Port Lincoln Primary School
Port Lincoln Primary is a Year 3–7 school with 532 students. The students come from a variety of backgrounds with 44 Indigenous students attending the school. There are 111 Yr 7 students and 110 Yr 6 students.
The school believes in the intrinsic value of practical participation in the performing arts and encourages creative and imaginative thinking, develops presentation skills and improves self-esteem. Our school strongly values the role the Arts plays with engaging youth in cross curricula learning and building the confidence and competencies for students who may not always find success in other ways of learning
PROJECT COORDINATOR: Anne Hueppauff
ARTIST: Gabrielle Robinson and glen r johns
PROJECT: Performing Arts Workshops – a performing arts project
Aims:
- Students and staff work with the nominated artists to design a project which will enable students to develop process skills to design and present a performance.
- Students and staff will learn about the artistic process involved in creating a performance.
- Students will learn how to tell stories in new and exciting ways through movement and drama.
- The artists will demonstrate and guide the students ensuring that the students have maximum creative input into the finished performance.
- The students will be writing and interpreting materials with guidance from the artists
- The students will develop body awareness and how to effectively use their bodies to maximize the message they are trying to give through performance.
- The children will begin to use the terminology of theatre.
- The students will be able to discuss with successful artists the artist’s role in the Community and career options in the performing arts.
- Students will continue to develop confidence and self esteem through being part of a performance with encouragement from working artists.
- Students will work at the Nautilus Theatre where the artists will be able to talk about a theatre and share practical knowledge of how a theatre operates.
- SACSA out comes are able to be identified and addressed.
The Artist:
Glen is currently the Artistic Director of SYTE and has a background in directing, writing and as a workshop leader. Having met the some of the staff glen was impressed with their passion for the arts and also saw the value in contributing to a regional school as he found limited opportunities in the arts in a similar situation as a young person.
Gabrielle runs the Mitcham Dance Studies and is inspired to deliver dance programs to schools and community groups. She has worked in a number of schools as a dance specialist and hoped that the students would learn about their bodies through this AIS project.
The Process:
- Coordinator in Performing Arts appointed in 2007
- whole school focus on the Performing Arts
- areas of need identified – student driven learning a priority
- skilled artists with a high focus on creativity sourced
- discussion with glen r johns and Gabrielle Robinson about project
- funding sort
- meeting in Adelaide with artists and the Manager of AIS to sign contracts and fine tune the project
- artists provide a training and development day for teachers to work on activities involving creative performance and drama games with an emphasis and teaming
- artists work with upper Primary students and their teachers to produce a variety of small performances emphasising students leadership and ideas
- students share their learning at the Nautilus Theatre
- students and teachers reflect and evaluate their learning and how it may continue to develop.
Outcomes:
- Students and staff have worked with the nominated artists to design a discreet project enabling students to develop skills in presenting a performance.
- Students and staff have learnt about the artistic process involved in creating a performance.
- Students have learnt how to tell stories in new and exciting ways through movement and drama.
- The artists have demonstrated and guided the students ensuring that the students had maximum creative input into the finished performance.
- The students have developed body awareness and how to effectively use their bodies to maximise the message they are trying to give through performance.
- The children have learnt new vocabulary to introduce them to the terminology of theatre.
- The students have seen professional artists working and have been able to discuss career options available in the Performing Arts.
- Students have developed confidence and self esteem through being part of a performance with encouragement from working artists.
- Teachers have looked at the week’s work and assessed students using SACSA and Essential Learnings.
Highlights:
We had many special highlights during the week.
- Teacher’s being surprised by what their students could do.
- Students who are difficult to engage being leaders.
- The enthusiasm and special achievements of our Indigenous student.
- The support students gave to each other.
- The acceptance of the school Community that the Arts are very important to their child’s learning.
- The final performance at the Theatre where students could showcase their leaning to the rest of the school. We shut the school so every one could come.
‘I was surprised that I could do it’ – ‘when I got on stage the butterflies were going crazy but then they went away and I was confident’ – ‘I have gained confidence and how to use body language’ – ‘We all listened to each other’s ideas and had good time management’ Students
‘We will maintain the relationships developed with the artists to seek advice and resources and hopefully we will be able to bring the artists back to support our learning.’ Project Coordinator
‘First and foremost, the kids loved it. I found them to be an incredibly creative group of young people. Several years of arts-focused activity within the school clearly seems to be paying off.’ Artist
220 students participated in this project
