Robin Hood JI School

Year 4s outdoor stage

In the summer term of 2009 I was fortunate enough to work on a Bright Space project at Robin Hood JI School in Hall Green, Birmingham. Working with Year 5 over a period of two months, 60 pupils produced nine films documenting creative projects happening in Year 3 and Year 4.

The ambitious project involved two Year 5 classes planning their films, researching their subjects, conducting all of their own filming and sound recording and then editing the footage into films which were then screened in front of most of the Juniors.

Four of the films focused on Year 4’s construction of an outdoor, interactive stage with Creative Practitioner, Lawrence Molloy. There is more information on the film project over on Year 5’s blog and plenty of information and pictures of the stage project on Year 4’s blog.

A further five films looked at all of the stages of the creation of a performance of ‘The Little Mermaid’ on the main stage at The Rep. The project, spearheaded by Caroline McDowell from Moving Hands Theatre involved Year 3 pupils in scripting and performing the play with their own handmade props, puppets and scenery. The backdrop and much of the soundtrack to the performance was created by pupils from Kleinmond School in Cape Town, South Africa, Robin Hood School’s twin school.

Pupils from Years 3, 4 and 5 took away copies of the DVD as a record of their hard work. The films were also premiered in the township of Kleinmond; an excellent means of showing the pupils there what children in Birmingham had been doing, and to see their work projected onto the main stage of The Rep!

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