Creative Arts

Each summer all the children in the junior school are involved in a production in the King's School Theatre. This year all the children were involved in developing and performing Creative ConneXions - an evening of art, dance and music. This included them working with a professional media artist and a professional composer. Other recent productions include Rhythms of Africa, a musical Macbeth and an adaptation of The Weird Sisters.

The whole school enjoys an annual theatre trip, usually in December, often to Stratford, Birmingham or, for the youngest, more locally. Recent hits include the spellbinding The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, The Secret Garden and Alice in Wonderland. This year the junior school have seen a production of Matilda at Stratford and the pre-preparatory department have seen Cinderella at Worcester's Swan Theatre.

More than 100 of the children play an instrument, having lessons at School with the team of thirty visiting music staff shared with the senior school. A similar number are in a School Choir. There are concerts in the Theatre each term. These include pieces by the Choir, Orchestra, String Group, Wind Band, Flute Choir and Recorder Groups as well as by soloists. The Cathedral Choristers bring a special quality to the music at St. Alban's - their part in the annual Cathedral carol service is a particular joy. There are up to 10 choral scholars at St. Alban's and the Choir is regularly in need of new voices. Do ask for details if your son might be interested.

Early, less daunting opportunities for performance abound. There are informal concerts in the St. Alban's Chapel twice a term - a safe start in front of parents. Each Form produces an assembly every term (in the pre-preparatory department parents are invited to attend) and drama plays an important role in the curriculum. Groups from Drama Club prepare performances each year and many of the children have individual lessons. Dance features within the curriculum too, each year group in the junior school in turn work with a visiting specialist leading to performance opportunities.

Junior School Production

This years' Creative ConneXions project once more adopted a global dimension as the context for the work.  Within the broad theme of 'Oceans', each year group explored a focus that promoted links with the other curriculum areas whilst providing excellent stimuli for arts learning at an appropriate level of rigour and challenge.  However, beyond the contribution the work makes within subject disciplines, the project aims to develop positive attitudes to the wider world, an awareness of universal issues, and to prepare pupils to live in an interdependent global society. 

Year 3 children focussed on the environment of the British rock pool and included in their research a trip to the National Sea Life Centre in Birmingham.  The children used their observations of rock pool life to create their own solo dance as well as creating collaborative work expressing the motion of the sea and the crevices of the rocks.  They went on to compose music motifs for their rock pool features and to explore musical dynamics to create the different moods of the sea.  Visiting artist Katie Pruden worked with the children to make ceramic sea creatures and the children also made sea horse collages and abstract shell paintings.

Year 4 discovered, created and performed stories using different art forms.  The children began with a whole day of workshops with the professional story teller Lenny Alsop.  They went on to work collaboratively across the two Year 4 classes to create a story based on the superstitions of sailors at the time of the Tudor age of exploration and discovery.  Communicating their story through dance, and later through music and art, presented different challenges and allowed the children to appreciate that all art forms can communicate narrative.  They also considered examples of professional arts narratives such as Swan Lake and the Oceanides symphonic poem for orchestra by Sibelius.  In their art lessons the children considered how the Tudors told stories in the map designs and their representation of early sailing ships and sea monsters.

Year 5 investigated groups of people whose way of life is closely linked to the sea, in particular they studied the cultural traditions of Hawaii and the development of surf culture.  They researched Hawaiian art, music and dance thinking about the use of pattern in each and how those patterns are unique to the culture and environment.  This led on to the creation of a Hula women's dance and Aloha men's dance, traditional Kapa bark cloth designs.  Tiki sculptures, aloha shirts and traditional Hawaiian music.  The children also considered the spread of surf culture around the globe as a way of life associated with attitude and activity rather than place.

Foundations for the year 6 arts work are laid in the autumn term through pupil research into issues associated with the project theme.  This year these were based upon ocean pollution, ocean ownership and ocean disaster.  The children created and recorded short documentaries resulting from their research.  In music the children worked with professional composer Andrew Kristy to create a powerful piece about the threat of ocean pirates, whilst in art the children painted beautiful coral reef scenes and contrasted these with industrial landscapes or pollution sculptures.  Physical Theatre artist, Dave McKenna, worked with the pupils to provide movement material and dance skills that the children then structured themselves, working hard to express their ideas with integrity and aiming to maximise the impact to their dance on their audience.

Teams of children, from all year groups, had the opportunity to work with professional composer Andrew Kristy.  Using ideas from their Ocean project work the children wrote lyrics and composed musical motifs that Andrew brought together into a finale song.  Andrew also composed the entire musical score for the production.  The lyrics for finale - Songs of the Ocean and Year 4 Sea Shanty Song can be found below along with links to the music.

Haul away, haul away, haul away Joe,

we'll haul away the bow line, haul away, haul away,

haul away Joe, we'll heave and haul together!

Haul away, haul away, haul away Joe,

we'll haul away the bow line, haul away, haul away,

haul away Joe, we'll heave and haul together!