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.