Newsletter 4 rincipal’s Report Spring is here and creative learning is happening from 9am – 5.15pm for all years at Rye Studio School as summer hour’s return. Beyond the busy classroom experience further enrichment has inspired new skills and developed additional team building opportunities. Year 10 worked with industry P partners, Same Sky and Under 1 Sun using performing arts skills to develop and deepen understanding of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Quotations and descriptive passages were brought to life in the creation of a 15ft articulated street theatre puppet. Theatre make-up, documentary photography and carnival drumming extended the theme. Students working diligently with visiting professionals and then took their skills to the streets of France to meet our partner school, College Jean Moulin and parade with them in Parade Des Geants. Year 10 were phenomenal ambassadors, entertaining thousands that lined the streets of Berck and performing for an incredible three hours. What a celebration! Our relationship with the Creative Industries broadened further this term as we welcomed numerous artists, practitioners and business chief executives into Studio School. Artist Ian Penney, showed paper cutting techniques, Dave Barker brought reggae to life with the music students and Beth Butterwick shared top tips on business management. Diverse talent and experience is being shared with our students to create a vibrant, inspiring learning environment. These opportunities are rare and valuable and students share their skills and talents through leadership as seen this term in the Get Set Programme in over ten local schools to gain Arts Awards. As a school we aim to share our opportunities with others and Alex Quisi, Learning Coach for Photography will be setting off to Rwanda this Easter to represent Rye Studio School and support street children by introducing photography skills to them for employment opportunities. This will develop into a joint photography project with year 10 and the start of a partnership with Rwanda Aid, which will become a focus for our fund raising activities. Alex will share his experiences in the next newsletter and we thank him for his pioneering work with David Chaplin, from Rwanda Aid. Best Wishes Jo Townshend, Principal S4 Open Evening Another busy and exciting evening came together for the Open Evening for KS4 students. The Production Arts students turned the outside of the building into a kaleidoscope of colour whilst inside there were musical performances from Y10 supported by the BTEC musicians K and drama cameos from the performing arts students. The photographers demonstrated a photographic workshop and the adjoining room became a mini cinema for creative digital media students to screen their most recent productions. Downstairs an element of normality was restored with displays of the more tradition core subjects with Maths, Science, English, IT and Business studies to the fore. Ian Gillespie, Assistant Principal xecutive Principal’s Report The Rye Academy Trust works closely to support partner primary schools in the Rye area and I have been very grateful E to Rye Studio School students for the excellent work that they have undertaken with several local primary schools this year. This work has included some excellent art and music workshops, which in turn produced work that contributed to the “Get Set” animation project as well as some leadership skills work with Key Stage 2 children. Last week, Milo and Mia gave their time to organise a Disco in the Beckley Village Hall for all of the children who attend Beckley Church of England Primary School and the event was a huge success. Parents say that it was the best Disco ever organised at the school with great music and activities running throughout the Disco which kept the children focussed and enjoying every minute of the action. It is so good to see our Studio School students inspiring younger children and offering such brilliant service to our local community. Thank you to all of the students involved in these projects. Ann Cockerham, Executive Principal CSkills Conference I attended the annual conference of Creative and Cultural Skills in early March. Held at the Backstage Centre, Thurrock, where KS5 students had their first induction with studio school, the building is home to an excellent academy of further stage and technical skills, as well as being a venue for leading bands to C rehearse before going on tours. Sited next to the Royal Opera House’s set construction building and only 90 minutes from Rye, it is a fabulous place to learn more about all things theatrical. The conference was inspiring, with guest speakers including leading British Designer Wayne Hemmingway, currently undertaking the major regeneration task on Dreamland in Margate. He talked about young people at the heart of the creative industries and how the industry brings £71bn into the UK economy and employs over 5% of the working population. We also heard from Doug Richard, founder of the School for Start Ups and author of the Richard Review of Apprenticeships. Ed Vaizey MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Culture spoke to delegates, as too did comedian Matt Lacey about the value of internships. Breakout sessions included a discussion about work placements from New College Nottingham and Wiltshire College and their collaboration with neighbouring theatres to deliver lessons. I will be following up a number of leads from the day for possible internships for our students, including the Royal Opera House, The Arts, Craft, and Design Councils, The London Theatre Consortium, the Tate and Sadler’s Wells. I sincerely hope that we can open up opportunities for our students to learn in their world-leading institutions. Rebekah Gilbert, Assistant Principal for Business Engagement arnival Drop Day As English students prepare for controlled assessments on Macbeth, they need to understand how characters in the play would respond to the infamous witches. To deepen their knowledge of the witches, all year 10 students began to design a witch by looking at quotes from Shakespeare; finding C descriptive details to inform the costume and construction, referring to key quotes that could be used back in the classroom. Industry partners were brought in and plans were made to take the giant puppet to France. Countdown to the France trip had begun! Three days of intensive creativity were to follow in the lead up to the carnival in Berck. The mission: To build a 12-foot Giant Witch inspired by the Witches in Macbeth and also teach a group of students how to march and drum for 3 straight hours. A tall order you may have thought, but apparently not for our students. On the Wednesday we had a ‘willow withies’ workshop from puppet making extraor- dinaire Nikki Gunson, of Same Sky. She worked with different groups of year 10 students and taught them the essential skills and tips for creating giant structures, in which the students dove head first into. After many splinters and blistered fingers the puppet slowly began to take shape. In every corner of the room there seemed to be different structures being assembled by what looked like teams of scurrying ants! Those that were not involved in the building were squeezing in to snap as many photos as possible, and there was also the team of drummers outside practicing over and over, as if creating a working tem- po! The whole day reminded me of an ancient Egyptian construction site. Towards the end of the day our Witch was nearing completion, and once you had picked your way over exhausted scattered teenagers, nursing their calloused hands, all that was left to do was TWO full days of painting… But all joking aside it was a very successful and enjoyable day, with each of the stu- dents showing just what they are capable of, so a huge thank you to each and every one of them. Also a big thank you to Nikki Gunson, who we will hopefully work with again in the future and also the students from Rye College, Georgia Burt and Alex Morris for leading the Blocco Drummers. Venn Past, Personal Coach and Teaching Assistant arnival des Geants, Berck KS4 Rye Studio School students showcased their response to their learning in GCSE English on Shakespeare’s Macbeth by C building a giant effigy of a witch from withies and tissue paper. Together with our amazing Bloco drummers we crossed the Channel/Manche to join the “Carnival des Geants” with our partner school College Jean Moulin in Berck northern France and created an exciting fusion of quintessential English culture with traditional French folk culture which culminated in a spectacular parade. Angela Delf and Karen Davenport - Personal Coaches ork Placement News Another exciting term for studio school students out on work placements. During the February half term, two lucky students, Bella Woodcock and Mia Hope, got the opportunity to work for five days at London’s top Fashion PR Company just off Regent Street – see their article for W full details. Students continue to gain valuable theatre experience, both backstage and front of house, learning the intricacies of running a busy theatre, at St Mary in the Castle and the Stables. Good arts administration skills are being gained by one student at the De La Warr Pavilion, and other students are learning about running classes for junior students with the White Rock Theatre, This Time Around Dance and Silver Lee Dance School; plus another is learning juniors coaching skills at the 1066 Gym in Bexhill. Another of our KS4 students travels regularly to London to experience the world of styling and makeup with top designer Ruby Hammer. She is learning all about promotion, marketing, and blogging. We are grateful to the continued support of our major hoteliers, The George and The Mermaid, where students are learning about excellent customer service in these top boutique establishments.