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School
& Youth Theatre
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The South Tyneside Story - 2South Tyneside schools perform at the Millennium Dome.You can only talk and discuss so much, then you have to get down to the real job, so on 1st October we got the kids together for a day's workshop. We decided it was too premature to involve the infants and musicians, so in the event only two schools would be there. At a meeting in the first week of term we set out an agenda for the day, so when the workshop came round, everything went smoothly into action. The first essential was to begin the process of welding kids from two schools into one group. That could have been difficult: too ofen there is bitter rivalry between kids from different schools, but we didn't really expect that to be the case here. I find that usually it is the less able kids who have that sort of attitude. It's a bit like their identification with a football team: they define themselves, not by their personal achievements, but by externals such as the school or the team. These kids, however, have a commitment to the performing arts and a history of some personal success in the field, so they are more confident and secure in themselves - and in fact are more likely to have something in common with similar kids from another school than with those of their own who adopt this almost xenophobic attitude! It also helped that the two schools have different strengths: we are strongest in drama and singing, whereas the other school, Mortimer, is very strong in dance. Mortimer brought about 20 kids and I took along 17, plus three of last year's Year 11s who are currently doing the BTEC Performing Arts course at South Tyneside College. The idea was to spend the morning with the kids getting to know each other and the staff getting some idea of what each other's kids could do. The workshop was held in the Teachers' Centre and its warden, Julian Krantz, who is a keen videographer, filmed the whole day. The following week the staff had an after-school inquest. We agreed that the day had gone well. The kids had all said that they had enjoyed it and they certainly seemed to get on very well. As specialist staff, we felt that we had seen the potential that the other school's kids had in our art forms, and we were very happy with what had been achieved. Certainly I was very happy. I had seen the potential of at least one scene and recognised that another simply wouldn't work. The discussion afterwards provided me with a number of ideas too. All in all, a very successful day! >> Part III
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