I'd like to be Under the sea.....

Children from the "Selhurst Early Learning Centre" visited the school on Thursday to see a special dance show put on especially for them. The show "Octopus's Garden" tells the story of Oscar, a little boy who jumps into a puddle and finds an undersea world where he can dance with the fishes in an Octopus's garden. A few weeks earlier in the term the year 10 dance strand students had accompanied the children, who are between 3 and 4 years old, to the Horniman's museum in south London to see the aquarium and learn about the undersea world and animals that live there. Now our dance students were performing their dances that they had choreographed for the children in costumes and a set made by year 10 performing arts students in their Technology lessons. The project was set up and run by leading edge managers Ganymeade Gnahoui and Chris Lewington.

A day at the Emirates

Members of the BRIT school Leading Edge team met up with representatives from some of our partner schools at the Achievement show staged at the Emirates stadium in north London. It was the perfect setting for consolidating plans and discussing new avenues to pursue for the year ahead. Staff from Hayling Manor, Capital and Shirley joined us for a day in an executive box at the Arsenals' gleaming new stadium. There were plenty of inspiring talks and the latest in educational technology to see in the show as well as time to talk with partner schools and continue to develop our partnerships in the year ahead.

Westminster students in for Workshops

Year 10 students from Westminster Academy in north London visited the school this morning. They had a tour of the school followed by workshops in dance, theatre and music. Westminster is a business and enterprise specialist school but they have a thriving performing arts department as well. Their performing arts teachers lead by Lucy Sands hoped that a day at the BRIT school would give their students added confidence in working with students their own age in their own specialist area. So our year 10 students worked side by side with their year 10 students in the workshops. "Our students really enjoyed themselves especially participating in the subject lessons" said Lucy. "Many students commented on how nervous they were about participating in the classes and thought they would not be able to cope with the work, but taking part in the lessons made them realize they could cope really well. Thank you to all the teachers and students who lead the classes they made our students feel really welcome. The trip has had a very positive effect on their confidence". . Before they went home our year 10 Musical Theatre students gave them a short performance of some of their numbers from "Hair" which they had performed as a whole show as part of their BTEC last term.

Fins go swimmingly at the Hornimans museum

Year 10 dance strand students and children from our local nursery school "The Selhurst Early Learning Centre enjoyed a trip to see the Aquarium at the Horniman's museum on Thursday 5th June. Organised by leading edge team members Ganymeade Gnahoui and Chris Lewington, as part of the Octopus's Garden project. In a few weeks time our year 10 dancers will perform to the nursery children in a show called Octopus's Garden, a show where the students make the set and costume in Technology lessons as well as perform as part of their strand. To set the scene for their young audience the students accompanied the nursery children on a trip to the aquarium at the Horniman museum in South London where the children dressed up as fish and discovered more about our undersea world. A good day was enjoyed by all and the Selhurst children can't wait to see their new older friends dance for them in a few weeks time.

On the Telly with Teachers TV

Teacher’s TV with their partner production company Lambent productions came and visited for 2 days, Wednesday 6^th and Wednesday 13^th of February. Leading Edge manager Conor Doherty provided and planned the content of the shows and liaised with Lambent productions. On the first day they interviewed Conor extensively about strategies for teaching world music for GCSE and A Level. Lisa Hampson, music teacher at St Georges VA School Harpenden visited on the second day and spent the day with Conor and groups of BRIT music students learning and analysing music from West Africa. Conor provided an information pack for her to use as a basis for her world music lessons with KS 3 and 4. All these days were filmed and will form the basis of a documentary which will be shown soon on Teacher’s TV and will be available to download. Our students gained valuable experience of performing for television and how a programme is made. St. Georges School benefited from curriculum enrichment and some professional development for their music teacher. A very interesting and enjoyable experience for all involved.

Stars in their Eyes at Hailing Manor

Leading Edge managers Luis Domingues and Conor Doherty took a group of Year 13 music students to Hailing Manor school to help them prepare for their ‘Stars in Their Eyes’ talent show. Each of our BRIT school students was given a group of approximately 10 students and (Yrs 7-11) and they led a discussion about the best way to prepare for performance. The discussions carried on for 45 minutes, after which all group summarised the findings of their discussion. At the end Brit School student Indie sang for the whole group unaccompanied, getting a fantastic response. Hailing Manor teacher Andrea Phillips was extremely pleased with the session and thanked our students and staff.

BRIT links up with Harris Academy for music

As part of our ongoing and very successful relationship with Harris Academy (formerly Stanley Tech), Leading Edge manager Conor Doherty was visited by music teacher Kwadjo Amponsen and his colleagues from Harris Academy. They worked on ways of delivering the BTEC 1^st Certificate in Music which Harris have started to deliver this year for the first time. The music department here at the BRIT school has been teaching it for some years and it forms the basis of the Key Stage 4 strand course.

Conor says "This follows on from a meeting I had last summer where I went over the basic framework of the qualification with Kwadjo. We looked at assignments and talked though some possible ways of delivering the practical and academic parts of the course. The meeting had a very positive outcome with some helpful ideas put forward. Personally, from an educational point of view I found it very interesting."

We also discussed the possibilities of doing more practical work with Harris students, similar to last year. We are hoping to facilitate this before the end of the year.

Making links with Bridge Academy

After receiving an invitation, Leading Edge manager Conor Doherty attended the opening ceremony for the new Bridge Academy Building at St. Lukes in Old Street. The purpose was to represent the school and to meet with Clifford Resse, the head of music to arrange our students going to help the facilitators in various arts workshops that they have scheduled during the year.Conor says "I met with Daisy Surcliffe, the Education manager for The Hackney Empire who was overseeing the project. We discussed various possibilities and agreed that our students would come on a number of Fridays to help with preparations. This would also be an excellent opportunity for our students to gain teaching experience and is planned for the summer. We are also hoping to work soon with the school on curriculum delivery".

BRIT music students at Linden Bridge School

Leading Edge team member, Conor Doherty brought a group of Yr 12 ethnomusicology students to Linden Bridge School for autistic students. We rehearsed in advance and hired a minibus to bring ourselves and equipment, says Conor. We put on a performance for the school and then got their students involved with dancing and singing. The response was very positive from the staff and students and brought some West African music into the Lynden curriculum. Our own BRIT school music students gained valuable experience of working with autistic children and increased their performance confidence.