Specialisms Newsletter Summer 2011

The St Marylebone CE School Specialisms Newsletter Summer 2011 A Specialist Arts, Maths, Computing and SEN School

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Year 9 Performing Arts Festival ‘Transforming Together’

SPRING CONCERT 2011 RULE THE WORLD

This year’s Spring Concert took place in Marylebone Parish Church on Thursday 31st March, with the theme of ‘Rule the World’. All of the school’s musical ensembles performed pieces inspired by some of the world’s greatest cities.

There were performances from all of St Marylebone’s choirs: Chamber Choir, Church Choir, Shout Out!, Young Voices, and the Sixth Form Singers. Pieces included Barcelona, California Dreamin’ (complete with sunglasses!) and Empire State of Mind.

Concert Band played a medley from the musical Chicago, and Pops Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra performed classical pieces by Strauss and Rossini.

A performance by St Marylebone’s newest ensemble Folk Band used an arrangement of a traditional country tune, which delighted the audience.

The concert also featured two student-led groups who had chosen and arranged their own pieces for the performance. The GCSE Jazz group performed New Orleans complete with jazz improvisations, and the Motown Band made up of Sixth Form students performed their own version of Loco in Acapulco.

A ‘House Band’ of Sixth Form students also performed informally between performances.

Symphony Orchestra and Concert Band combined to perform Promenade & The Great Gate of Kiev by Mussorgsky, with the trumpets playing from the balcony of the church to provide a rousing surround sound.

The Finale of the concert saw the performers from all ensembles joining together to sing Take That’s Rule The World. The piece began with a solo, sung by Kathleen Cranham, and had an orchestral accompaniment for all the singers in the massed choir. The audience even joined in at the end of the song, creating an incredible sound!

The Spring Concert was a fantastic evening and really showed off the wealth of talent at St Marylebone. Well done to all those who were involved!

TranSforming TogetheR Year 9 Performing Arts Festival

This year’s site-specific 3 day Year 9 Performing Arts Festival took place at the end of June . The theme of this year’s festival was ‘Transforming Together’.

Different events displaying the power of the community and the will of the people were used by each form as inspiration: the Egyptian political uprising, the abolition of slavery, Ghandi and his impact on Indian independence, the ending of apartheid in South Africa, and the recent student protests in the UK. Working with Music, Dance, and Drama teachers, each form put together a creative performance using the theme of their specific event. Students also spent half a day with the Art department and artists from ‘he Crafts Council, creating tiles which will be displayed in the playground as a legacy of the project.

At lunchtime on the final day of the festival, speakers suddenly crackled to life and four Year 9 students started dancing on the playground. As the music continued more dancers gradually joined until all of Year 9 were performing in unison on the playground. This ‘flash mob’ was thoroughly enjoyed by the rest of the school who had no idea that the dance was going to happen!

The final performance of the festival began in the theatre, moved into the courtyard and to the playground.

The final two forms performed on the stairs of the Performing Arts block and in the Sports Hall, before the whole year group joined together for the finale of the festival to sing ‘Wavin’ Flag’ complete with Samba band.

Two years ago, artist Robert Sember (member of the sound-art collective, Ultra-red and part of the Serpentine Gallery education team) was part of the team that organized the Year 9 Performing Arts Festival. He attended this year’s Festival and enjoyed it so much that he was inspired to put down his thoughts for this newsletter. Read on for his story of the festival...

Taking the Shackles Off Our Feet The three day composition, rehearsal and presentation process provides a highly concentrated dose of what it takes to make performance: use what you have right here and now; work collaboratively; trust your imagination; and, most importantly, respect the power you generate when you combine action, ideas and creativity. This power is not to be squandered on frivolous things. There was nothing frivolous about this year’s performance.

The multi-phased, multi-sited, procession of scenes acknowledged the disorienting and uncertain historical moment in which we are currently living. It touched on the great despair many of us feel as more and more social institutions, including education, are reduced to the vagaries of the market. Mostly, however, the performance reminded us that of past struggles that triumphed against extraordinary power and changed the course of history for the better. Just as my despair is tempered by great optimism as I watch struggles being waged in this country and in many places around the world to create new collective freedoms, so my optimism grew as I was literally guided through the school and histories of struggle by the Yr9 ensemble. It was a brilliant illustration of what is possible when we work together. I saw again what education looks like when it is collaborative, participatory, spectacularly creative and joyful. I was also reminded of stunning victories against colonialism and slavery and was renewed in my commitment to the generous social contract at the heart of teaching and learning.

Given the relentless erosion of the arts in the curriculum (a development St. Marylebone School is refusing to accommodate), I found this display of a rigorous and demanding art-based process particularly poignant. To create this work it was necessary to synthesize and integrate an incredible array of information from a number of subjects.

Collaboratively made performance also fosters critical analysis. We have to reach a common understanding even if we do not agree and that requires deep thinking. In fact, it shows us that learning literally moves us from one way of thinking to another. Thus, as we moved through the school, we also moved through the history of political movements and arrived at the threshold of our very own futures. There we confronted a most challenging question: How will we make our futures? The answer I heard in this performance: By working collectively together to build a movement.

The song that concluded the section of the performance that focused on racism was ‘Shackles (Praise You)’ by Mary Mary. The refrain, “Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance,” captures just about as well as I can imagine what is at stake in our struggle for freedom. It begins with the freedom to get up and move together. Freedom requires us to work collaboratively, trust our imaginations and respect the power we generate when we combine action, ideas and creativity. Thank you Year 9 for your homage to our past and present struggles.

The Key Stage 5 Learning Support Centre students from College Park have been attending Capel Manor College, London’s only specialist centre for those interested in horticulture. In just 4 weeks they have learnt lots: how to sow seeds, re-pot them when they are seedlings into seed trays and then out into the growing beds. Students have found out what type of soil to use, and the correct way to transport tools following health and safety guidelines. The students have planted their own flower beds for growing onions, radishes, carrots, lettuce and tomatoes which we hope will be ready by the end of term.

We were delighted to be able to include a fantastic display of work by College Park students in this year's A level Art Show. The work featured had been produced by students over the year as part of the BTEC Art and Design course. Students took great pride in their work, and there was a bid on one of the pieces by a Marylebone parent such was the quality of the work on display. Well done!

Year 7 Personal Learning & Thinking Skills Day The Year 7 PLTS-in-Performance Day on Tuesday 14th June celebrated the year group’s investigation into the relevance of Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills to life in school and outside. The students were firstly given an audience with a starstudded cast playing the PLTS characters: Tina the Terrible Team-Worker (played by Ms. Swan), Dependent Dory (Mr. Grieb), Ronnie the Rubbish Reflective Learner (Mr. Roberts), Uncreative Cassy (Mr. Jones) and Susy the Sloppy Self-Manager (Miss Dunne). Ms. Furlong and Ms. Pugh played Issy the Interactor and Connie the Communicator. The day thereby married two of our Specialisms: Performing Arts and Communication and Interaction.

Having hot-seated the characters and got under their skin to find out just what made them such dysfunctional citizens, students worked in teams to create their own performances showing how one of these characters coped badly in a given scenario – and then, using song, dance or mime, to show how this character developed her PLTS and transformed into a happier, healthier, more self-aware and fulfilled person. Each Year 7 Form also performed a song about one of the characters composed collaboratively in Performing Arts lessons – if only this newsletter had an audio-feature, you’d be in for a treat!

Creative Thinkers

By Wenjia Zhang, Year 8 On the 5th May 2011, a group of year 7 and 8 students took part in a Creative Thinking workshop in the library. During the morning they explored creative thinking and learning, with the help of Mike Beard from REM STATE, and participated in a variety of activities.

The students firstly had a discussion about the Royal Wedding that took place on Friday 29th April— which included many exciting experiences — and came up with the theory that it is easier to remember something if you have an emotional response to it.

The students then had a paper fish race! The designs of the fish were all very inspiring, and ranged from fish javelins to fish on rollers! The race was performed in groups, which were divided up by the way in which the fish travelled.

From this activity they learnt that creative thinking is unlimited, and there are many ways to approach any task.

Later on, some Year 8 students had an unusual opportunity to go around the school to watch lessons being taught by the teachers to different year groups and take notes on all the creative learning that they saw taking place. The remaining pupils watched an report on an American school where pupils have been learning though an ongoing interactive role play called “The World Peace Game”.

At the end of the workshop, pupils came up with ideas for activities and games that teachers can use in lessons to help students to learn even more effectively.

The students learned many things from the workshop; they found that looking at things from a different angle helps to raise interest and that it is important to explore your resources as fully as possible.

To sum up, students learned that they can think creatively in order to adapt learning using their own strategies. That way, they can get the most out of what they learn.

Body Image Gifted and Talented Students in Year 9 recently spent a day at the Wellcome Collection in Euston, challenging their skills as Creative Thinkers by trying to make links between everything they saw that day, and to relate them to the overall theme of Body Image.

The students began with a discussion of what the term “Body Image” means, before being sent on a quest throughout the “Medicine Man” and “Medicine Now” exhibitions.

Whereas many of us had seen “Body Image” as a modern concept, the exhibitions showed students that from the “Ice Cream Diet” of the 1940s, to metal corsets from the 18th Century, and tiny shoes worn by Chinese women from the 17th Century, human kind have always been preoccupied with the appearance of the human body.

This was followed by a stimulating discussion of body image, and the extreme lengths to which humans will go to alter their appearance. Students also commented on the ways in which the exhibitions showed us that notions of beauty change dramatically according to time and location, suggesting that beauty exists as a social construct rather than an innate concept.

Following a lively debate on plastic surgery, pupils completed the day by designing a supplementary feature that would “perfect” the human body. These ranged from wings to eyes in the back of the head, and seemed to prove that there is no such thing as “perfection” in nature.

Overall, the day was a fascinating exploration of the human body and its perception through time.

Miss. R. Bletcher - Key Stage 3 Gifted and Talented

Key Stage 3 Scholars’ Concert Friday 10th June 2011

The Key Stage 3 Scholars’ Concert took place on Friday 10th June at the Wigmore Hall. Performing Arts Scholars in Years 7 to 9 took part in the concert, which was watched by the rest of the Key Stage 3 students, teachers and parents.

Performances from Music Scholars displayed a variety of pieces: Paige Evans performed Gershwin’s It Ain’t Necessarily So; Maya Colwell sang a French song; a clarinet solo was played by Iona Brandt; and Ella Crawford (flute) and Agnes Chandler (trumpet) performed Classical movements on their instruments. Lola Parnell performed a piano solo which had been composed by her grandfather, and Phoebe Clothier played Lemon Cornette which was accompanied by Mr. Thomas and Eve Althaus. Rosa Curson-Smith sang Somewhere Over The Rainbow and Madeleine Monnickendam played a French piece on the harp.

Group performances came from a band made up of Year 9 students who performed their version of Feelin’ Good, and the Finale piece, which involved all Music & Choral Scholars from Key Stage 3, who created a choir to perform Deep River.

Drama Scholars in Key Stage 3 performed a piece created especially for the event, entitled All the single ladies - put your fans up, which saw the audience joining in, waving paper fans.

Dance Scholars performed a piece called 'I am here', performed to 'The Other Boleyn Girl' by Paul Cantelon. The girls danced beautifully in the aisles of the Concert Hall and on stage. The piece explored the idea of supporting one another in times of sheer devastation and hopelessness. After looking at images of the earthquake in Japan and recent rebellions in Libya, the girls wrote down words connected to the images, which in turn were interpreted into still solo and duet positions. Miya Priestly and Marla Fernando also performed their own choreography duet to 'The Writer' by Ellie Goulding.

The Scholars’ Concert was a fantastic display of the talents of the Performing Arts Scholars in Key Stage 3.

The performance was a brilliant experience for all the girls involved and they all did extremely well. Well done to all the performers!

Dance Exam Showcase The first ever Dance Exam Showcase took place straight after Easter and included GCSE and A Level Examination work both choreographed and performed by the students themselves. The response from the audience was incredibly positive, and peers, parents and school staff were very impressed with the talent on display.

Dance Workshops Selected Year 9 students were given the opportunity to do an after school workshop with the exciting Tavaziva Dance Company at the end of April. In an intense 90 minute session they learnt exercises in a range of dance styles including Contemporary and African, as well as repertoire from the company’s latest work ‘Double Take’. The students coped incredibly well with the high pace and demanding movement material, and even managed to have some creative input towards the end of the session.

A few weeks later Year 10 GCSE Dance Students and Key Stage 3 Dance Scholars did a workshop with the prestigious Richard Alston Dance Company. They students were challenged to perform very technical dance phrases from the Company’s ‘Overdrive’ piece, and had to pick up the material very quickly. The students had to focus on musicality and spatial awareness especially when performing in pairs. A lot of the material learnt will be used in the GCSE Performance in a Duo unit.

MERCERS VIDEO PROJECT

By Karman Law & Nermin Hayek, Year 10 ICT Scholars Throughout the project, St Marylebone students paid visits to Barrow Hill primary school as part of the Mercers Video project. The pupils at Barrow Hill planned, experimented and produced a mystery film of their own. Through this project, we were able to share this experience with them.

The project begun as a mere storyboard plan on several sheets of A3, and ended with the gathering of other participants presenting their produced film, proudly. Barrow Hill Primary School produced an engaging video revealing a plot to a murder.

Our involvement of as students in this project gave us unique experiences, which included the chance to be able to work with younger students, as well as putting our personal ICT skills to use. Several sessions which we attended included the filming process; a workshop was given allowing the students to experiment with the technical equipment and practicing their different scenes and then filming them.

During these sessions, we developed our skills using technical equipment and managing young people. An editing session ended the process of producing footage for this project. For this session, we were able to help the pupils when technical problems occurred, as well as urging the pupils to extend their ability when editing.

This session was good for each of us personally as it allowed us to gain confidence, as well as putting our ICT editing skills into use.

Positively, throughout the process of producing this footage, many pupils at Barrow Hill Primary School obediently followed instructions which sped up the process. Also, during the development of the footage, many students plucked up their courage to take charge and direct the scene in which they were assigned to.

Successfully, the films were presented in our school theatre, followed by performances by the pupils themselves. It was amazing to see weeks of hard work being displayed in one huge performance which was extremely successful. A group of primary school students produced their version of the classic Romeo and Juliet; this immediately captured the audience and enabled them to have an insight of a different version of this play. They performed confidently and to a high standard and engaged everyone in the hall. Every single student approached their character passionately and each and every one of them had an equally important role.

Interacting with younger students was a new and uplifting experience for us, where many things about ourselves were learnt. We learnt that patience is the key for building a relationship with them and in order to create a short film with optimum success we had to communicate clearly and cement our skill calmly in order for them to get as much possible from their experience. If we were to do this again, not anything would be changed as it truly was an amazing experience. The process of planning, filming and editing was dealt with confidence and passion and for that the project of this outcome was absolutely perfect!

Cyber Prefects trip to the Houses of Parliament

By Abigail Murray 7H

On Thursday 17th June, five pupils from Year 7 went on an ICT trip to the House of Commons. When we got there we were given photo I.D. so the people from security knew who we were. At 1pm we were guided into a place called the Jubilee Room. After everyone settled down we listened to the speakers, one of whom was Adrian Leppard (the commissioner of the City of London police). They told us about internet safety and told us personal stories. When the people had finished speaking the pupils from our school were invited to say a sentence each about how the people from Nexor (an internet safety company) helped us. After eating following the talks, we went for a guided tour of the House of Commons. We heard lots of tales and some rumours like how Henry VIII’s tennis balls were found in the rafters of Westminster Hall. All in all it was a brilliant trip and we all enjoyed ourselves - I hope one day we get to do it all again!

Maths Miss Shaikh’s Year 9 Maths class were treated to a mathematical treasure hunt during the summer term to help improve their calculator skills.

The ‘calculator maths’ lesson was in the form of a treasure hunt. Questions had been placed all around the courtyard, which designed to test the use of different calculator skills. Pupils worked in pairs and were allowed to start on any question. Once a question was answered correctly, pupils had to find the answer to obtain the next The first pair to write down the correct sequence (loop) of answers had solved the treasure hunt. Pupils enjoyed the competition side of this lesson and also engaged well with having their Maths lesson outdoors!

Maths Every year, our top students take part in the UK Mathematics Trust Individual Challenge. These involve 25 Maths based problem solving questions. The results are in for the Junior Challenge (Years 7 & 8) where our students received a total of 21 awards, that’s nearly half of the students entered!

Particular congratulations go to Angela Sun (Year 7) and Wenjia Zhang (Year 8) for getting the highest marks in their respective year groups.

Here is one of the questions from this year’s paper:

Year 8 Maths Factor The annual Year 8 Maths Factor competition is well underway. In groups, all the students of Year 8 prepare an entertaining song, dance or movie to help teach a particular mathematics topic for future years. Through the auditions stage, the best groups from each class are chosen to go on to the Live Finals. This year’s Live Finals will be taking place on the 8th June in front of the whole of year group as well as some very special guest judges. We look forward to seeing who the winning act is.

Fashionista Project (Miss Dunne and Mr Chandrakumar) In preparation for the timetabled collaboration between the Mathematics and Enterprise departments next year, a new scheme of work is being piloted by a current Year 9 class. The Fashionista project starts with the simple task of designing a garment to sell through a number of major high street fashion stores.

Students will then be calculating the cost of mass production, advertising and delivery. Finally students will go onto pitch and negotiate with their design and costs to the stores and calculate any profits made.

Code Breaking (Miss Turner and Mr McIvor) The Year 9 code breaking project has been developed into a 3-week scheme for all upper sets. Beginning with simple transposition techniques (letters moved around) before moving on to substitution ciphers (letters switched for other letters or symbols) they gain an insight into the impact of mathematical thinking on the world of intelligence and espionage. Pupils have learned how the Spartans used transposition techniques 2500 years ago and had a chance to create (and crack!) secret messages encrypted using the substitution approach pioneered by Julius Caesar. They have been asked to play the role of Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, and decode the secret message that led to the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. They have then been discovering how purely mathematical techniques, such as modulo arithmetic (counting round a clock face) underpin more sophisticated forms of encryption. It has been a fantastic opportunity to bring together historical events in Europe with mathematical approaches developed in the Middle East and culminates in a trip to the Imperial War Museum to see how real spies sent real secret messages in wartime.

Here’s a simple cipher for you to crack…

HSLE OZ JZF NLWW L OTYZDLFC HTES ZYP PJP? L OZJZFESTYVSPDLHFD What do you call a dinosaur with one eye? A doyouthinkhesawus

The Marylebone Jam took place on Wednesday 14th June and showcased the finest of St Marylebone’s popular musicians.

Entirely student-led, the musicians arranged and rehearsed songs of their own choice after a gruelling audition process. This year, for the first time, the event was compèred by Eliza Frayn (Year 10) resulting in a sparkling musical extravaganza with complete student ownership. As well as high quality covers of contemporary artists the Jam also showcased original compositions by Beatrice Anderson (Year 10) and Emily Drees (Year 10). Truly a night to remember!

Sneak Preview...

LORD OF THE FLIES A sneak preview behind the scenes of rehearsals for this year’s exciting Key Stage 3 Nomadic Theatre Company Summer Production of Lord of the Flies...

William Golding’s famous novel has been adapted for the stage, and the Marylebone cast take on the challenge of performing this all boy, ever relevant, powerful production. The cast of 16 girls have worked tirelessly to create a fantastic production with a fusion of music, physical theatre and drama. This is set to be a unique and compelling production combing both humour and tragedy.

We are also especially lucky this year to have an all student production team, led by Mr Stigner. This team will be manning backstage, costume, sound, and front of house as well as working the lighting desk!

With the help of Miss Wade, talented artists in Year 9 have created the emotive poster to advertise the production. If you look carefully you will see that each fly is individually designed to reflect a particular character from the play. There are two poster designs in place around school, so keep your eyes open for the different versions!

The cast have been working hard since rehearsals began in May, and the production will be performed on Tuesday 5th, Wednesday 6th, and Thursday 7th July in the St Marylebone School Theatre. It promises to be a fantastic display of the talents of Key Stage 3 students. A full report will accompany all the pictures in the next edition of the newsletter.

Miss F. Turner - Lord of the Flies Director

The Iron Man

Graeae Theatre Company

On Friday 24th June, the Year 7 Performing Arts Scholars plus the Year 7 Form & Vice Form Captains went to watch Graeae Theatre Company’s performance of their latest production ‘The Iron Man’ with the College Park Sixth Form students at the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival.

The performance was outdoors in Greenwich Park and thankfully the weather stayed sunny throughout the production! ‘The Iron Man’ was a fantastically clever show incorporating an actual Iron Man which was over ten feet tall and was controlled by two of the actors.

This event was a follow up to the project St. Marylebone did with Graeae Theatre Company during last term, and it was a great opportunity for the students who had been involved in the project to see the final production. There were even photos of Marylebone students around the grounds of the venue as part of Graeae Theatre’s project gallery! The students really enjoyed the performance and our thanks go to the staff and actors of Graeae Theatre company for their project work and the brilliant production.

TOURS There are two tours taking place this term, which will be fully reported in the next issue, but here is a sneak preview of what the students involved in the tours will be doing during the summer term...

Dance Company Tour Marylebone Dance Company will visit primary schools in Westminster to perform some of their best repertoire for the primary school students.

There will also be a performance in St Marylebone’s Theatre for invited primary schools.

Wales Choir Tour During Activity Week (11th-15th July 2011) the Music Department are taking forty students to Cardiff in Wales for a Choir Tour. The choir will be performing in three prestigious venues, shown below: the Wales Millennium Centre, St. David’s Hall, and the newly built concert hall at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. The tour schedule includes rehearsals for the performances as well as time for sight-seeing which will involve trips to Cardiff Castle and Cardiff Bay. All the photos and a full report will be in the next edition of the newsletter!

In the next issue...

Reviews and pictures from ‘Lord of the Flies’ All the news and pictures from the Marylebone Dance Company Tour & the Wales Choir Tour The outcome of the Year 8 ‘Maths Factor’ An update from the new College Park students attending St Marylebone Sixth Form A full report from St Marylebone’s first ever performance at the Edinburgh Festival

Summer Term 2011 11th - 15th July: Activity Week Thursday 21st July: Last day of term, school ends at 12.30pm 3rd—11th August: Cuts! @ The Edinburgh Festival

Autumn Term Dates 2011-12 Term 1: Thursday 8th September - Friday 21st October 2011 Start Dates: Thursday 8th September for Year 7 & Year 12 Friday 9th September for Year 11 and Year 13 Monday 12th September for Year 8, Year 9 and Year 10 Inter-term break: Monday 24th October - Friday 28th October 2011 Term 2: Monday 31st October - Friday 16th December 2011