Welcome to the SSMJ Arts Blog. The summer term was packed with more arts activities than I can fit on this blog – they include visual arts, performance, music, story telling and baking. Here are a few of the highlights…
Our year 6’s had an exciting final term at SSMJ, which culminated in the magnificent ‘I’m An 11 Year Old…Get Me Out of Here!’. Set against a painted backdrop of our school – complete with cheeky squirrels – the show was a huge success, with music, comedy and amazing performances. It was wonderful to see how the children have built on their skills and confidence since their year 4 performance. This was the first year group to experience putting on two full keystage 2 performances during their time at SSMJ and we could really see how the extra opportunities had benefitted them.
Earlier in the summer Year 6 had an artist visit and workshop by local artist Kelvin Jenkins. His work includes elements from his childhood in Wales, visual observations of life (including traffic bollards and ice creams) and plays on words and phrases. The children had a great time creating their own pieces in his signature collage style. He was bowled over by their imagination and visual arts skills.
Some of Kelvins pieces:
And year 6’s responses:
The year 6s were also lucky enough to have a workshop with comic illustrator Neill Cameron, author of Mega Robo Bros and The Doughnut Squad. They created their own comic strips and had a fun time learning about the profession and skills needed to be a cartoonist.
In July we collaborated with Iffley Academy and GLAM (Oxford Gardens, Libraries and Museums), to organise and plan a special art day at the Natural History Museum. A group of children from across key stage 2, had a talk by Sarah Lloyd, on how experts and museums create huge dinosaur models, based on fossils and clues. Afterwards the children created weird and wonderful creatures from visual resources in a fun art workshop. They all had a great time and worked wonderfully well with Iffley Academy’s inspiring pupils and staff.
It’s great to work with the Oxford museums and our year 3s and 5s attended Story Telling Magic in the summer term. They went on gallery tours and A Fantasy Map Mission literacy workshop. We are delighted that our collaboration with the museum is set to continue this year, with a chance for our youngest children to get involved.
Our annual Dance Festival was as special as ever. We love that the every child participates and staff members and even the school community join in the dancing too. Dr Charlotte Clarke is our visiting dance specialist and brings all her expertise and sense of fun to this special event on the school field.
Our children love baking and cooking and our annual SSMJ Bake Off is a popular event. We always marvel at the creativity of our children (and staff) when they showcase their baking creations.
Music has rocked out of school all summer, with year 6 practising for the performance (supported by year 5), and children also showcasing their music playing skills in front of parents and carers at the irock concert.
Earlier in the term, some of our key stage 2 children attended the wonderful 40th Anniversary Festival of Voices at Dorchester Cathedral, with very positive feedback on their contribution to the event. We also joined the amazing annual Big Summer Sing – these are great opportunities for our children to sing with other schools in Oxfordshire.
This year’s Camp Out Festival took place over two of the warmest days of the year. Music could be heard across the field all day and there were lots of creative activities. I ran rolling workshops under the shady art gazebo, where every child designed and painted a wooden disc as a souvenir of the day. Mr D told wild and wonderful stories in the story tent, making us all jump with his animated story telling, and there was face painting for everyone in the shade of the key stage 1 garden.
Alongside all of the creative events there has, of course, been lots going on in curriculum art. From key stage 1 observational work to our skilled year 4’s and 5s excelling at 3D work. Year 4 created cross-curricular cardboard castles. Working in teams, they designed and created amazing structures with a DT mechanical element eg a draw bridge or a portcullis. Year 5 became fashion designers, following the Access Art pathway to design outfits with a space and Star Wars theme. The children love this pathway and love expressing themselves through these fashion creations.
This autumn we will set out on our latest Artsmark journey, giving ourselves new and exciting creative goals and challenges to make sure that the arts at SSMJ keep on developing and thriving. We’ll update you on this in the next blog…
Ali Moreton,
Sarah Blackwell
and the arts team