Ashmount Primary School
Ashmount Road, London, N19 3BH Tel: 020 7272 7145 email: office@ashmount.islington.sch.uk
Arts
Dance
On 25 March 2009 Year 6 Green and Year 5 Blue performed their own original dance composition at Sadler's Wells Theatre as part of the Connect Festival. The piece is five minutes long, and its theme is 'The Lifecycle of Plants'.
The children were highly commended for their wonderful performance, and also for their behaviour backstage.
'When we arrived we rehearsed - and it felt different - more like we had to get it right! We had practised a lot at school, but it felt much more important at Sadler's Wells. There were many different schools there, doing different sorts of dances, and the audience was made up of parents, other teachers and Mrs McGee! Everyone thought it was brilliant! We had a good time, everyone did very well, and our teachers were very proud of us.' Rubell Ahmed, 6 Green
Earlier, on 13 March, the children had picked up some tips when they visited Sadler's Wells for a matinee performance of some inspirational work featuring young dancers from many different backgrounds.
We are also hoping to arrange for some Sadler's Wells dancers to visit us here at Ashmount. In the meantime, Ms Stacey and Ms Greener - who both recently took part in some dance workshops at Sadler's Wells - have been on hand to help with the choreography, ably assisted by Pam Cox and Sharon Turney!
Music
Music news hot off the press is that we have joined Sing Up, the Music Manifesto's National Singing Programme - a project to encourage children to sing every day. The Sing Up Song Bank has hundreds of songs for different areas of the curriculum, different festivals, different ages and different styles, all complete with backing tracks, activities and sheet music.
The whole school is currently learning Recycle It! - click to listen and practise at home!
Children from Year 4 took part in a very special musical performance at the Union Chapel, along with 8 other Islington Schools, on 15 December 2008.
They had been working during the term with composer Pete Letanka and pupils from Drayton Park School to create their own Christmas song, Santa's Factory - and here they are performing it on stage.
Click on the button below to listen to the backing track, and here to read the music score. Congratulations to all who took part, and thank you to Music Platform.
Theatre
On 17 and 18 December 2008 parents and carers were treated to performances of Ashmount's Christmas play, The Innkeeper, by our own Alan Gruner. Pictured left is the Innkeeper himself with Mary and the donkey.
This nativity story was full of laughter and music - especially when the whole school joined in on Hosanna Rock!
Well done to the actors, the musicians and the singing audience, who all made this such a special production.
Meanwhile, on 4 December 2008 the whole school enjoyed an outing to see Cinderella at the Millfield Theatre in Edmonton. Our thanks to the PTA for funding the whole cost of this wonderful trip.
And theatrical inspiration is spreading through the school! That much was clear from the Drama Club's performance of Tyrannosaurus Drip on 3 December. Well done to all the performers, and many thanks to Tom from Icon Theatre.
We Are Writers!
Ashmount children have written a fantastic book of stories and poems inspired by their work to celebrate Black History Month. The book is published by the school in association with Scholastic publishers.
The book is available to buy at a price of just £5.99 - contact the PTA for more information.
Art
The National Association for Decorative and Fine Arts Society (NADFAS) have kindly awarded Ashmount a grant for an artwork, HAPPY/SAD. The NADFAS governors visited the school and observed our talented children expressing happy and sad feelings. Julie Beech, a local artist, has now completed the final sculptures which are on display outside the school's main entrance.
