Activities week – Activities week is an exciting time for the Performing Arts team here at Lyndon. It is an opportunity for both the staff and the students to work with professionals in specified areas of the performing arts.
Last year we had the pleasure of Radek from Drums Aloud coming to play djembes with Miss Smith and the drumming club students. Round Midnight Theatre Company collaborated with Miss Goode and the Drama Clubs to produce a piece which was performed at the Christmas show.
Nationally acclaimed Hayley Wenlock of Bboys Attik worked with Miss Newman and our very own boy’s streetdance crew who hip-hopped their way onto the Christmas stage. Claudia Prince led the choir with her beautiful voice and Gospel style, Music Video producer “Ali” worked with a group of media minded students to produced Horror-Christmas-Videos complete with original music using the mac lab in the Media Suite. Needless to say, it was a huge success.
Next Activities week should be even bigger and better though. This time, the whole of Year 8 is going to experience the vast array of skills within the Performing Arts. The Solihull Music Service has teamed up with us to run a Samba Drumming workshop, Round Midnight return to Lyndon to work on both Drama and Music performances and we have been lucky enough to book Hayley Wenlock again and this time she is going to teach Year 8 lyrical hip hop.
TIE performances – Although we believe that we have some of the best teachers in the world sharing their knowledge with our students, we also highly value the influence of trained professionals contributing their extensive practical expertise. For this reason, we strive to constantly have visiting artists performing or informing.
This month we’ve got two different Theatre In Education companies coming to perform educational pieces for some of our students. Arson About is a company that takes it upon themselves to inform young people about the dangers of fire. Taking a Hike is a short play that is currently on tour throughout the Midlands. It is more introspective and allows students to reflect upon themselves and their own identities.
These performances will be covered by other Lyndon Students working on the BBC News School Report project, and their reports will be available to see on the school's website, or by clicking on our school name on the School Report pages of the BBC website after 11th March.
Past performances – With all of our clubs producing such amazing work, we always like to take an opportunity to showcase the skills that we’ve learned and the performances we’ve produced. So far this year we’ve put on the Big Event – a celebrations of all different cultures in the forms of fashion, music, dance, drama, poetry and written word.
Later in the year the Choir was lucky enough to be invited to our trust partner’s production rooms at Jaguar Land Rover. Our annual Christmas show gave students in the clubs a chance to show off what they’d been working on.
The Ballet Club had its debut with a contemporary piece set to some hip-hop music. The year 10 and 11 drama club showed off what they had started during Activities week and the Drumming Club and Choir created a festive environment with their musical performances.
Mr R. Williams
To find out more about Performing Arts after school clubs click here. 
