops with our very own dance teacher, Mrs Rogers. They practised celebration moves in time to energetic music before combining efforts on the Big Day to show you their Jubilee celebration dance en mass.
Year 3 and Year 4 worked with Jessica, a real life illustrator working with Escape Arts. They produced miniature postcards themed around the year 2022, their schooling highlights and the Jubilee. They pieced these together as a patchwork of postcards, adorning the edges with a golden coin border inspired by the Queen’s portrait.
Our Arts Week finished on a high with Juanita, a dance and fitness guru delighting all our children with energetic hula hooping workshops.
Highlights from our classes…
Reception began their week with a special project with Holy Trinity Church to mark the platinum jubilee. Alveston were invited to create a crown, based on the St Edward Crown, which the Queen wore for her coronation, Reception designed the crown around the colour theme of our school values, resulting in a beautiful rainbow crown fit for the Queen herself! The finished crown was proudly processed by Sammy (Y3) and Evie (Y5) at Holy Trinity Church on Sunday 5th June and presented to the Mayor. It has been on display in the church since the Jubilee weekend. Reception continued their week creating Queen portraits, miniature Queen necklaces, nature crowns at Forest School, flags, union jack palm print bunting and did singing, singing and more singing! …Did we mention that Reception love to sing!?
Year 2 had a fabulous week celebrating ‘The Arts’, managing to squeeze in all their activities into just four days due to their class trip. The children painted red, white and blue striped bunting to hang, practised their ‘Dancing Queen’ song and dance (the children loved acting out the role of the ‘dancing queen’ as the secret twist!) and made party crowns from paper plates and union jack themed collage materials.
Year Three enjoyed the different activities offered during Arts Week. We also completed observational drawings of monarch butterflies, created a piece of art in the style of Andy Warhol and made commemorative pieces for the Platinum Jubilee out of clay.
During Arts Week, Year 4 got stuck into a range of activities including creating Ancient Greek pots, designing our own pan pipes, having a chance to paint with our hands again and working as a whole class to create a Union Jack out of paper chains. It was great fun to be involved in whole school project which involved directly working with different artists. We helped to decorate a Queen’s head and produce two Jubilee related pieces of art which will be displayed in school.
Year 5 children collaborated to make a huge portrait of the Queen using mixed media. They tore pieces of paper, card, cellophane and tissue to collage segments of the Queens picture. They added paint and pen work before piecing the sections together to reveal a stunning portrait. The children also made themselves jubilee badges.
Year 6 thoroughly enjoyed their Taiko drumming session which involved learning how to hold the sticks (bachi); the stance required for play; some of the special vocabulary, including the call to play ‘(Sorai’); and, the beats to create rhythms (e.g. Don Doco Don, ‘Wasai!’). Learning part of a Matsuri Daiko festival rhythm resulted in an inspiring, energy-filled performance with a dramatic ending - the reverberating sound hung in the air as silence slowly fell. It was inspirational for both the children and the staff.
Year 6 also went to London to visit Parliament. Read more about our trip in our newsletter here.
We would like to thank all of our visiting specialists for helping to make our Arts Week SHINE brightly! We are already making plans for next year’s Arts Week, so watch this space!
Mrs McFeely
Art & Design Lead
