‘OF MICE AND MEN’ The English Department will be taking a group of Year 10 and Year 11 students to the West Yorkshire Playhouse to watch a performance of Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’, on the 20th March 2014. The novel is studied for both English literature and language GCSE and will be an invaluable opportunity to develop their understanding of the novel.
TURING CRYPTOGRAPHY COMPETITION Battles, espionage and vicious combat have commenced in Room S35 as pupils have tested their wits and thinking skills. Once again Year 7 and 8 pupils are taking on the masterful codes published by the University of Manchester during the annual Turing Cryptography Competition. This year Lawnswood has 3 teams entered with team captains, Freya Napier (Year 8), Ruby Cooke (Year 7), and Owen Spafford (Year 7). If you would like to follow our teams online then go to: http://www.maths.manchester.ac.uk/ cryptography_competition/ leaderboard.php.
POLITE REMINDER The deadline date for payment for students going to Germany in June is Monday 24 February. Payments can be made via the main reception and the total amount for the trip is £320. 4
DRAMA AT LAWNSWOOD The Drama department has enjoyed a whirlwind of success since September, notably the Year 11 Performance Evening. The pupils performed four devised works of contemporary movement, spoken word, storytelling and physical theatre to a packed out studio. There were outstanding performances from Shannon O’Neill in her role as the over protective sister in ‘Taking Care of Dhruvi’ and Jake Maskill- Fishwick as Mr Hudson, a man with no memory trapped in a hospital room. These presentations were all expertly sound-scaped by Joe Goff and professionally executed on the night. In addition, credit to Theo Bennett for a superbly written play script, which explored literary characters trapped in the imaginations of asylum patients and to Victorine Mputu for choreographing a stunning contemporary dance piece, based on twins separated at birth. Sophie Mullen and her team created superb issue based drama on the theme of text bullying and brought the audience to tears using a mix of storytelling theatre and music. A brilliant two nights of original theatre enjoyed by all and some stunning exam results ! We have DVDs of the performances which are available, for £2.00 each, from Miss Mitchell in F49 . January has seen success from the Year 10 group who have excelled in their Devised Theatre Unit, exploring characters and using movement and storytelling to create original and contemporary drama. The evening started with a bang as Hollie Armitage, Bella Atibila, Natasha Exley, Catherine Claughton and Stefani Da Silva Cardoso strutted on stage in fantastic costumes and dance moves in a thought provoking piece of storytelling theatre, based on the lives of four prison inmates. This was brilliantly narrated by Stefani and their hard work definitely paid off ! Outstanding performances were seen from Tinashe Sibanda, as the lovesick housemate and Elise Horsley as a disturbed and incarcerated Snow White. Rehearsals for these pieces have been on going and the studio has been buzzing with activity every evening, with pupils rehearsing, decorating, collaborating and getting involved with all aspects of making theatre happen. Connor Flanagan excelled on the evening in his role as ‘Connor Diego Obama Flanagan, the master of dating and all round ladies man, in a sketch show based on the lives of a group of housemates. Holly Sullivan’s group changed the pace of the evening by turning the space into a traverse theatre and using forum theatre as a means to choose the end of the play. The audience loved this and it certainly put pressure on the group, as they had to rehearse several endings to their performance and would not know which would be performed. Certainly original and brilliantly performed by all cast members. The Drama Club runs every Tuesday evening and last term we had record breaking numbers of actors in our after school workshops! Over 40 performers took part in character workshops with half of those performing at the Christmas Concert, in an original adaptation of the famous poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas‘. Lawnswood Drama Company is formed from all those who wish to be a part of Drama Club after school and we have had some incredible successes. Led by professional director Simon Brewis (Creative Director of Escape Youth Theatre Company), we collaborated to create original and fun drama about things that matter to you. Last year we performed at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in the Courtyard Theatre as part of a Youth Theatre Festival and there are many more exciting events in the calendar. Are you interested in making Drama a part of your school life? If so, please speak to Miss Mitchell about ways to get involved in the department. We always need volunteers to keep our prop and costumes in good condition, to learn how to do light and sound for the productions and to help us on performance evenings. The drama club is open to all. Special thanks this term go to Miss Whitby and Mrs A Roberts, for their on-going support with the year 10 group, Mr Johnson for being the department’s biggest fan and to Libby Lynch and Freya Napier for their time, effort and contribution to the GCSE success. LAWNSWOOD LIFE - February 2014