During January and February, over 200 pupils from St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School participated in a series of dance workshops thanks to Culture Vouchers supported by Arts gateway MK. 247 pupils from Key Stages 3, 4, 5 and 6 worked with Cultural Provider Hannah Delaney to explore courage through the medium of dance.
Teacher Melanie Smith explained that ‘all of the children thoroughly enjoyed the dance sessions. It was a pleasure to watch the performances and children who usually lack confidence to perform were absolutely wonderful and flourished throughout the performance.’
It was noted that some of the children who were very reluctant at the beginning of the sessions did ultimately engage and perform well in the whole school performance. ‘The way in which they worked with their peers within different sections of the dance was fantastic’ explained Melanie. ‘Lots of teamwork and collaboration was encouraged and nurtured throughout the sessions.’
The audience were treated to an ambitious balancing finale at the end of the performance, devised by pupils of Year 3 on their own. ‘As said before’ concludes Melanie, ‘it was so wonderful to see the children actively engage with and clearly enjoy taking part in the whole school performances.’
Culture Vouchers allowed St Bernadette’s Primary School to participate in this activity which has clearly had an impact, not just on the exploration of courage and performance, but the positive effects of teamworking and peer to peer support has been a wonderful outcome.
What are Culture Vouchers?
Culture Vouchers work as a closed currency, awarded to schools to spend on the delivery of creative workshops with their pupils, madepossible by our funders, in this case, Arts Gateway MK. They can be exchanged with any Provider listed on The Culture Challenge Directory when booking your workshop. Although we presently have no more Culture Vouchers available in Milton Keynes, we are currently fundraising for more opportunities later in 2019 so keep an eye on future newsletters to apply.