Saturday March 9th saw our VIP performance of 'We Will Rock You'. As the audience entered the theatre down the red carpet clutching their free bags of popcorn, the tension backstage was mounting. However, as soon as the young people set foot on stage, the energy that filled the auditorium was incredible.
 
Throughout the show, our fantastic chorus sang and danced to rapturous applause, with the 'bohemian' style set of tube lighting and graffiti art a perfect backdrop to the story of the fight for live music. Special mention must go to Edna Sulejmanovic and Liam Myers who gave outstanding performances in the roles of Scaramouche and Galileo. 'I Want to Break Free' had the audience dancing in the aisles whilst Edna's incredible vocals on 'Somebody to Love' left us speechless. Their excellent rapport became apparent in the argument song 'Hammer to Fall' and the beautifully performed 'Who Wants to Live Forever?'
 
Equally outstanding performances came from all three Khashoggis, perfectly melodramatic as the villains of the piece, and Amie Northfield as Killer Queen, whose debut performance as the cruel leader of Globalsoft was excellent. The group of Bohemians performed brilliantly, keeping the audience rocking with 'I Want it All' and 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love', as well as a particularly poignant performance of 'Only the Good Die Young'.
 
By the end of the night the crowd were dancing in the aisles and the standing ovation that followed was well deserved.
 
All I've heard since is 'What are we doing next year?!' Watch this space...

“I loaned you my son. He was just a boy. I never said you could keep him.”
A selection of emotionally charged monologues from three verbatim plays written with the words of relatives and friends of young people killed

In the Drama Studio and Theatre
Wednesday and Thursday 23rd May, 2013 at 7pm
See Miss Dolan or Mr Milnes for further details

On December 13th Mrs Liles and Mr Hackshaw took a minibus full of Year 11-13 students to the White Rose Centre to support St Gemma’s Hospice. We sang for about 20 minutes while Mr Bell and one of the St Gemma’s volunteers collected money from passing shoppers. We raised £174.19, excellent for the short time we were there. Staff commented on the enthusiasm and quality of our young people. As always, they have reason to be proud of themselves.

One of our local primary schools contacted me just before Christmas to ask if we could offer some workshops so I have been to Iveson Primary School 4 times to deliver Music with students from Ralph Thoresby.
Our first trip involved 4 Year 9 students (James Underwood, Tom Potter, Jordan Stansfield and Kierren Prentice) performing ‘7 Nation Army’ before leading practical sessions on kit, vocals, piano and bass. The Year 5 students worked with great energy to learn the riffs which they then performed to each other. 2 weeks later, another group (Jack Fletcher-Smith, Leah Shields and Tom Potter) returned to lead a workshop on keyboards, guitar, ukeleles and vocals. This time the song was ‘Candy’ and after 40 minutes the Y5’s were able to play the verse and chorus on their own.
An alternative project involved our Year 13’s (Daniel Donnell, Molly Mesher and Edna Sulejmanovic) working with Years 3 & 4 in 2 separate groups exploring African music. We had 2 very noisy sessions with each year group exploring djembe rhythms, cyclic patterns, call and response. Molly planned these sessions as part of a BTEC level 3 unit and it was clear that her decision to become a primary school teacher is well founded!
I would like to thank all the students involved for their hard work and mature attitude. They were a credit to the school and to themselves. The students from Iveson were an impressive bunch who worked with enthusiasm and we all enjoyed the experience.

Congratulations to Sam Boyes, Faye Priestley and Nigel Matambo in Year 11 and Heather Brook in Year 12. They have all been awarded bursaries from EMI Sound Foundation to support their work in Music. All 4 students are planning on spending their awards on instruments and equipment to further advance their learning in Music.

Vote with cash in reception.

Money can be donated by putting whatever you can afford in the boxes that are in reception. Friday morning will see me shave/dye the option that has collected the most wonga. Open to both staff and students - please give generously!
 
All proceeds to Comic Relief.

On Wednesday 6th March, Year 11 took part in a community cohesion day, as part of their PSHCE provision. There were lots of different activities going on including leaflet dropping for OPAL, helping out at Lawnswood Cemetery, bag packing at ASDA, volunteering in Kidz in Kampz, and Cragg House Farm, and many many more activities! The day was designed to highlight the importance of being a valuable member of a community and being able to put something 'back' into their community.
One particular activity was taking part in 'The Big Tidy' whereby a group of pupils accompanied by staff litter picked and tidied up the area around St Paul's Church and parts of Ireland Wood. The pupils responded to the task magnificently and made a real difference to our community! Well Done!