Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Eisteddfod 2016

The Eisteddfod was our biggest highlight of the week and the level of enthusiasm and talent was higher than ever. So many children had made an effort to enter one of the many competitions and every entry was celebrated and judging was very difficult. Well done also to everyone who dressed up in either traditional clothes or the colours of their heritage or country.

Perhaps what was most exciting about this year is that we had a whole host of new winners who had either never entered or never won a rosette before. Congratulations to everyone who entered and thank you to the parents who supported and encouraged them. All these events take time for the children but also time and resources from parents so we are very grateful.

Thank you to Ms Alcock and all the staff who have supported her in making Eisteddfod happen again this year!

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Some, but not all of the performances included:

Dance In KS2, placed first was Tyrell (Yr 6) who performed a polished body popping routine with a back flip. Megan and Heba (Yr 5) performed a beautiful contemporary piece, complete with balances and characterisation. We also enjoyed contemporary dances from a range of female duos and groups plus an excellent and certainly brave interpretation of Thriller by Rowan (Yr3)

Recitation: The standard here was exceptionally high and everyone enjoyed the wonderful acting and interpretations of the poems set. Placed first in KS2 were Giulia (Yr 6)and Lina in (Yr 3) for combining excellent diction and characterisation. In KS1, Nina (Yr1) was placed first for her strong clear and characterful interpretation of ‘Cats Sleep Anywhere’.

Instrument performance: An excellent range of instruments were played and all the children played with confidence and without errors. Well done! Placed first were Henry (Yr 6) for Year 5/6 for his uplifting rendition of Nina Simone’s ‘How it feels to be free’ and Fabienne (yr 3) for her piano piece which was praised for its complexity and her musicality. In KS1, Rico was placed first for his confident piano playing which again impressed everyone with its level of challenge for a year 2 child.

Singing: Placed first In Year 5/6 was Jane for her clarity and excellent accent singing in French which is not her first or second language. In Year 3/4 Jamila was placed first for composing and performing her own song about changing the world! Well done Jamila. In Year 1/2 Daisy was placed first for her beautiful singing of “I dreamed a dream’ from Les Miserables.

Art, Handwriting and Story writing: There so many winners and every entry was excellent! All the winning entries and their creators are on the school blog. We hope to have an exhibition of the entries early in the summer term. The ‘art through technology’ presented the highest quality of all the competitions. Mrs Jenkins and the art team had an extremely hard time choosing any winners. If your child did enter this competition, well done to them! The videos are now on the school blog.

Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Art Through Technology “Video” – Eisteddfod 2016

Every entry into this category was excellent so we thought we would share them all! Well done everyone.

The theme was change! The creators of each film all entered under a ‘fake name’ to make judging fair so we have some very ‘creative’ names as well. They are all unlisted on youtube which means that you will only be able to access them via these links here and they are non searchable via you tube. If you do not want to share your video, please let the office know.

Here is the first Entry by Special Junior in Year 6.

This next one is a stop motion film by The Professor in Year 1.

Next up is a video by Darf flappy Bird A3 Paper! The film is called ‘Time Travel’. It has been created using models, illustrations and music ( both on the recorder and beat boxing).

Another contribution from Year 6. This one is by ‘The Creator’ and is called ‘The Adventure of Changing’.It is a very special film about a little boy growing up through a series of family photographs.

From year 5 and ‘Tom Drummond’, ‘Changes’ with a David Bowie soundtrack and lots of fun lego animation. We loved the space scene and the use of lego throughout.

Another Year 6 entry. Well done to ‘Thechosenone’ for some excellent programming skills for this animation. Mr Bakas would be very proud.

Year 4 was well represented by this excellent entry from ‘Help,I can’t think of a name!”. We imagine thats because all their creative energy went into the making of this short film which tells of the evolution of man.

Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Knife and Packer!

This week, to celebrate World Book Day, Barkis Class went to the National Portrait Gallery to meet the writer-illustrator team Knife and Packer. The children had the exciting opportunity to create characters with the authors, and all draw their own cartoon version of them. We then went into the gallery, where the children created their own illustrated heroes and wicked villains in response to the gallery portraits. If you’re enjoying these fantastic illustrations at home, your child could write a story featuring their characters!

Don’t forget that we will be welcoming two more author/illustrators to Charles Dickens Primary next Wednesday when we celebrate World Book Day in school ( 9th March).

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Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Old Kent Road Tales (After Chaucer)

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Well done to children in Year 5 and 6 for their original productions this week. Following reading an
abridged version of the Canterbury Tales, children devised and wrote their own stories and plays
to bring the tales into 2016.

On Wednesday, our ‘Old Kent Road Tales’ project came to fruition! We welcomed a huge audience
of parents who came to see the plays the children had devised, scripted, designed and performed
themselves. Everyone was impressed by the children’s wild imaginations and by the way in which
the show came together with a musical score composed by the children and conducted by Pete
Letanka.

All of the children made important contributions to the plays but special mentions go to Hamza,
Lola, Ruby and Sofia who all conquered their nerves to give outstanding performances.
We would also like to thank the parents who generously provided after show refreshments – the
children loved being able to celebrate their successes with their families so many thanks for your
support

Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

A visit to the Royal Ballet

This week, Chuzzlewit class went to see the Royal Ballet perform at the wonderful Royal Opera House. We saw a double programme ‘Rhapsody/The Two Pigeons’,choreographed by Frederick Ashton, the founder choreographer of The Royal Ballet.

‘Rhapsody’ is a celebration of the male virtuoso and the principal female role also had choreography of breathtaking clarity and speed.

The Two Pigeons is a story of a wayward young man blind to the value of what is right in front him and the nature of love was explored!

The children had an amazing time and were hugely inspired to the point that some were even dancing in the aisles! We can’t wait to do more dance with Delene, our Dancer in Residence, in the coming weeks.

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Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Key Stage One Winter Show! Around the World in 80 days

Well done to all the children in years 1 and 2 for a brilliant performance of their show. Parents who joined me will agree that every child sang beautifully and seemed to be enjoying themselves as they told us about the customs of other countries where Christmas is celebrated including Australia, Spain, the USA and Malawi. During all the applause that followed each performance I gave a special congratulations to Daniel (INIckleby Class) who sang a beautiful solo and bravely stood on the stage during the afternoon performance. Thank you to Mr Eggleton and his talented team for staging such and enjoyable show for everyone.

More photos are on the way!

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Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

KS2 Show – 1001 Arabian Nights

No sooner had the applause died down for the Year 1 and 2 show, did the lights go up for the Year 3 and 4 performance. It was a hugely accomplished performance with joyful and clear singing from all the children as well as lots of excellent and comedy acting from those children with speaking parts, particularly Bibi, Omar, Jibril, Tiarna and Fabienne who had lots of lines to remember! Every child spoke and sang with confidence and the show highlighted the very strong and warm relationships between the teaching staff and the pupils. Thank you Mr Huxley and your inspiring team for showcasing the children so brilliantly. 

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Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

The Canterbury Tales – Pickwick Class Assembly

HERE BIGINNETH THE BOOK OF THE TALES OF CAUNTERBURY.
THE CANTERBURY TALES STARTS HERE.

Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,
And smale fowles maken melodye,
That slepen al the night with open yë,
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages):

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Well done to Pickwick class for their assembly introducing the Canterbury Tales Project to the school. We learnt about why Medieval people went on pilgrimages, the life of Thomas Becket, Geoffrey Chaucer and watched an entertaining and age-appropriate version of The Pardoner’s Tale. Well done Pickwick Class

Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Year 6 Show – Daffodil Scissors

Year 6 excelled in their performance of Daffodil Scissors. Not only did they sing, dance and act but they also wrote many of the songs with our musician in residence, Pete Letanka. The children worked brilliantly as a team, supporting each other very well and allowing personalities to shine through.

A special well done to Michael, Theo, Jonatan and Ramez for their management of the stage and the lighting.

Thank you to all the parents who came along to support their child – here are the photos as promised – lots of group shots towards the end ( over 100 photos)

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Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Art Week

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We are all rather sad that art week came to a close but we can all agree it was a great success. Photographs of some of the work are on the school blog and Sara is continuing to work on displaying the larger scale pieces around the school. As well as two hours of ‘fine’ art each day, the children took part in some fascinating collaborative projects. These included each class being assigned a box of Lego of a single colour – the children built models and these were displayed in the hall to reflect on whether the colour influenced the design. The children also each built a time boat of dreams – every tiny boat was gathered together to represent a fleet of hopes.

This week Sara is working on assembling a giant chandelier and we say goodbye to the secret garden wall, although the large scale mini beast pictures have escaped and can be found all over the school.

Thank you to Sara, Jaf, Lucille and Linda for the ideas, the passion and making it happen!