Specialism Newsletter Spring 2012

The St Marylebone CE School Specialisms Newsletter Spring 2012 A Specialist School in Performing Arts, Maths, Computing, Communication & Interaction

What is Dance?...

You are the Answer!

St Marylebone School Dance Show JANUARY 2012

‘A A Christmas Carol’ Whole School Production - December 2011

What is Dance?

On Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th January the St Marylebone School Dance Show took place, this year called: ‘What is Dance?...You are the Answer!’. The show followed the fairytale story of a young girl on a journey, searching for an answer to the question ‘What is Dance?’.

Performances from Marylebone Dance Company, Dance Scholars, GCSE and A-level students, Key Stage 3 & 4 Dance Clubs, Westminster Junior Dance Company, Hip Hop Club, and Break Dance Club, told the story of the young girl (portrayed by Maisie Woodford - Year 7 Dance Scholar) as she travelled to different lands and came across a variety of characters in her quest to find an answer to her question.

All of the pieces were performed excellently by all students involved and every dance added to the suspense of the fairytale journey.

Well done to all involved!

You are the Answer!

The annual Festival of Readings and Carols service took place at St Marylebone Parish Church on Wednesday 14th December 2011.

There were performances from Chamber Choir, the Sinfonia of St Marylebone Brass, the whole Year 7 choir performance of Tell Out The News accompanied by a Year 11 Band, and Church Choir. Symphony Orchestra accompanied all of the congregational carols during the evening. GCSE Dance students performed to Silent Night and Caleb Hughes reenacted the transformation of Scrooge scene from ‘A Christmas Carol’. A Senior Chorale of Sixth Form students also performed their own arrangements of Carol of the Bells.

The finale was a performance of O Holy Night by the Community Choir who were joined by the Sixth Form and Staff singers, and accompanied by Symphony Orchestra. It was a hugely collaborative piece and sounded excellent in the acoustics of the Parish Church.

Well done to all students (and staff and parents!) involved in the Festival of Readings and Carols - it was a truly fantastic evening!

A Christmas Carol is one of Charles Dickens’s most famous novels and from 1st - 3rd December 2012, St Marylebone School created their own production of the famous story.

Billed as ‘for the Facebook/YouTube generation’ the traditional story had modern additions as added twists including the portrayal of a homeless shelter on Christmas Eve and a family phone call between estranged parents. The ensemble cast, made up of students from Years 7-13, were on stage for the whole production providing sound effects and commentary on the scenes unfolding in front of them. Traditional scenes involved the Cratchit family from the original novel as well as the Fezziwig Christmas Ball, though the modern St Marylebone version had a unicyclist! Caleb Hughes created an excellent character portrayal of Scrooge through Christmas Past, Present, and Future.

The production left everyone starting to get into the festive spirit and was an excellent modern adaptation of the well-known story. Congratulations to all the performers!

Engineering Education Scheme The Engineering Education Scheme is now fully underway with our team of Year 12 students having almost completed their project to design a dam in Burkina Faso. Just before the Christmas break, the team, along with our engineers from Golder Associates, spent 3 days at the prestigious Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot along with 7 other schools from the Oxfordshire area. This time was dedicated to completing as much practical work for the project as possible.

The students used specialist software, called Vulcan, to design dams at different heights and use it to simulate the water capture behind the dam and investigate the effects of flooding of the land. The team also did seepage experiments outside in order understand how much water would seep into the ground behind the dam. Positive and negative impacts of how the dam will affect the local area were considered, allowing the students to link in the social engineering aspects of the project.

The 3 days culminated in a presentation to all the other teams of the project so far, which drew lots of interest from the other schools. The team are now in the final stages of the project and will be compiling their report as well as preparing for their Celebration and Assessment Day at the end of April.

Karen Martin Scholarship The Karen Martin Scholarship is an award of ÂŁ1000 given to a Year 12 student who demonstrates a genuine interest in pursuing a career in Engineering. Applicants had to provide a written statement as well as present their ideas about an area of Engineering that particularly interests them in front of a panel.

The standard of applications this year was very high and five particularly talented students were short-listed to face the judges. While all showed themselves to be excellent candidates, two individuals shone through. Deciding between the final two students was a very difficult decision for the members of the panel, and in the end it was decided to take the highly unusual decision to award two scholarships. Congratulations go to all the applicants and in particular to Tommy Hoare who received the full scholarship and to Le’Reyce Josephs who received a second scholarship of £250 to allow her to participate in the Head Start Summer Engineering program.

Year 9 Fashionista Project (Mathematics & Enterprise)

As part of the Year 9 enrichment curriculum, the Mathematics and Enterprise departments have been working together allowing students to gain a broader understanding of the Mathematics they will need, and how to apply them, in the real world. As part of this, all Year 9 students took part in a group project designed to emphasise how a number of the Maths skills they have learnt are used in the business of fashion.

The project was kicked off with a talk from a designer, Mrs. Burrows, who has supplied many of the big high street stores, such as M&S. The students were tasked with designing an item of clothing and putting forward a business proposal aimed at possible buyers. Students carried out independent research to identify trends in the fashion world and allow them to design a suitable product. They then worked out the cost of producing the item based on the amount of material needed, the cost of the materials and various manufacturing costs. They also looked at how wasteful they were with the materials before finally calculating projections of profit and loss. The project worked well with lots of excellent presentations and reports produced.

Team Challenge In February, four of our best Key Stage 3 mathematicians took part in The UK Mathematics Trust Team Challenge Regional Finals which took place at the City of London School. The competition promotes mathematical dexterity, team working, and communication skills. Pupils are given the opportunity to compete against pupils from other schools. Congratulations to Cherry Elliott-Millar and Alicia Lai (Year 9) and Aisha Amari and Bridie Goddard-Hunt (Year 8) who came 10th in their regional final.

Intermediate Challenge The UK Mathematics Trust Individual Challenge involves our top mathematicians every year. The challenge has 25 maths based problem solving questions. The results are in for this year’s Intermediate Challenge (Years 9, 10 and 11) where our students received a total of 37 awards - what a success!

Particular congratulations go to Zoe Lakota Baldwin and Brikena Termkolli (Year 11) and Eve Althaus (Year 10) for achieving the highest marks in their respective year groups. In addition to this, Cherry Elliott-Millar (Year 9) received the highest mark overall and qualified for a second round paper.

Senior Team Maths Challenge On Thursday 24th November, a team of four A level students competed in the 2011-12 Senior Team Maths Challenge. Yichi Zhang and Conor Fitzpatrick from Year 12 and Zhan Chen and Matthew Carolan from Year 13 represented the school as they took part in the London East regional final. The London East regional is a particularly large event with almost 40 teams competing over three rounds.

The team worked extremely well together and were able to put their mathematical skills to good use in a group round of challenging problems, and two rounds where they were required to work in pairs – first solving a crossnumber puzzle and then finally a relay round. The team’s effort was well rewarded at the end of the day with an excellent ninth place finish against many very competitive fellow teams, recognising both their ability and their mathematical teamwork!

Puzzles and experiments with our Maths Leaders Some of our Key Stage 5 Mathematics Scholars have recently been developing their leadership skills in the subject and helping to share some interesting problems and ideas with Year 7 and 8 students. Students in Miss Shaikh’s Year 7 class were challenged by three of our Year 12 scholars to a session full of logical puzzling: much fun and excitement was had as the class were encouraged to find the best solutions they could to get assorted characters safely over a very dangerous river. Meanwhile, a group of Year 12 and 13 scholars were busy showing Ms O’Malley’s Year 8 class how some of the Maths skills they have been developing can be applied to solve problems they had never imagined. Could you measure the height of the drop down to the Sports Hall with just a bean bag and a stopwatch? This was the challenge and our scholars did a fine job in leading the Year 8s as they discovered the almost magical equation that allowed them to do exactly that! The scholars did a great job, coming up with the focus for the sessions themselves and planning how they would be able to get the Year 7 and 8 students involved in the most interesting aspects of the work. All the students enjoyed the chance to explore their Maths in a different way and are looking forward to the next opportunity to be involved.

Year 12 Maths Inspiration In late November, a group of almost 50 Year 12 mathematicians were able to attend a ‘Maths Inspiration’ afternoon at the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus. This was a fantastic opportunity for some of our talented A level students to gain a new appreciation into the applications of Maths outside the classroom. Students were treated to talks from highly qualified presenters on topics such as ‘The Maths of TV Gameshows’, ‘ How Maths Built The Olympic Stadium’ and ‘ The Maths of the Rock Guitar’.

The afternoon gave our Year 12s a chance to appreciate not only some specific ways in which Maths is vital to the world around us, but a new view on the diversity of the applications of Maths and the breadth of career opportunities that it could lead to for them.

MAIDA VALE STUDIOS TRIP Rani Gandesha (8W) and Silva Goode (8D) We went into the rehearsal rooms and watched the 80-piece orchestra, made up of amazing instruments from huge tubas and double basses to tiny piccolos and oboes.

Alison, who is an oboe player from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, told us what she was up to. "It is really different from what I normally do and I enjoy working with the urban artists," said Alison.

"They make us move and dance, which we don't often do at the BBC Symphony Orchestra!"

One of the other people we met was Nii from Bigga Fish, a not-for-profit youth organisation.

He told us about his involvement in this special music collaboration. "We want young, urban musicians to be responsible and creative. I remember Ms Dynamite singing to me, and being so nervous about her first concert, but we encouraged her and supported her."

Whilst the orchestra was practising we stepped outside to talk to grime artist and rapper Devlin. We asked him if he enjoyed classical music.

"Do you know what? I do! Most of the music I do is classical music with a hip-hop baseline, with strings underneath it. I do listen to it. I switch on Classic FM - not all the time, though!" he said.

Does he get nervous before such a big concert? "Yeah, I still get nervous, especially when you do the big arenas. I've done Wembley before - you can hear the crowd vibrating through your whole body. It's scary. It's like a football match! Just before you go on stage from behind the curtain, you get a bit nervous and then the adrenaline takes over and the nerves disappear."

While we were planning our next questions, we were called down to the studio and told we could meet Fazer from N-Dubz, who was playing the piano with the orchestra. As we approached him we felt a bit nervous and very excited. We went to shake his hand and he gave us a massive high five! We got his autograph and he struggled to write with our fountain pen. "I'm a leftie, it's been a while since I've used one of these," he said. "It makes me feel like a child again!"

BBC School Report

by Thursa Donlevy 8W The Year 8 BBC School Report is well underway! All of our topics are chosen and we have got to the stage of arranging interviews with our contacts. I myself have chosen to make a news report on Girl Guiding in the UK. We have all been working in collaboration with Rosie, from the BBC. She has advised us on our topics, helped us arrange contacts and even showed us how to use recording equipment, which was a little complicated at first!

We are working towards a deadline in March which seems to be approaching far too quickly. I would say School Report has been 10% panic and 90% excitement! Even though sometimes slightly stressful, BBC School Report has been a great project to be involved in. I have enjoyed the experience and I’m sure everyone else involved has too!

On Tuesday 7th February it was Safer Internet Day. Two ladies came in to school and talked to the Year 7s about how to keep safe on the internet.

They showed us a video of a girl who wasn’t safe online and who let everyone see all her pictures and personal details, which lead to her talking to a stranger and almost getting hurt. They taught us to have different passwords for different websites and to never talk to strangers or give out personal information such as where you live.

It was really interesting and useful to know about how to keep safe it has made all of us think about what to do if it does happen and the solutions to stop it.

Nancy Connealy 7W

COMPETITIONS We have joint winners for the online quiz questions, who speedily brought the answers to the ICT office: Emily Mitchell and Elisha Kelly from Year 7.

We also have a winner for the postcard design competition: Kira Miller in 7D.

Speech and Language Therapy St. Marylebone CE School has recently begun to develop a school based Speech and Language Therapy Service. We are delighted to now have two Speech and Language Therapists, Leah Frisby and Aisling McInerney, working at the school. They are available to provide Speech and Language Therapy support to both pupils and teaching staff. Support will be provided in the form of 1:1 intervention sessions, small group programmes, and the provision of strategies to both teachers and students. The intervention method will depend on the individual student’s needs. The focus of this intervention will be to optimise access to the school curriculum through the development of communication and interaction skills.

Dyslexic Support Unit St. Marylebone C.E School has begun to develop a school based Dyslexic Support Unit. There is now a trainee Dyslexia Support teacher (Kate Miller) who is at the school three days a week and is providing support for targeted pupils and teaching staff.

A six week support

programme for selected Key Stage 3 pupils will be starting next term focusing on key skills and tactics with the aim to boost confidence, develop organisation skills and build on literacy knowledge. Ms. Miller will also be running ‘An introduction to Study Skills and Exam Techniques’ for selected Key Stage 4 and 5 pupils.

Dyslexia and Creative Mentors Links have been made with Quona Rankin from The Royal College of Art, who invited St. Marylebone to get involved with her Creative Mentors Programme. The aim of the Creative Mentor Foundation is to help make the arts curriculum more accessible and rewarding for dyslexic and dyspraxic children. Learning support tends to focus strongly on academic subjects but is also needed in the arts. Many dyslexic and dyspraxic children have enormous creative potential and here at St. Marylebone we want to ensure that this potential is realised.

Our own Creative Mentor, Tomasz Crompton, has been working with the Art department since January 2012 and will stay with us until January 2013, supporting students across the Key Stages.

For more information see http://creativementors.co.uk/for-children

The Saturday Music School at St Marylebone School (SMS@SMS) has continued to grow throughout this academic year, and there are now over 60 students on the programme.

Students have lessons on their chosen instrument in addition to two ensemble sessions: one small ensemble with the other students playing instruments in the same instrument family, and a large ensemble session which includes all of the children in attendance on Saturday mornings. This term the large ensemble piece is ‘The Blues’ and the young musicians have been improvising and composing their own melodies over the classic ‘blues’ bass-line.

There will be a performance at the end of term featuring soloists, small group pieces, and the premiere of ‘The SMS@SMS Blues’ and it promises to be a fantastic event!

SMS@SMS students are going to be involved in a project with Wigmore Hall Learning during the summer term. The project is called ‘Beautiful Sounds’ and has been commissioned as part of the Cultural Olympiad, taking place in July 2012 to celebrate the London Olympic Games. We are one of three groups involved in the project - also involved are: students from Junior Academy, undergraduate students from the Royal Academy, and English language students from the Cardinal Hume Centre. Students will be working with Wigmore Hall Learning’s professional ensemble ‘Ignite’ and composer Param Vir to create a piece specifically for a one-off performance which will take place at Wigmore Hall on 24th July 2012. This is a fantastic opportunity for SMS@SMS students to experience the creation of a piece by a professional composer in conjunction with an ensemble of professional musicians, and it will be an amazing experience to perform on the stage at Wigmore Hall.

The students are very much looking forward to getting started on the project, and there will be an update in the summer newsletter of how they are getting on!

TakePArt! Performing Arts School is having another very successful year, with children coming from across London to join the programme. This term the youngest students (Sparkle: Reception to Year 2) worked on their own version of Mary Poppins including learning the song ‘Let’s Go Fly A Kite’. Fizz students (Year 3 to Year 5) were creating work around the story of ‘The Three Musketeers’, which involved a lot of sword-fighting action! The students in the oldest group used two professional plays as their inspiration: ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’., performing selected scenes taken from these shows, interspersed with song and dance.

There are currently spaces available in all age groups at TakePArt!.

The programme gives students the opportunity to participate in a wide range of artistic activities which aim to develop their skills and enhance their enjoyment of different artforms within a friendly and relaxed environment. TakePArt! is open to students of all ages from across London. If you would like to find out more please contact Becki Smith on 0207 563 9364.

Mentored Musicians Agnes Chandler in Year 8 has been selected as the first Mentored Musician of the Amadé Players, a group of musicians in London who focus on performances of eighteenth-century music. The Amadé Players Mentored Musician scheme places talented young students with established members of the orchestra, offering the opportunity to play on historical instruments, whilst learning about the rigours of modern professional life. Agnes is being mentored on the scheme by Victoria Rule, a trumpet player with the orchestra, who is in her final year of study at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Agnes’s first concert with the Amadé Players took place on 23rd February 2012 and marked her professional debut, performing for the first time on a valveless natural trumpet as part of a concert celebrating the works of G. F. Handel.

We look forward to following Agnes’s progress on the scheme, and wish her all the best for her future performances.

Following the hugely successful Urban Access project based on ‘The Iron Man’ which St Marylebone participated in during last academic year, the school has been approached to take part in Graeae Theatre Company’s ‘Day of Games’ project in the summer term of 2012. The project will involve participants from five schools creating a new competitive game in each of their settings which will then be shared with the other schools taking part. All of the schools will come together for the Day of Games in which they will compete against the other schools in their newly invented games. In true Olympic style, there will also be an opening ceremony, an awards ceremony, and a closing ceremony and the participating schools are also creating artistic work to perform during these parts of the day. It promises to be a very exciting project, and a truly thrilling Day of Games, and we will look forward to reporting more details in the next Specialisms Newsletter.

St Marylebone are taking part in the ‘Songspace’ project with Wigmore Hall Learning during the summer term. The project is an interactive singing and composing project and will be based around French repertoire. Students from both primary and secondary schools will work with composer John Barber and internationally acclaimed soprano singer Sophie Daneman to write their own songs. The specially composed songs will be performed on stage at Wigmore Hall in July 2012 as the culmination of the project. More information will follow in the next issue!

On Thursday 8th March, the Wihan Quartet came to St Marylebone to lead a master class with two student string quartets and also to perform for the Key Stage 3 Music Scholars. The visit was organised in conjunction with the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust, an organisation which concentrates on increasing awareness of chamber music amongst young people.

The master class involved a Year 10 quartet being coached on a Haydn piece from the ’Emperor’ Quartet, and a Year 12 quartet who played the first movement of Mozart’s ’Hunt’ Quartet. Both quartets performed excellently and responded very well to the advice and teaching from the members of the Wihan Quartet.

Following the master class, the Wihan Quartet performed a selection of quartet movements from composers including Smetana, Dvorak, Hugo Wolf and Martinu. Reviews of the Wihan Quartet’s performances from the audience of Music Scholars are included below.

St Marylebone would like to thank the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust and the Wihan Quartet for the incredibly positive experience of the master class and their excellent performance. A huge well done also goes to both the Year 10 Quartet and the Year 12 Quartet for their hard work in preparing and performing in the master class.

On Thursday the 8th of March some very talented people played to some music scholars for a mini concert. Some of the students at St Marylebone School played and also members from the quartet named the Wihan Quartet. They were all stunning but the piece I enjoyed the most was a piece the Wihan Quartet played was my favourite. The piece they played was called Polka by Antonin Dvorak. I enjoyed this piece the most because it was very jumpy and had lots and lots of character to it. It was a joy to listen to and I would recommend it to everyone I know.

Alyssa Carruthers I really loved watching the Concertos!! It was really fascinating to listen to all of the different sounds the strings made and how each piece had a different type of texture to it. What I really loved about the performance was that you could feel each separate emotion between each movement!!

My favourite instrument was the Violin especially the 1st Violin. I really enjoyed watching him drive each piece along and lastly I loved the master class as it showed me what I could do in my practise at home. One of the things I love about master classes is that they are very picky about the dynamics and Cavatina trust really explored the dynamics in each piece and it really make the movement feel like it had emotions and that I could feel the sense of humour it had in it!!

I really do hope that I can view another one of their classes and performances.

Review: Wihan Quartet The first piece, I thought was expressive and had a lot of different tones that were brought through beautifully, as had all of the pieces, the second bouncy, played as a team and created a lovely atmosphere. The third piece was amazing as I thought the plucking gave the piece some more character and, although it was played very fast, it was all in time and played perfectly; I thought that although the piece was very long it was played wonderfully through out. I conclude the final piece to have been played with the first violinist working hard throughout and found the double - stopping entertaining.

Overall, the pieces were played extremely expressively, with huge ranges in dynamics, tones and legatos and staccatos – I felt entertained and amazed throughout.

Billie Clevely

Rosie Hubbard

TOTEM: Cirque Du Soleil Royal Albert Hall, Friday 3rd February 2012 Kitty Low 9H On Friday 3rd February, a handful of Performing Arts Scholars from Years 7 to 9 departed from school early, buzzing with anticipation and one thought only echoing through each and every one of our minds: the circus. For awaiting us at the renowned Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington was the performance of our lives that we all knew we could never forget – we were going to see TOTEM, put on by Cirque de Soleil. With glowing reviews and a flawless reputation, Cirque de Soleil has put on spectacular shows before and we were convinced they could shock us time and time again.

We arrived at the magnificent Royal Albert Hall with a generous 30 seconds to spare; but in a sort of compensation we found that the seats we had were fantastic – the views perfect and hardly anyone in front of us. The stage was adorned with a projection of water and fronted by a large tortoise shell, but before we had time to truly admire this incredible display the lights dimmed and TOTEM began: “a fascinating journey into the evolution of mankind” – so is written on the tin and so was revealed before our very eyes in the hours that unfurled below us. The tortoise shell was whipped off to reveal an intricate rubber shell, with long woven branches that intertwined and created the base for an almighty display of acrobatics, as people swung around two central bars and seemed to appear to fly between the branches. Trailed by a procession of equally remarkable acts, this first remains my favourite although what I witnessed in the three hours that we sat there quite simply amazed me, and all those around us.

The story followed man as evolution occurred, from our very early amphibian form to the future and throughout incorporating the desire widely known through humans to fly. It is based on many myths and legends, making it all the more interesting, and other acts included roller-skating and stilts, as mankind grew more advanced and developed yet further through history. There were some absolutely incredible costumes that really reflected the journeys we have made, ranging from apes to businessmen in suits, and these two aspects definitely featured very frequently through the show.

There were laughs: TOTEM introduced a very iconic scene in which five stages of evolution – from an ape on all fours to a man in a suit on his phone – circled the stage, cleverly fitting this in with the rest of the surroundings and acts, and the projections on the stage accompanied the circus perfectly, creating an atmosphere of foreboding, marvel or at times simply setting the scene.

We all had an absolutely amazing time and the performance was incredible, made all the better by our fantastic position overlooking the stage.

Alyssa Carruthers 7B

Caitlin Doyle 7H

On Friday 3rd February some of the scholars at St Marylebone School went on a school trip to the Royal Albert Hall to see the members of Cirque du Soleil perform Totem. There were all sorts of acts- some funny, some mysterious and some breath taking but they were all amazing.

It was very hard to decide but I think that my favourite act was the opening one. There was a big dome sort of thing with big gaps in it and the people did all sorts of tricks on a trampoline underneath it when it got removed... I kept having to hold the seat because I kept getting scared that the performers might do something wrong and hurt themselves but of course they didn’t. I enjoyed this the most because I thought it was the most fun and the liveliest performance and I have never seen anything like it. It is amazing what people can do with their bodies!

Overall I think that it is one of the best circus things I have ever seen and I would definitely see it again. All the acts were phenomenal. It was spell binding.

Cirque du Soleil was a French circus at the Albert Hall. The name means ‘Circus of the Sun’. The circus consisted of acrobats, clowns and dancers.

I thought that all the acts were amazing. I particularly liked the frog acrobats at the beginning because they did flips and jumps that I didn’t even know were possible. I also liked the women on unicycles because they were so incredibly skilful, I definitely couldn’t sit on a unicycle let alone balance bowls on my head at the same time and then they kicked bowls on to other people’s heads and then caught other ones with their own, I don’t even know how they did it.

There was one scene that I loved though. It was when a man of our day gets followed by a caveman and then he is followed by lots of different monkeys and I just thought it was a really funny way of showing the theory of evolution. Then he gets attacked by the monkeys and caveman and it was really great.

I really loved Cirque du Soleil and I would definitely go again.

Jovana Pepic 7H On 3rd February 2012, the Key Stage 3 Performing Arts scholars went to the Royal Albert Hall with Mr Glenn and Becki Smith to watch the amazing acrobatic production, Totem. Totem features a number of different acts including roller-skating, balancing, trapeze, uni-cycling and many more gravity-defying performances. The production had great sound effects, lighting and projections which were timed perfectly with the performers which made for an amazing show.

My favourite part was the opening scene. It started with a single acrobat coming down from above, supported by a single chord and dressed like a human disco ball. At the bottom, he was met by a dozen more acrobats, dressed like frogs, who then did an amazing act on bars and trampolines, jumping from one bar to the other effortlessly.

Anna Rainbird-Chill 7H As soon as I entered the theatre I could feel the atmosphere was electric. Everyone was buzzing with excitement and anticipation. At first glance the set was puzzling, extraordinary and genius. A large circular platform which looked like wood but had the texture of material and turned out to be metal - and later we found it that a strip of it rose up and curved almost impossibly backwards as the performers emerged - dominated the stage. On this they projected all sorts of beautiful scenes from the natural world: waterfalls, lakes, oceans, ponds and bubbling blue lava. Behind it, concealed by large bamboo reeds, lit up green from within for a ethereal quality, were the orchestra. The lighting was very restrictedonly spotlights for the performers and for the projecting on the platform. Otherwise- pitch black.

This was my first time at a Cirque Du Soleil performance so I didn't know what to expect- a lukewarm, anticlimax circus act with a tightrope failure or an actual play with speech and dance. What I got was neither, and truly amazing. There was everything there- from unicyclists balancing on 2 metre high unicycles, with golden cups flipping onto each other's moving heads with only one foot pedalling, to men balancing 4 metre poles on their head whilst walking on a slanted tightrope with a man doing a headstand for an impossibly long time at the top, to people inside a giant tortoise-shell bouncing on trampolines concealed in the floor and with two people swinging and doing amazing acrobatics at the same time on two horizontal poles in the structure of the shell, to a man and a woman tumbling down and being caught again with breathtaking confidence and daring on a seriously high trapeze- not wearing a harness. Also amongst the most memorable was a couple all dressed in white who did a dance wearing roller-skates with incredible lifts on a circular drum literally with a diameter of 1 metre and two women lying upside down in chairs spinning sparkly cloths on every limb and swapping them over to each other.

The story was about evolution and how man has changed from just a indistinguishable lizard to a professor with a brain full of knowledge and a head full of white hair. It explored eras of monkeys, giraffes, business men in suits, and frogs.

Altogether with the music, set, costumes, lighting and general performance I was enthralled and audibly gasped many times.

Before the show my mother asked me to watch closely and see if we should go to a Cirque Du Soleil show in the future. I can tell you now that at the end of the first act I was saying 'Yes!'

Lottie Skala 7B On the journey there everyone was really excited and we couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw the Royal Albert Hall- it’s massive! As we sat down, we suddenly realised how far up we were - I started to get scared as the rows of high-up seats seemed almost to be vertical! The lights dimmed and a burst of cultural music entered our ears…

The show had started and, one by one, amazing acts performed right in front of our eyes. Some were so unimaginable; you had to blink to make sure it was still all real! From trapeze artists to tight-rope walkers to musicians and even comedians! The costumes were fantastic with their colourful sequins and realistic masks. No one could stop talking about it when it had finished. My personal favourite act was a man and woman, dressed in vibrant yellow, who did an incredible trapeze performance and were upside-down for most of it! Overall, I would highly recommend Cirque De Soleil’s “Totem” performance to anyone who hasn’t seen it and if you have, I would recommend you to see it again!

Reviews continued overleaf...

Maddy Thomas 9B A group of students who are performing arts scholars at St Marylebone School got the amazing opportunity to go to the Royal Albert Hall to see the mind blowing, astounding performance of Cirque Du Soleil. Cirque Du Soleil is an incredible, colourful, intriguing circus which one cannot get enough of. I especially enjoyed the woman in sparkling silver who was on a string which lowered her onto the stage. She danced and was so graceful and flexible it was hard to believe. I also enjoyed the beginning when the gymnasts were on the turtle shell and there were metal bars which they were swinging on and jumping from one to the other whilst doing flips in between. Cirque Du Soleil is once in a lifetime and it is known as: “A fascinating journey into the evolution of mankind.”

The acts included the following: “Hoops dancer, unicycles, foot juggling, devil sticks, fixed trapeze duo and many more...” As a whole, the production was astonishing and I got to tell my family and friends about it. I even got a brochure and stuck the pictures into my scrapbook to remember the striking memory and experience. I thought, in my opinion, the motif and theme of the performance was consistent throughout and there were some humorous parts, while there was also frightening and serious parts. I would rate it 10/10 purely for the professionalism and excitement that was held in the performance.

Riyana Mistry 7N I had never been to anything like TOTEM before! There was so much energy and hard-work. The performers train for a year just for a seven minute performance. But you have to be very precise with performing at such a level. The acrobatics and flexibility skill is just amazing!!! The woman within the reeds who was singing had an incredible voice and there were people also behind the reeds playing live music with instruments such as bongos, violins, and drums. My favourite performances were the first performance with the trampoline and performers jumping all around the place like monkeys and doing tricks. My other favourite performance was the one with the poles and a man climbing up them like a monkey.

But they were getting higher as he went up and he himself was adding the height. My overall overview of TOTEM is amazing, fantastic, and WOW!!!!

In The Next Issue...

All the details and photographs from this year’s Spring Concert Pictures from the Performing Arts Showcase An update on projects happening in Music, Maths, and ICT

Dates for your diary Friday 20th April 2012 Academic Review Day Thursday 26th April 2012 Performing Arts Showcase St Marylebone School Theatre, 6.00pm

Term Dates End of Term 4: Wednesday 28th March 2012 at 12.30pm Term 5: Monday 16th April - Friday 1st June 2012 Inter-term break: Monday 4th June - Friday 8th June 2012 Term 6: Monday 11th June - Thursday 19th July 2012