Celebration of the Arts 2023 - Thank yous

As described earlier in the newsletter, last Thursday's Celebration of the Arts evening was a massive success.

The whole evening, from the art show, to the performances, to the food and even the weather was absolutely perfect.

As I am sure you can imagine, an event like this can't take place without the hard work and generosity of a lot of people and we would like to thank;

• Chantel and Michael - COTA has always relied on our Arts teachers going above and beyond to ensure such a high-level of performances and to enjoy such an engaging and professionally produced art show. It is rare that schools can put on an event like this where every singl student has work on display and gets up on stage. Chantel and Michael did such an amazing job to produce such a high-quality of learning and this is a reflection of the great things that happen in their classrooms throughout the year.

• Mat Gdanitz - Once again, Mat donated his time and expertise to setting up the lighting and filming the entire event. We look forward to sharing the finished product with you as a lasting memento of COTA 2023.

• SKiPPA - Our wonderful Parents' Association are responsible for the food and drink served during the night and for turning COTA from an Arts how into such a lovely community event. They ran all of the stalls, ensured that they were staffed and were the last to leave at the end of the night. Special thanks to Alana Kelly, Rebecca Benson, Brook Saunders, Allison Shanahan and Kara Barbuto.

• The cake bakers and parent volunteers - beyond SKiPPA, the night was successful due to the families that took up the challenge to bake and donate cakes for the cake stall and the parents who volunteered via signup genius to help out on the stalls. Having so many people willing to put in a shift for the school makes events like this possible and we are really grateful. We do have a large number of Tupperware and cake containers left over in the staffroom - please come and collect these asap.

• The whole staff - beyond Chantel and Michael, our whole team of teachers and Education Support staff got involved in the event, rehearsing their classes, supporting particularly nervous students to move outside their comfort zone, working on the night as art show curators and stage managers, helping out on busy food stalls and finally getting up and dancing as a finale. This is a great reminder of the committed and talented staff team that we are so lucky to have at SKiPPS. Special thanks to Bianca Langenberg, our Year 3/4 teacher for using her dance skills to choreograph the Year 3/4 and staff dance performances.  

• Elisa Casagrande and Alex Moscon - our wonderfully generous SKiPPS parents for donating the delicious bread rolls for the burger stall.

• Bianca Loiocono - Once again, our COTA poster and artwork were produced this year by the wonderful SKiPPS parent and artist Bianca Loiocono. We thank her for donating her talent and time to make this beautiful artwork.

• Kelm Hire - for the second year running, the staging of our art show was supported by generous donations by SKiPPS family the Kelms of Kelm Hire. The temporary fencing lent to the school allowed us to create the cave and barriers that turned our art show into something magical.