Arts Blog

June 2012

Another busy year for the Performing Arts at OSCA. I cant believe its been a whole year since we started blogging.

A huge thank you must go out to all of the students from years 7 - 13 that were involved in the fantastic production of 'Back to The 80s!' whether you were strutting your stuff on stage, playing in the band, making sure props and people were in the right place or making us sound and look fantastic from the balcony. What a brilliant team effort! The production was fantastic evidence of what the students of OSCA can achieve when they work together. I hope you all enjoyed the Pizza Party reward!

Our BTEC students have been busy to. Y10 Dance were invited to perform in Birmingham as part of a dance festival after working with an Asian dancer/choreographer. The group were extremely professional throughout the creative process and represented the academy well at the final performance.  y11 Music have been busy finishing off their level 3 qualification a year early and all of them have passed! They also performed their own song 'Broken Promises' at the leavers assembly which went down really well with the audience. Y11 drama having been working really hard to complete their BTEC work to and I want to congratulate them for the excellent commitment they have shown to getting the job done with Miss Cooper. 

The Y10 Btec Music group 'Purple Inc music Productions' have managed to raise an outstanding £430 for the Hibbs Lupus Trust through the sale of their 'Back to the 80s' Soundtrack CD that they developed and produced as part of their BTEC course. The charity were amazed by their hard work and dedication when they came to meet them in May.

Year 9 are currently getting into the spirit of summer (even if the weather isn't!) in Mr Cooper's music lessons as they explore and perform Samba, and year 8 have been experimenting with cover versions of pop songs in the Teacher Lab.

We are currently in the process of planning lots of new and exciting opportunities for our learners in September so keep a look out for advertisements of next years performing opportunities. Enjoy the Summer!

February 2012

Happy New year from The Performing Arts!

Sorry for the delay but January has been hectic!
We saw the Autumn term out in style with some top-notch performances from the Gleeks who performed 'Said it All' by Take That and 'Merry Christmas Everyone' and the Y11 Level 3 BTEC Musicians with their arrangement of 'Last Christmas'. We are now gearing up for this years biggest performance and rehearsals are in full swing for 'Back to the Eighties!' which premieres at OSCA during April (17th-19th) - keep a look out for when tickets are available.

The Dance department is also buzzing as everyone grabs every moment of free time to rehearse and prepare for the forthcoming 'Gym and Dance' festival - get your tickets early as the routines are looking amazing already.

 Y10 BTEC Musicians have set up their own record Label - Purple Inc Music Productions (P.I.M.P!) and are currently in the process of securing some funding to produce their first CD which will tie in with Back to the eighties.

Year 11 drama have been preparing performances of 'Our Day Out' for their BTEC course, and Y10 Dance will soon be working with a professional dancer to create and perform their own routines. These will then be performed at a venue in Birmingham. Exciting times!

Year 7 also had a fantastic arts experience on our last L4S day, getting the opportunity to work with professional dancers, actors, musicians and artists fom Gazebo. This work will go towards their evidence for a bronze Arts Award and a big thanks goes to Miss Blount for organising an amazing day.

Students across the performing arts continue to be rewarded for their excellent contribution to learning  - what could you do to receive one of our limited edition postcards?

 Don't forget to come along to one of our brilliant after school clubs!

September 2011

The Performing Arts are back with a bang at OSCA! Our new clubs are all up and running - If you havent had chance yet then click here for our timetable http://www.ormistonsandwell.org.uk/Diary/Performing-Arts-Club-Schedule-Available/ if you haven't been along yet to an club then come along and give one a try - everyone is welcome! We have two new fantatsic additions to our Drama Department - Miss Cooper joins us from Bedford Academy and she will be working alongside Mr Edmundson - OSCA's new Assistant Principal. Both of them have already made a big impact on our students!

Preparations are well under way for this years musical - "Back To The Eighties!!" which will be perfromed in April 2012 - auditions are coming soon so which this space to see which talented performers will be taking us back in time to an american High School (best get practising those accents - but i'm sure we can get Miss Whitfield to help us!!)

There are also lots of strange patterns appearing around the department - they are QR codes. If you got a free App on you smartphone and scan them they will take you to videos and websites linked to your learning in the performing arts. Come and give them a go - lets see if we can spread the idea across OSCA!

Finally we are focussing this year on rewarding the talents, hard work and achievements of our students in dance, drama, music and media lessons. Our teachers will be nominating a student each week to recieve one of our limited edition Performing Arts Postcards through the post.

June 2011:

Hi and welcome to our first Arts Blog – how exciting!!

It’s been a busy term for the Arts faculty, getting all of our talented year 11 students through their GCSE and BTEC courses and they have produced some fantastic pieces of work ranging from our drama performances based on the seven deadly sins, musicians organising their own show to raise over £400 for Great Ormond Street and some fantastic choreography at the Gym & Dance festival. Our Artists have also been working hard too, and their work will soon be gracing the walls of the academy – can’t wait!

But we haven’t stopped there, our Y10 musicians have been busy organising ‘OSCA goes GAGA!’ in tribute to Mother Monster - the costumes and make up will be as amazing as the performances – look out for the staff numbers in particular! We are also busy preparing for our first Specialisms day where we get to spend a whole day working creatively. Performing Arts students are going to be making a ‘Rockumentary’ to document the behind the scenes action in the week before Gaga night, while in visual arts we will be creating some large scale art work that celebrates the way we communicate today, including facebook, twitter, text speak and good old black country.

We are already planning lots of great new activities for our students to take part in next academic year so far we have our Gleeks! Choir – a must for all our talented singers. A new range of dance and drama clubs are also in development. The most exciting news of all is that Mr Cooper and Mr Smith are planning the set up of OSCA’s own record label! What a brilliant way to share the talents of our gifted performers and songwriters, as well as our budding DJ’s. If you have any suggestions for activities then please let us know.

Come back soon to catch up on the latest news from the Arts @OSCA