Tupton Hall rocks the Albert Hall

EXPRESSIVE ARTS FACULTY - Special Edition December 2010

INSIDE: Arts Award • Music • Drama • Art

WelcomeWelcome to our special ExpressiveArts edition of Aspire. I amdelighted to be able to share withyou a taste of the excellent work thatgoes on from day to day in thefaculty as well as giving a platformfor some of our grander extra-curricular efforts. How would youlike to play to 1000’s of people atthe Royal Albert Hall, or take a tripto London to the theatre, or beinvolved in a Sculpture workshop aspart of the regeneration of ClayCross. Our students are achievingamazing things on a daily basis,both through ability and sheer hardwork, and they are doing so withabundant enthusiasm. All this ismade possible through the neverending efforts of the staff in thefaculty who continually give freely oftheir time and effort. I am extremelyproud to be the Head of Faculty ofsuch a dynamic team and of theefforts of our students.

Well done and keep it upLisa Dana

Our Music for Youth journey started back in March when three rock bandsfrom the school performed at the Regional festival at South BirminghamCollege. Palindrome (Charlie Box, Will Nutting and Tom Howes), Oliverand the Rest (Oliver Hunt, Nathaniel Marsh, Josh Marsh, Adam Bargh),Kerplunk (Adam Smart, Hope Thackray, Owen Cousins) all had a 10minute slot at the festival, and performed a mixture of covers andoriginal songs with great energy and musicality. At the end of thesession, the judges who were members of the band The DivineComedy gave each band feedback, with suggestions about howthey could improve their performance.Continued on page five

The Music forYouth Journey

ExpressiveArts

Faculty

We Will Rock You

We Will Rock You is almost upon us and as always thestudents have been working exceptionally hard onmaking sure the show is a huge success. As the show isan upper school show this year several students havetaken on extra responsibilities and have been directingand choreographing parts of the show themselves.

Gemma Calladine

‘As well as being in the show, I have also been asked tochoreograph several of the dances which I feel to be areal honour. This shows that I have creative skills andalso that I can be a team leader. I have really enjoyed itas I got to work with people that I wouldn’t normallywork with, people in different years and non-dancerswho I was able to teach more complicated and technicalmoves to, in order to give the show more variety.

Originally I was only asked to do one dance which was,for me, a really good opportunity but when I was askedto do more it was great. I took GCSE dance for anoption so choreographing ‘We Will Rock You’ let medemonstrate my skills and also helped me to developnew ones, such as teaching others. ‘

Lucy Parker Y11

The Christmas production this year is‘We Will Rock You’ and one of themain characters is the Killer Queenwith a fantastic costume. As we areextremely excitedby theforthcomingDrama productionand with theprevious successof the Trash 2Fash competition,we really wantedto get involved increating thecostumes.Therefore, whenapproached byMiss Calladine wejumped at thechance to create the extravagantKiller Queen costume. We have beenmaking the outfit in extra -curricularart club with lots of leopard print andbling. The show is on fromWednesday the 8th of Decemberthrough to Friday the 10th and wehighly recommend attending as it willbe a very interesting and excitingmusical. And don’t forget to watchout for our Killer Queen costume.By Chloe Pugh, Lois Salway, MaceyBarlow & Katie Wareham Year 9

Making the link with sportA group of last year’s Year 9 art students producedsome amazing art pieces based around a workshopattended by Daniel Haynes and Lucy Harris. Lucy andDaniel tested out an unusual layering techniquewhich was used effectively to record the movement insport. They worked with a former Olympic athlete,Roald Bradstock, who was also a practising artist andhad developed the technique. Lucy & Daniel thenbrought this technique back to Tupton Hall anddeveloped it further with their fellow classmates. Thework they produced is fantastic and can now be seenaround the PE department and other areas in theschool. When these images were forwarded on toRoald he was so impressed that he is now using themas examples in other schools around the country. Thisis a great example of how their hard work has madea fantastic impression both inside and outside theschool.

Mel Cope

Deer Park Art Club Along with three other A-levelstudents, I ran an art club session atDeer Park Primary School for tenweeks. The aim of the project was todevelop the creativity of the pupilsand to encourage art at a young age.In addition these afterschool artlessons helped bridge the gapbetween primary and secondaryschool and it allowed me to gain valuable teaching experience. We ran twodifferent art projects each lasting five weeks. The first project was availableto Year 5 and 6 pupils and the second was available to Years 3 and 4. The inspiration behind the artwork was India; as Deer Park has apartnership with an Indian school and wanted the art project to providethem with final pieces which could be displayed in the main hall andreception of the school. The first project was Indian Puppets and it was decided that not only werethe children going to make the shadow puppets, they were also going toperform a play with them in front of the rest of the school. These sessionswere very successful - pupils improved their existing art skills and alsolearnt new ones. The purpose of the second project was to create something that would havea large visual impact on visitors to the school. We therefore decided onthree large elephants. We split the pupils into three groups so that theycould concentrate on one elephant. The children projected, drew andpainted the elephants up on to the canvas. They then decorated theelephants with headdresses and ankle bracelets. The final triptych wasamazing and they are now up on the wall in the entrance to the school.

Written by Alex Bramley (A-level Student)

Art Extra-Curricular clubs

The Art Department is a hive ofactivity at lunchtime and afterschool.This photograph shows a typicallunchtime in Art and the mix ofdifferent year groups who attend.We run different extra-curricularclubs throughout the year sostudents can develop new skills,continue work on classwork, gethelp with homework, work towardsthe Arts Award, improve anddevelop coursework, or pursue ordevelop a personal project orinterest. If you are interested inattending a club see your artteacher or ask a member of the ArtDepartment.

AS Level Art London Visit

During our Year 12 Arttrip to London we visiteda range of art galleries,many of which werebeneficial to our AS levelcoursework. It enabledus to see artist work infront of us, instead of onpaper. We could see fullythe techniques the artistsused and the differenttextures which we can usein our own work. Wevisited a few privategalleries on Cork Street

and bigger public galleries such as the NationalPortrait Gallery. As this was a working trip, we wereexpected to draw and make notes on the artists’work. At the end of a very tiring day we finished upwith a bit of shopping in Covent Garden. Wereturned home on the train at 10pm, bringing to aclose an enjoyable and enlightening experience.

Jema, Emily and Sophie Y12

A2 Gallery Visit to LondonOn a recent A-level Art trip I went to London to visitthe exhibition of Francis Bacon’s work which iscurrently being held at Tate Britain. The reasoningbehind this visit was to develop my understanding ofBacon’s work and to increase my knowledge of theinspiration and influences behind his pieces of art.

As part of theA2 Art courseI have toproduce apersonal studywhich is an in-depth analysisof one or twoartists whohave similarmotives behindtheir artwork.For my study Iamconcentratingon the way inwhich FrancisBacon andGothredHelnweindistort faces

and the reasons behind this. The personal studyrelies heavily on seeing artwork first hand, which iswhy this visit was such a great opportunity. Visitingthe exhibition allowed me to notice elements suchas texture which a photograph from a book doesnot capture.

Whilst in London I was lucky enough to also visit adisplay of Muybridge’s work. This was exceptionallyvaluable as Bacon’s work was influenced byMuybridge’s capture of movement.

Alex Bramley (A-Level student)

Digital Art Club and theSilver Arts Award

When people are told that one of my favourite pastimes is digital painting, itoften raises a few eyebrows. Among the most common of remarks are ‘Whaton earth is that?’ or ‘Isn’t that when a program draws for you?’ Many peopledon’t realise that it’s perfectly possible to produce fully finished works of artusing a computer as a tool. The fact that so few people recognise thecomputer arts as true art forms is a constant source of frustration to me. I feelthat for such a versatile and potentially beautiful medium, digital art isdrastically underrepresented and underrated, which is why I decided to startup a club focused solely on creating art through use of a computer.Initially, it didn’t generate an awful lot of interest. But as posters started toappear around the school, and the few existing members started telling theirfriends, what was originally a tiny gathering of two or three people turned intoa full-sized class containing many people who would not normally have aninterest in the Art department.Though I have been runningthe club for around a yearnow, it was only this autumnthat I decided to go for theSilver Arts Award. The awardat silver level consists of twoparts: Unit 1, Arts Practice,and Unit 2, Arts Leadership.The club that I already run goes a long way to fulfilling the criteria of Unit 2.Unit 1, however, will be a lot more difficult - as well as involving research, itis designed to challenge students by encouraging them to choose a form ofart that is fairly new to them, which is the aspect of the award which I find themost interesting. For my Unit 1 challenge area, I have decided to produce an animated short.This will involve first creating a storyboard, and then creating the animationusing that as a guide. I have only attempted very basic animation until now,so this will be a giant step into the unknown. The Arts Award presentsmany opportunities likethis to get stuck intosomething new, and theability to branch out andadapt is one which isvitally important in art.Digital Art Club runsevery Mondaylunchtime, so if you’reinterested in tryingsomething completelynew , or you’re currentlyinvolved in an artcourse and want tobroaden your skills, feelfree to pay EAF4 a visit. Emma Mahadevan

Arts AwardTwo Year 10 students have written why they chose to do the Arts Award.‘I have chosen to do the Bronze Arts Award which is a level one nationalqualification. To do the Arts Award I have to do four things, I have to take partin an arts activity, go to an arts event, research my arts hero/heroine and helpto run a workshop or give a demonstration to others. After I have done all ofthese things I have to build a portfolio of my ideas and then present it to anexaminer who will mark my work. I wanted to do the Arts Award because Ithought it would be a good opportunity to get another qualification as well asmy GCSE’s.’

Shelby White 10CX‘A few weeks ago, my class were asked if we wanted to do the Bronze ArtsAward in Drama. Several people from my class chose to do it, includingmyself. The bronze award is split into four parts. Part 1 is to take part in anarts activity, and I hope to use my performance in a pantomime outside ofschool to help complete part 1. Part 2 is to visit an arts event and I’m goingto use the Year 10 Drama trip to London with school to see ‘Blood Brothers’for this. Part 3 is to write about our arts heroes and heroines and I plan towrite a piece on Kate Winslet, as I admire her work. Part 4 is “artsapprenticeship” which is to either share arts skills with others or to assistsomebody with a workshop or session based on the arts. I hope to be able touse my T.I.E work we are taking into Deer Park Primary School for this, as wehave to plan and lead a workshop as part of this project. Overall I’m lookingforward to starting the award.’

Eleanor King 10TX

A month later, we had someexcellent news. Two of ourbands, Oliver and the Rest andKerplunk had been asked to playat the Birmingham O2 Academyas part of the National Festival inJuly. Another amazing day washad by all who went along tosupport our young musicians,and the bands gave excellentperformances alongside theother very talented musicians atthe festival from all around thecountry. The feedback for bothgroups was all positive, butKerplunk also managed toachieve a special award. Theband was very proud to receivethe Universal Music UK Rock, Popand Urban award for excellencein performance.But the excitement didn’t endthere! In August we received aphone call from Music for Youthasking us if Kerplunk would beavailable to perform in the finalnight of the Schools Promconcerts at the Royal Albert Hall. Being asked to play atthe Albert Hall when you are only 17 years old is the sort

of thing a young musician canusually only dream about, but forHope, Adam and Owen it was aboutto become a reality.And so on 10th November, theband’s family and friends travelledto London to watch Kerplunkperform at the Royal Albert Hall.The Schools Prom brings togethersome of the most talented musiciansin the country and the quality of theperformances was awe inspiring!Orchestras, Taiko drummers, SteelPans and a Saxophone quartet wereamong the performances, andKerplunk took to the stage as thepenultimate act in the concert. Theygave a stunning performance to thepacked hall, which exploded withclapping and screaming! Dynamicdrumming, technical guitar solos,and aggressive vocals combinedwith wild physical energy made for athrilling performance. Music forYouth has been an amazingexperience at every stage, and thefestivals have given our students the

opportunity to perform at some very exciting venues.Helen Wrieden

The Music for Youth Journey

At the end of last year the Drama and MusicDepartments decided to take on an extra challenge.Not content with doing one show they opted to dotwo! The lower school show ‘Joseph’ was great funto do and saw many dedicated students giving uplunchtimes to put on this exciting show. We alsoreally enjoyed seeing our feeder Primary Schoolscome along and join in the fun at the end of term!

In December 2009 we took part in the SchoolChristmas production of ‘Bugsy Malone’.We were inspired by the Sixth Form, who helpeddirect Bugsy, so we decided to co-direct the lowerschool summer show. We helped with taskssuch as choreographing dance routines andblocked scenes. There were several students who co-

directed ‘Joseph’-Abigail Hutton, TedWilkinson, Hannah Lloyd, David Wilkinsonand Samantha Hobson

This showed us how much work goes into aschool production and how the role of adirector can really affect the outcome of aperformance.

David Wilkinson and Hannah Lloyd Y10Co-directors

Joseph

continued from front page

Screaming arguments, fist fights andthe odd brawl are all par for thecourse at the Boys only Drama club inDrama! Launched as an avenue todemonstrate boys’ physicalperformance abilities, the club hasgrown from strength to strength withover thirty boys attending every Fridaylunchtime. The boys, from Years sevento nine, meet every Friday to developanything from their performance skillsto their innate sense of teamwork tothe art of stage fighting. The boyshave found it fun and inspirationalwithout the girls bossing themaround. As part of the variedExpressive Arts enrichmentprogramme, the drama club hopes todevelop some of the stars of futureperformances as well as the backstage technicians who are vital to thesuccess of the School’s productions.Over the last twelve weeks the boyshave been meeting with their friendsand have experienced a variety ofdifferent performance styles. Theirrecent exploration into the ‘Incredibleillucinations of Ernie’ will soon beshown in assemblies to the lower yeargroups, along with some of the otherskills they have recently learnt. Theboys enjoy drama because ‘we get tohave fun’ and ‘there’s no desks’, thisis the perfect opportunity to let theirhair down and have some fun. If youwant to join in come along to EAG3on Friday lunchtimes.

Anne-Marie Paterson

Boys Drama club

Drama GCSE updateThe Year 10s are currently working hard to completea series of Theatre in Education projects, as part oftheir GCSE course. This involves the students beingorganised and creative in a fun way to engage aspecific audience – our feeder primary schools. Thetopic they have been working with is anti bullying,and tying in with anti bullying week in November thestudents will be taking their work out into thecommunity. Laura Bladon explains a little more aboutwhat the students have been doing.In year 10, pupils study a type of drama called T.I.E. Thisstands for “theatre in education”. This is where theatrecompanies go into schools/places of education, and teachthrough acting. This year, pupils have the chance to do exactlythat. They will be visiting a feeder primary school twice in theyear, first to collect information for the basics of theproduction, and a second time to perform and then to followit up with a workshop with the students from this school.Along with my class I will be visiting Deer Park primary schoolto perform a piece we have been working on for severalweeks. The main focus of this project is anti-bullying. Not onlywill this be teaching the younger students, but we have alsolearnt things we never knew ourselves .This will be a greatexperience for both Tupton Hall students and students fromthe primary school.

Laura Bladon Y10

A Level updateThe Year 13’s are currently working hard on their exam piecewhich is to be a piece of devised theatre. To prepare for thisthe Year 13’s took part in a residential visit to Lea Green inorder to build a group rapport and kick start the devisingprocess. Great fun was had by all as we built dens and campfires and toasted marshmallows! An early start the next daysaw the group developing their improvisation skills andexploring the work of theatre companies ‘DV8’ and ‘ForcedEntertainment’ and applying their style to their own work.Once back at school we had a visiting artist come into schoolto work with the students to develop their physical theatreskills. The students worked exceptionally hard during thisworkshop and found the experience of working with aprofessional refreshing and engaging. The pieces are nowwell under development and promise to be a performanceworth watching. The exam is on Monday 13th December inThe Richard Smith Hall.

Gemma Calladine

On Friday 5th November the Music Departmentwas ringing with the sounds of the Caribbean,when “Acapella Steel” came into school to workwith GCSE and A-level Music students. Eachgroup worked on the ten-piece steel panensemble for one hour, building up from playingbasic two note chords with syncopated rhythms.Each session was enormous fun and in less thanan hour each group had learnt pieces includingFunky Town and Tequila from memory, whichthey then performed to an audience. The soundwas fabulous and all the students thoroughlyenjoyed the experience.

Helen Wrieden“This was an absolutely amazing opportunity! Ihave never played steel pans before, so I didn’tknow what to expect, but I was pleasantlysurprised. I thoroughly enjoyed the workshopand thought the leader was great. I learnt so many new techniques and had somuch fun. I really, really want to do this again!”

Jenny Schofield (Year 12)“I participated in the steel pan workshop lastweek and was thoroughly blown away by theexperience. It was far beyond even what I hadalready anticipated. The mere sound of the steelpan was enough to put a massive smile on myface and the whole experience was just fantastic.I would leap at the chance to do this again”.

Adam Edwards (Year 12)“I had an incredibly, fantastically awesome time!The workshop was really different and let meexperience another side of music. I had nevertried anything like this before and now I wouldlove the chance to do it again.”

Kerry Wigston (Year 12)“This was so much fun! I had a really good timeand learned new skills as well. It allowed me toexperience a new form of music and I was reallysurprised how good we sounded after an hour. Iwould love to have the chance to do this again inthe future!”

Francesca Morris (Year 12)

Steel Pans

Extra-CurricularActivitiesThe Music Department at Tupton Hallis a hive of activity at lunch times, withsomething on offer every day of theweek for all our singers andmusicians.Monday - Boys Rock Choir (y7-9)Tuesday - Senior Choir (y9+ & staff!)Wednesday - Windband (woodwind and

brass, all year groups and all abilities)- Girls Pop Choir (y7-8)

Thursday - Orchestra (strings, woodwind and brass)

Friday - Clarinet Choir (grade 3 +)All groups are currently rehearsing forthe Carol Service and ChristmasConcert. Tickets on sale soon!Carol Service -Monday 13th DecChristmas Concert - Tuesday 14th Dec

Anna Caines

WindbandWindband is one of many brilliantextra-curricular activities the MusicDepartment have to offer. We rehearseon Wednesday lunchtime at 1:30 andperform at the Christmas and Easterconcerts. The Windband play manydifferent styles of music, ranging from‘Queen in Concert’ to ‘80s Flashback’.Windband is a fantastic opportunity forall musicians of any age at TuptonHall School. If you play woodwind orbrass, please do come along andhave a go!

Written by Jennie Schofield Y12

Acoustic Night 2011For the last two years the Battle of theBands contest has provided our rockmusicians with a chance to competefor prizes with a concert of originaland covered music. 2011 brings achange. The music department arequietening things down a little to makeway for an Acoustic Night. This willallow for a different set of musicians totake part, our singer/songwriters, aswell as providing a challenge for ourheavier/noisier bands. Look out forposters in Expressive Arts soon.

Anna Caines

Artwork Around The SchoolAt Tupton Hall School we are lucky enough to havelarge areas for displaying students’ work. It hasalways been a priority in the Art Department tocelebrate the achievements of our students and togive them the opportunity to display their work.Over the summer we renewed and increased theamount of artwork in reception. This provides awelcoming environment for all visitors to the schooland a showcase for our students. This year we havestarted to exhibit students’ work further around theschool and now have work in social areas, corridors,sixth form and staff offices. We have received highpraise from students, staff and visitors to the schoolabout the quality of work on display. As more people become aware of just howgood our students’ work is we are now fielding more requests for artwork fromoutside the Expressive Arts area. Lisa Dana

The Art and MFL departments have beenworking together on a Key

Stage 3 Project brief,where students have to

produce a creativepiece of art which

represents elementsof the Mexican Day

of the Deadcelebration. The

students have beenworking extremely hard

in extra-curricular time tocreate exciting pieces. These pieces are

going to form a collaborative exhibition withthe local primary schools. Look out for thework around school after December 8th.

Mel Cope

Clay CrossRegenerationSculptureProjectStudents fromYears 10, 12and 13 tookpart in acommunitysculptureworkshop forthe NewBridge StreetRegenerationScheme inClay Cross as part of the enrichmentdays in July. It was a very rewardingand successful day. Students workedwith the sculptor Peter Maris who isresponsible for the development ofnew public artwork to be sited aroundClay Cross as part of theregeneration. Some of their ideasmay be incorporated into thesculptures that he will be creating forthe town. Students were taught howto carve into insulation blocks andproduced artwork influenced byaspects of Clay Cross that they foundinteresting or that were important tothem in a personal context.

The artworkproducedwasexhibited inthe SocialCentre inClay Crossin August aspart of the

community open day. Students weregiven the opportunity to continue theirwork and extend their skills byparticipating in workshops held byPeter Maris on the open day. KonradMadurski made the most of thisopportunity and was presented with aspecial prize for his sculpture andpraised by Peter for his progress andaptitude for carving. Moreinformation about the workshops andthe regeneration scheme can befound on www.claycross2020.org.uk.Inspired by thisproject we will be starting anextra-curricularCarving Club inthe Artdepartment inthe near future.Lisa Dana

Tupton Hall School, Old Tupton, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S42 6LG Tel: 01246 863127 email: info@tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk www.tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.ukedited, designed & printed by pickards.org.uk printed on recycled paper

Digital Trickery Enrichment Workshop For those of you who haven’t managed to see the photography display alongthe art corridor, here are some of the fantastic images which students producedon the enrichment day experimenting with light and shutter speed inphotography.

Mel Cope

Arts AwardI decided to introduce the Arts Award in Expressive Arts to recognise andcelebrate the talent and art skills of our students and to encourage a widerparticipation in different art forms. The award enables students to gain credit fortheir participation in extra-curricular activities and work towards a nationallyrecognised qualification. We currently run the Bronze and Silver Arts Award. TheArts Award is open to students from Year 8 and above and to all students withan interest in the arts. We now have two qualified Arts Award advisers in school.If you want to find out more then pop into the Arts Award drop in session onWednesday Lunchtime in EAF4.

Lisa Dana

Mexican

Day of the

Dead Cross

Curricular

Project