Celebration of the Arts 2023

We are now only a week away from Celebration of the Arts 2023 - the highpoint of our school year.

As you are hopefully now aware, the night sees all of our students involved in musical performances with their classmates - sharing the hard work they have been doing at school with Michael in their Performing Arts lessons. 

Each child will also be exhibiting their Visual Arts work as a part of our SKiPPS art show. This allows them to share the learning and creativity they have shown in the Visual Arts room with Chantel.

Each year the performances and art work are linked to a theme and this year we have chosen 'Luminoso' - the Italian word for light. 

We ask that all families are at school on the evening of Thursday 2nd November to take part in this unique community celebration. The event starts at 5pm, with performances commencing at 5:30. We will finish up shortly after 8:30pm.

Unlike a more traditional 'school performance', the student performances are broken up throughout the evening with breaks in between. Performances will take place on the stage in the quadrangle and seating will be available. We encourage you to take a seat for your child's performance and then move on to the Art Show to free up seats for parents of other year levels.  There will also be a variety of food and drink available and the opportunity to socialise with other families and enjoy the overall ambience of a SKiPPS event. 

During the night of Celebration of the Arts, Thursday 2nd November, we ask parents and carers to take their children to the Year 5/6 building to meet their teachers at the below times. 

Families can then find a seat in the Quadrangle ready to watch their child perform. Students will wait ‘backstage’ with staff until it’s time to go on stage. 

Foundation and Year 1/2 students will finish their performance on the basketball court. They will wait with their teacher to be collected. 

Year 3-6 students will be dismissed by their teachers from the backstage area. Please arrange a location to meet your child after their performance.

Costumes

Costumes need to be brought to school on Monday 30th October for the whole school dress rehearsal.  Please pack the costume in a bag for students to get changed into at school. Don't forget to label items with their name. Costumes will be returned that afternoon ready for Thursday's event. 

We ask for your help in ensuring your child is in costume for the evening. These costumes are quite broad and have been chosen to be (hopefully) quite straightforward to achieve with what might already be in your child's wardrobe, without the need to go out and purchase lots of new items.

Your child needs to feel comfortable and be able to move freely.  Un-obstructive head-ware is optional. As always, we endeavour to make the costuming for the evening as simple, practical, inexpensive, and as sustainable as possible. Second-hand shops and your child’s wardrobe are a great place to start. 

Costumes for Foundation - Year 2

• As the theme is light, we would like the Foundation and Year 1/2 students to wear rainbow colours as white light is a combination of all the colours in the colour spectrum. 

Costumes for Years 3-6

• As the theme is light, we would like students to wear black or dark blue t-shirt or top with something that can reflect light (sparkles, sequins, metallic fabrics etc. in any colours). 

Volunteers needed

As well as the many amazing performances and the art show, a huge part of the success of the event are the food and drink stall on the evening that turn COTA into a wonderful community event.

SKiPPA, our Parents' Association, are once again coordinating this part of the night and need a large number of parents to volunteer for a slot. We ask that all families make an effort to donate some time to the success of the evening.

The phrase 'many hands make light work' is completely true and having a wide range of parents help out mean that our amazing SKiPPA parents get some time to watch their own children perform and enjoy the evening.

Please consider signing up to help out at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B094BABA62EA3F85-45262830-celebration#/ 

As we prepare for the night of the 2nd November, Chantel and Michael are always in need of parent volunteers to help them set up the stage and Art how and ensure everything is ready to go. If you have any free time in the week leading up to COTA, Chantel would love to hear from you at chantel.jose@education.vic.gov.au