Focus on Performing Arts

A Huge Term for Performing Arts!

What a couple of weeks for our performers at FPS! Not only did we sparkle on stage with ‘The Great Australian Road Trip’, we got collaborative with Thornbury High School to learn some new hip hop moves, sing together and combine with their exception band (featuring quite few familiar former FPS faces!).

But it doesn’t stop there. On Sunday, our choir and band will be performing ART FOR ALL at 10am on the oval. Joining us will be our special pop-up parent choir performing for the first time! Make sure you stick around to see our Grade 6 covers band Twists and Turns performing at 12:30pm.

Foundation Students

Our Foundation students have been on a musical trip around the world! We have been getting in our virtual plane and learning about songs and dances from different cultures, as well as from here in Australia. We’ve explored Māori poi dances, Chinese fan dances and learned how to play Frère Jacques on glockenspiels. Next term we’ll be creating characters and flexing our dramatic muscles!

Grade1 & 2 Students

What a performance our students brought to the stage on Thursday night! Each class travelled through a different landscape of Australia and created a wonderful dance and script to compliment it. Thank you to everyone who helped create sets, design lighting, settle nerves, and make the night as special as it was. Look for the link to watch the video of the concert – it will be sent out via Compass in the coming weeks.

Grade 3 & 4 Students

This term the Grade 3s and 4s started on a special musical Olympics, working in groups to compete in music challenges. This include beat-boxing and singing in rounds. 

We are spending the rest of the term learning to use Soundtrap for Education, a web-based music producing application which allows us to edit tracks, create music and collaborate with our friends. This is a great alternative program for students who might not have access to GarageBand and would still like to make music on a PC or android device. The students have loved it and are requesting that we extend our trial of this program, so watch this space! The students are currently working in groups to create a podcast and we hope to be able to share these with families by the end of term.

Grade 5 & 6 Students

We started this term by taking a trip down memory lane to the 80s and the advent of 8-bit music. Beside learning the power of a good Creative Sound Blaster (go Singapore). By the end of the journey we were familiar with words like chip tune, sawtooth, square wave and we created our own 8-bit music using Beepbox. 

We intend to showcase these creations in our Grade 5 & 6 production 'Let the Games Begin'. Please save the date 29th November at Kew High School. We have finished our auditions and cannot wait to start work on the concert. Our students are amazing and every year we manage to create and produce a musical extravaganza in a term and a half! As such, all help onboard is welcome and needed – please express your interest in helping out in this event using this form. 

Parent Choir (Acaparents/Drop-off Divas/ What’s in a Name?)

We have had two great sessions at the Grandview Hotel learning two songs for ART FOR ALL! Thank you to everyone for coming down to sing and all the enthusiasm. 

As we have had so much fun, we are going to squeeze in another session this Thursday 5th September, from 7:30pm at the Grandview Cellar Room (it has a fire people... and our singing is fire!). Everyone welcome. A special thanks to Michael Pascoe and Sarah Glass for equipping us with state-of-the-art mixing equipment and mics!

Thornbury High School Collaboration

We are so lucky to have a collaborative relationship with the incredible musical staff and students at Thornbury High School (THS). This is the second year we have enjoyed this incredible workshop day and it was another triumph!

Each Grade 2 class had a 40-minute hip hop session with students and staff from THS and then shared their new moves at a performance in the gym.

Our choir and bands collaborated with the THS bands and choirs and also shared their work at the performance in the gym.

Thank you to all our talented performers, incredible audience members and our friends at Thornbury High for an incredible day!

Thornbury High’s Production – Lion King

Part of our collaboration with THS meant that we were lucky enough to able to schedule an excursion to watch the matinee performance of this wonderful production. It was amazing to hear our ex-students playing on time in the orchestral pit and to watch our formers students star in this production. We were so proud to cheer for them, and to know that our musical and dramatic pursuits will extend beyond primary school. 

We are proud to be such a performative school where performing arts is valued by leadership, the community, and our students.

~ Olivia Li and Keri Spence, Super Proud FPS Performing Arts Teachers