As part of The Level Up Project, run by Theatre by the Lake, 35 of our Year Sixes attended a transition event yesterday.  All of the project’s transition events this year have stemmed from a performance of The Fire-Work Maker’s Daughter that we saw back in December.

Level-Up

On the 9^th of July, 2012, Ashfield Junior School’s Year 6’s who were to be moved on to Stainburn by the end of Summer, visited their secondary school (Stainburn School and Science College) to carry on with The Level Up Project.

In the morning, we all met up at Stainburn at 9 o’clock – a bit later than usual, which means more of a lie in! We all gathered in the hall, having time to meet new friends and talk with the pupils we already new. After 5 to 10 minutes, someone from Theatre by the Lake introduced himself and told us what we were going to be doing… His name was Daniel. As well as this, he introduced all his friends and the helpers, two of them were called Jeff and Jen. Overall, through the day Daniel, Jeff and Jen were the main teachers, and helpers.

Anyway, after they had introduced themselves we played a game called ‘This is my space’. At one stage in the game we had to shake hands with everyone we passed, which was a challenge, since we didn’t know everyone.

After we played ‘This is my space’ we had a little break and got to go outside. Then, when we came back in, we played another game so we could mix around with pupils from different schools. First of all, we had to sort ourselves into hair colour, then eye colour, and last of all birthday months. While in out birthday groups, we had to talk and tell each other what date we were born so we could sort ourselves into order. Next, Daniel announced that we would be doing a firework dance. He put us into 3 groups:

Jeff: January, February, March and April.
Jen: May, June, July and August.

Daniel: September, October, November and December.

We all decided which group would have which name – Jeff’s being Storm Buster, Jen’s being Shooting Stars and Daniel’s being Glimmer.

We choose the way our firework rumbled and got ready to explode. And then, we got to add sounds and various other things. Then, we added our explosion and we were ready to show the other groups our dance.

Eventually, after watching all the groups, we had lunch and got to go outside again, meeting most of the Year 7s we would be working with in the afternoon.

During the afternoon, the Year 7s joined us and we all listened and spoke to them about the dos and don’ts of Stainburn School. This led on to  dressing up in colourful outfits together and walking around the school as a parade. We all looked bright and colourful with ribbons everywhere and facepaint too. It was very fun and altogether we went around 3 times! Some of us even got to use the mega phone! I think every pupil enjoyed the day and had tons of fun.

By Carina and Yasmin

Chance To Shine, Show Time!

Rehearsals

On Monday the 2^nd June, all of Ashfield Junior School’s year sixes decided to put on a fantastic and amazing show, called ‘Chance To Shine, Show Time!’

We all chose what we wanted to produce on the day of the show and began to write lines, download songs, print lyrics, make up routines and many other things. During the rehearsals, we had lots of fun and built our confidence up with various activities and warm ups. We put lots of work into our dances, songs, entertainment and acts. After many drama games and practises, we were ready for dress rehearsals. 

Dress Rehearsal

On Thursday morning, we all dressed up in bright and bold, or dark and dull, costumes, ready to have our first dress rehearsal. Everyone was so excited to see what the show would probably look like from audience point of view. We all sat down on the rows of chairs while our producers, Dec and Not-Ant, welcomed us to the show (dress rehearsal). In our opinion, we thought it went pretty well and after we’d finished the dress rehearsal we were very, very, very excited!

Show Time

After lunch, we all got re-dressed into our costumes and were ready to put on ‘Chance To Shine, Show Time!’ Everyone looked fabulous backstage and onstage! The audience looked like they really enjoyed it, because of the way they laughed, smiled and cheered. Many acts performed and all of them got big claps! Also, the audience really encouraged the people onstage by never booing or laughing, they always cheered!

At the end, we all joined in the finale by singing ‘Reach’ for the whole audience, some even joined in!

After Show

After the show, we were all quite tired and very proud. We had performed a fabulous show! All of the teachers were proud of us too and many children complimented us and enjoyed it. Also, we all got a nice, long playtime for a reward.

Thank you

We’d like to give a big thank you to:

                                         Mr Ditchburn

                                         Miss Bone

                                         Miss Wharton

                                         Miss Johnstone

                                         Mrs Heron

If they hadn’t been here to help us we wouldn’t have had this wonderful show… Thank you!

By Carina and Yasmin

Jack and Josh...our Chuckle Brothers!

Jody and Carina.

The boys!  Yes, really they are boys.

Luke and...believe it or not...Joe.

Katelan and Teagan.

Edinburgh

Recently, many year 6 pupils of Ashfield, including us, visited Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh. It took over 3 hours to reach our destination, arriving on a bus. As soon as the bus driver had driven into Edinburgh, we visited the famous Edinburgh Castle. On the trip we also visited many other attractions: The Playhouse production, Oliver, Camera Obscura (and optical illusions), The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, The Real Mary King’s Close and Edinburgh Zoo. Also, many of the children went on an open-top bus tour around Edinburgh, using headphones to listen to the tour guide. Unfortunately, due to a late arrival, two of the groups missed their tour bus…Oops! Luckily, Mr Bishop, Miss Bone and Mrs Walker let the late pupils have an ice-cream. While in the centre of Scotland’s city, year 6 stopped over in Edinburgh Central Youth Hostel, it was like a small five star hotel! Many pictures were taken and many memories were made while there. Overall it was a great residential, and a fun experience!

By Carina, Yasmin and Macy

Walking to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art