West Rainton, Houghton-le-Spring DH4 6RN
As part of our preparations for Christmas performances in our local community, Y6 have been mastering two pieces of music on the handbells.
Their recent experience of composition on the keyboards meant they could transfer their knowledge of reading music with ease into another tuned instrument.
Keep an eye out for them at St Mary’s Church carol service and our own carols around the tree event in school.
Our Y6 and reception pupils are the very best of friends! This autumn, they worked together to perform a beautiful harvest assembly for parents, including a harvest ‘squiggle’ dance. They then went to local houses to deliver our harvest hampers filled with kind donations from our school community.
As a special treat for working so brilliantly together, the children then carved pumpkins together to decorate our spooky Hallowe’en disco.
We were thrilled to be invited to share in Springfield Lodge’s Open Day as part of a national day of welcoming communities into care homes.
The morning comprised of a sing-off in which we sang two modern songs and listened to two songs from the residents. The judge had a tricky decision to make, but decided our rendition of ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ was the winning song! We were rewarded with a fish and chip lunch in the garden and, as an extra treat, an ice cream each. What better way to celebrate the run-up to summer!
We love working together with our local community. The residents and children get on so well together.
Performing our dance routines on the stage of the Gala Theatre in Durham city is one of our favourite events of the year. This time, we took our Y6 class to reprise their performance of ‘The Greatest’ by Sia. That was followed by a ‘Mary Poppins Medley’ performed by a KS2 dance team who scooped the award for ‘most energetic routine’ on the day. Well done to all of our dancing stars.
We were delighted to welcome our friends from M&M Productions to perform for us again in school. This year we were treated to a performance of one of our favourite texts; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. After the show, Year 4 enjoyed a stagecraft workshop, learning all about how to put on a show.
Thank you for another brilliant performance!
This year, we were delighted to work in partnership with the residents and staff of Springfield Lodge residential home to perform a joint Nativity play for our community in St Mary’s church. As part of our dementia friendly action plan, we spent valuable time learning from, and about, each other as we rehearsed. The event was one of the highlights of our Christmas.
Pupils from years three to six practised and performed a highly professional production of Disney’s and Cameron Mackintosh’s ‘Mary Poppins Jr’. Taking on such an iconic show, we were determined to do it justice. We spent hours rehearsing songs such as ‘Chim Chimney’, ‘Spoonful of Sugar’ and ‘Let’s Go Fly a Kite’, and all the hard work paid off with rave reviews from our sell-out audiences. Well done Key Stage Two- you were ‘practically perfect’!
Pupils from Nursery to Year 2 took part in two fabulous Nativity plays for families and friends. Our EYFS pupils put in hours of rehearsals to tell the story of Jesus’ birth in ‘A King is Born’. Attention then turned to our Key Stage 1 pupils who put on a very ambitious and creative play called ‘Lights! Camel! Action!’ in which the birth of baby Jesus is set around a theme of Strictly Come Dancing! What a fantastic start to our performance season!
Year 5 pupils put on an outstanding 30-minute version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth as part of the Shakespeare Schools’ Festival at the Gala Theatre in November. Their performance, after months of hard work, was flawless and they were loud, clear and expressive in their speaking. We are incredibly proud of the whole cast and crew team who showed true professionalism throughout.
Wow! Our Key Stage Two dancers stole the show at the Durham Primary Dance Festival to end the term with a bang! Our routine to ‘This is Me’ from The Greatest Showman had the audience screaming and cheering with delight. That was after an awesome display by Year Six to ‘Ego’ which scooped the award for most original routine. Well done to all- you were AMAZING!
