Performing Arts

Communicating with the Specialist Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2024, and welcome your input:

Penelope Lang (Performing Arts) penelope.lang@education.vic.gov.au 

Wominjeka!

Welcome to Term 1, 2024

Welcome back to school. I hope you all had a wonderful Summer holiday doing lots of exciting things. I spent some time in NSW visiting my family and enjoyed exploring Melbourne with my kids. 

I am very excited to be back......this is a PRODUCTION year!!! Our whole school production is called 'Cinderella and Rockerfella' and will be performed at Burrinja Theatre on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th August.  A student informed me that her mum appeared in "Cinderella" at our school back in 2000. It's been a long time between Balls. 

Please pop those dates in your diary now. Your child will perform on one night only, with the school traditionally being split into two groups by surname (A to K perform on night 1 and L to Z  perform on night 2). I will be able to confirm this with families next term.

We are always looking for people to help us during production and more information will be sent home soon.

I started back in week 2 after enjoying some long service leave in week 1. All students spent their first lesson with me discussing and unpacking our School Values. We talked about what respect, resilience and responsibility look like and sound like in the Performing Arts room. We agreed on these things:

RESPECT

"Treat our instruments carefully and encourage people to be brave"

"Listen to each other and be patient if you have to wait to perform"

"Respond rather than react"

"Show respect to our big mirrors"

"Use whole body listening"

"Be aware of people's personal space"

"Line up quickly and quietly for our PA lessons"

"Treat people how you would like them to treat you"

"Do not ride the cow" (this was my favourite!)

RESILIENCE

"Don't give up and bounce back when things don't go your way"

"Listen to feedforward"

"Remember....I can't do it YET"

"You grow when you have a go"

RESPONSIBILITY

"Put things away before we leave the room at the end of the lesson"

"Move safely around the room"

"Wait calmly and quietly before each lesson"

"Own my behaviour"

"Be kind to people and don't bring sand or bark chip into the room"

VSSS 2024

I am excited to announce that our 16 dancers and 3 reserves have now been selected for the VSSS and we will start rehearsals in week 5. I will be setting up a 'VSSS 2024' Google classroom page and your child must join this page in order to secure their spot. I will send an invite to the page next week. Please make sure you have added these dates to your diary if your child is participating:

7th March - rehearsal at school

14th May - rehearsal at school

20th June - rehearsal at school

5th August - hub rehearsal at Officer Secondary College

12th and 13th September - technical and dress rehearsal at John Cain Arena

14th September - Performance day/night

Payment details will be send home as soon as we have confirmation of the costs of the VSSS T-shirt. 

Instrumental Lessons

At the end of this page is information about our school's Instrumental Program that is run by Groove Foundations. We offer lessons on most instruments and have an outstanding team of musicians who deliver this program to over 100 students. The first 'trial' lesson is free of charge and your child will get the opportunity to perform in an end of year instrumental concert if they want to. Feel free to contact Jordan Scotney who would be happy to answer any of your questions.

School Choir

Junior and Senior choir have now started. The Senior choir meets every Wednesday and the Junior choir meets every Thursday. If your child has decided to commit to being a choir member (there was a 2 week try-out available) then it is very important that they bring along a plastic wallet or binder with pockets so that they can collect the lyric sheets for the songs we are singing. Both choirs will have the opportunity to perform at various assemblies throughout the year. I will notify you in advance if your child is singing.

     Learning in Performing Arts

Foundation:

Our focus in Performing Arts this term is on developing confidence through singing, dancing and drama games. Over the last few weeks, the Foundation students were given a walking tour of our big beautiful Performing Arts room. They explored all of the different spaces and enjoyed taking a bow on our mini stage. They have been practising their 'whole body listening' and learnt to sign and say our Acknowledgement of Country. It has been great to listen to them sing their names and some students enjoyed the challenge of drumming their name on our African Djembes. We danced in unison to the song 'Jumping Land' and practised moving and clapping to the beat. We also listened to Advance Australia Fair in preparation for our school assembly and listened to the story, 'Milli, Jack and the Dancing Cat'.

Year One and Two:

Our focus this term in Year 1 and 2 is on singing and dancing and building a level of performance confidence in preparation for our school production. The students learnt the new vocal warm up song, 'Up the ladder, down the ladder' and it was great to see the students being brave and singing solo. We warmed up our bodies before learning the 'Sasha Dance", a folk dance from Russia. We perfected our left and right cross over taps, our elbow hook turns and promenading safely around the room. We used language from another country and enjoyed socialising through dance. It was lots of fun. We revisited the lyrics to Advance Australia Fair and enjoyed a game of 'Rock Star'. 

Year Three and Four:

Our focus in Year 3 and 4 this term is on scripted and improvised drama. The students continued to practice their pitch matching skills by singing the class roll using the song 'Up the ladder, down the ladder'. We have discussed some of the tools that an Actor uses when performing and had fun changing our voices to capture a certain mood or emotion. It was great to see them experiment with changing pitch, tone and pace of voice. They have been working collaboratively in small groups (chosen by them) to prepare a short scripted piece of drama (chosen by them from 8 options) from our school production 'Cinderella and Rockerfella'. We are working on learning and retaining lines, facing the audience and using a drama voice.

Year Five and Six:

Our focus in Year 5 and 6 this term will be on our school production, 'Cinderella and Rockerfella' which will incorporate singing, dancing, acting and stagecraft skills. The students have spent some time doing a read through of the script to familiarise themselves with all of the different characters. We have over 35 speaking parts as well as back stage opportunities. We have discussed the various tools that Actors use when performing and developed our own 'Recipe for Success'. Students have been encouraged to learn their lines for their audition (which is next Friday) and I have given them time during our lessons to work on this.