Be Creative! Spring Term Co-Curricular Bulletin
Creativity is the key to the children’s ability to be prepared for the world beyond Belhaven. Working collaboratively, negotiating difficult challenges with ‘out of the box’ thinking and relishing the prospect of problem-solving are all encouraged daily at Belhaven, not only in our lessons but in the co-curriculum that represents such a significant proportion of the daily timetable.
There is so much that takes place in a term that we could not hope to do it all justice in one document, but we hope that this will give just a flavour of the range of activities that we have on offer!
Games: Hockey, Netball and Football
In netball, the senior girls have devised their own centre pass set moves. In each quarter, they change the sequence, so the opposition can’t work out what we are up to! In hockey, the U9s paired up for some ‘Blind Hockey’ using their skills to coach one another. Meanwhile, in football sessions, Mr. Purkiss continues to come up with new skills and drills to use and it has been great to have had fixtures against Longridge Towers and Gordonstoun.
Music
In their music lessons, the children have the opportunity to try out new instruments and learn to play as part of a group. During break, there are a variety of different activities on offer in the Music School; guitar group, rock band and string group to name but a few.
The Music department has been incredibly busy this term! The Mansfield Cup provided the central focus for the first half of term. Almost every single pupil found time throughout the week to practise solos, ensembles and Patrol songs. This competitive drive helped to launch the Boarders’ practice timetable, now successfully established and continuing next term, with incentives for a ‘streak’ of 11 consecutive days of practice!
In addition, pupils have been aiming high by entering national competitions. Imogen has entered the ‘Young Song Writers’ competition with an original song composition. The Pipe Band strengthened ties with the Fettes and Strathallan Pipe Bands with Piping Performance workshops, the Chamber choir performed as part of the Edinburgh Music Competition Festival and Dr Irvine visited the Tech crew for production sessions.
At our recent Open Day, performers showcased solo songs from the musical to prospective pupils and their families and Music scholar Lily played JS Bach’s Minuet 1.
In the classroom, we focused on ‘Key concepts’ and used them to describe pieces of Music. Through a variety of topics, including ‘Vocal Music’, ‘The Musical’, ‘Blues and Jazz’, ‘Scottish Music’ and a full demonstration of tuned percussion, pupils across all 5 year groups have learned specific concepts that align with these great topics. Concept highlights include; Timbre, Melismatic, Syllabic, Clarsach, Bodrahn, Slapaphone, pit-orchestra, Syncopation, Walking Bass and Dixieland Jazz - to name but a few! Performance has been enhanced with the retention of our core concepts of tempo, dynamics, and articulations.
All of this key music knowledge is designed to build confidence in musical discussion and performance. This confidence was echoed in the term’s mixed music recital, where we enjoyed performances from bass guitar, electric guitar, pipes, trombone, voice, cello, piano and strings.
This term has not been short of opportunities to be creative, find the courage and give it a go!
Drama
During their class drama lessons, the children have the chance to improvise and take on different roles, taking them out of their comfort zone to try new voices and actions. Puppets are regularly ‘brought to life’ to help to create short sketches on bullying, bringing different and often difficult themes to the forefront.
The main focus of the term was to rehearse for the wonderful ‘Oliver! Jr.’ that proved to be such a triumph at the end of term. Well done to everyone involved!
Art and DT
The Art department has been a hive of activity, with sculpture and clay projects, scenery painting, prop making and portfolio preparation for scholarship.
Form 6 have made splendid sculpture penguins and clay fish, Form 5 have worked enthusiastically on sculpture chameleons and coil pots and form 4 have produced some beautiful bird jugs and curlew sculptures.
Form 3 have been coil building and decorating gorgeous Egyptian inspired vases. Form 2 have created slab-built expressive and imaginative ‘Buildings from Dreams’. Form 1 have been exploring the theme of ‘Parent and Child’ and creating figure sculptures. The Art scholars all created stunning portfolios, displayed during the production of ‘Oliver! Jr’, representing the culmination of much hard work. This is just the beginning of their blossoming talent.
In DT, Form 4 are busy creating Brush Monsters ready to take part in Mrs Haddon’s annual Brush Monster Race, whilst Form 3 are busy creating their own Marionettes.
On a Wednesday afternoon, Mrs Haddon’s DT activity is very popular and there has been much designing, problem solving and recycling of cardboard! Marionettes, brush monsters, board games, tree houses, periscopes, balloon cars and glove puppets have all been created.
Activities
Amongst the 28 different activities on offer this term, all of which encourage creativity in different ways. Do take a look at the school website to see the various other creative activities on offer this term. Here are just a few of this term's activities.
Knitting and Crochet
These are two popular activities for both boys and girls. It has been great to see what has been created so far. Flora has already made a hat in knitting and is now starting on a new piece of work. Taking advantage of the spring sunshine, the crochet group ventured outside to enjoy the spring evenings.
Watercolours
Watercolours is an activity enjoyed by many who want to learn tips for creating wonderful effects on paper with different types of washes. It is suitable for beginners or pupils who are already quite experienced with this media. We try 'wet on wet' and 'wet on dry' and usually the whole group has a go at painting a landscape or a still life during one or two activity sessions and at the end we all admire our work and discuss what went well and what didn't! It's all for a bit of fun, really.
Airfix
The ever-popular airfix activity allows pupils to bring in models from home and work on constructing and painting them. This is also a popular breaktime activity as the children are keen to work on their chosen pieces. Models range from planes and tanks to Warhammer.
As the Spring Term draws to a close, the children have already chosen their activities for the Summer Term – we can’t wait to see what they will create next!
