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.

Westminster visit the BRIT

Some 27 students and 3 of their teachers from the Westminster Academy visited the BRIT school on Thursday 29th November. The students enjoyed work shops with BRIT teachers and students in dance, music and theatre. The workshops gave the Westminster students a chance to interact with BRIT students the same age who are studying in areas of the performing arts relevent to them. After the workshops the visitors enjoyed a matinee performance of the post 16 dance showcase "Illuminating Motion" which features the performances of our year 12 and 13 BTEC dance students. A good day was had by all and hopefuly Westminster students went home with encouragement in their own performing arts talents and renewed aspirations for the future.
Westminster Academy specialises in international business and enterprise and have just moved to a new purpose built school on the Harrow Road. The schools visit was arranged as part of the BRIT schools ongoing Leading Edge program to encourage good and innovative practice in the performing arts between our partner schools