School Projects

This year’s Schools projects were:

Ranimation

Philip Duckworth and Ben Sadler, two artists known as Juneau Projects came up with Ranimation - a film animation project inspired by the Olympic Torch.

Ben and Philip helped 900 children to each make a frame of the film set at Creswell Crags - the site of beautiful cave art. Once finished, the hundreds of frames were put back together and Ranimation was born. It will go on show at Site Gallery and will be the centrepiece of ‘The Colour Bright' - Site Gallery’s exhibition of contemporary art aimed at!

The film will also be an official part of Sheffield’s celebrations of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

We are very grateful to Site Gallery for hosting and funding the exhibition, to Creswell Heritage Trust and to Sheffield Contemporary Art Forum for helping us find Ben and Philip. Thank you to the staff and children at the following schools for taking part:

Tinsley Nursery and Infant, King Edward VII, Holt House, Mansel Primary, Monteney, Sheffield Children’s Hospital, Byron Wood Primary, Ecclesall Junior and Highfields School, Matlock.

Ranimation

Platform Nine

Inspired by the Olympic Torch Relay, over 600 children have worked with professional dancers to devise beautiful dances.

The children have created their dances from scratch. They have choreographed them, practiced and rehearsed them. This exciting project will culminate as the children perform their dances on the same day the Olympic Torch arrives in Sheffield.

This very special event is a ‘once in a lifetime' experience and is part of Sheffield’s celebrations of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

As well as being chosen as a Big Dance event (a prestigious UK wide dance festival) Platform Nine is also part of the London 2012 Festival.

With thanks to Yorkshire Dance, Big Dance and Activity Sheffield for helping us fund Platform Nine. And thanks to Rebecca Hayter, Sara Unwin and Lesley Webster for managing the project. Thanks to professional dancers: Lauren Aizlewood - Clow, Sarah Devlin, Emma Goodwin, Wayne Sables and Adele Wragg. And thank you to the staff and children at the following schools for taking part:

Norfolk Community Primary, Shooters Grove Primary, Emmaus Primary, Arbourthorne Community Primary, Greenhill, Handsworth Grange, High View Primary Learning Centre, Heritage Park and Seven Hills.

Platform Nine

Big Dance Yorkshire Logo

A Bigger Bloom

Inspired by David Hockney’s paintings of Yorkshire landscapes, 300 children have been working with artists from Art in the Park creating beautiful 3D flowers using a variety of materials including SMART material fantasy film.

The finished flowers are a riot of spring colour and will go on display in the Four Seasons Garden at Sheffield Botanical Gardens. They will stay on show all summer and be part of Art in the Gardens in September - the prestigious art exhibition.

We are very grateful to the Curator and staff at Botanical Gardens. We’d like to thank Luisa Golob, the artists and staff at Art in the Park. And we want to say a very special thank you to the staff and children at the following schools for taking part:

Nether Edge Primary, Stocksbridge Nursery and Infants, Monteney and Bents Green Special School.

Bigger Bloom

Camp Cardboard

Camp Cardboard is one of our headline family events but Responsible Fishing UK (the clever people behind it) have also spent the spring term helping hundreds of children transform their school halls into amazing cardboard camps.

The children and some of the staff have had great fun building houses, dens, streets and even telephones out of cardboard. Some of the results of the children’s hard work will be on show when Camp Cardboard comes to town during the festival.

We are very grateful to James, Timm, Matthew and Rob from Responsible Fishing UK. And we want to say a very special thank you to the staff and children at the following schools for taking part:

Stocksbridge Nursery Infants, Dobcroft Infant, Stannington, Mansel Primary, Prince Edward Primary, Concord, Nether Green Juniors, Woolley Wood Special, Firs Hill Community, Bradfield and Dungworth, High View Primary Learning Centre and Byron Wood Primary.

Digital Bloom

This amazing installation celebrates the work of pupils involved in a project called Digital Futures in Teacher Education. Researchers from Sheffield Hallam University and University of Sheffield worked with five primary and five secondary schools in Sheffield and Rotherham. The teachers and researchers were interested in finding out how to help pupils become more web-savvy learners. They also looked at how the lessons learnt in the project could help current and future teachers make the classroom a more interactive and fun place.

Visit the installation in the Winter Garden and see for yourself all the wonderful things created by the children - including a stunning digital mural made by children at Mundella School.

To learn more about the project, please visit the DEFT blog at www.deftoer3.wordpress.com or follow us on Twitter @deftoer3

Thank you to the staff and children at the following schools for taking part:

Bradfield Dungworth Primary
Halfway Junior School
Mundella Primary School
Monteney Primary School
Newman Special School
Notre Dame High School
Winterhill Comprehensive
Dinnington Comprehensive
Wales High School

Digital Bloom

The Fuse

In last year’s festival we ran a music project called ‘Be The Best You Can Be'. It culminated with a group of 20 young musicians performing on stage at the Motorpoint Arena to an audience of 3000 people during the opening ceremony of UK School Games.

Since their outstanding performance the band have gone from strength to strength. They’ve stayed in touch, they’ve performed at Sheffield’s Christmas Lights Switch On and they’ve written a new song.

Now called The Fuse, we very excited to announce that they’ll be performing their new song on the main stage in Barkers Pool as part of a day of celebrations to welcome the Olympic Torch to Sheffield.

We want to say a very special thank you to the staff at Springs Academy, to Kat and Nick at Badge Music and to Off the Shelf Festival of Books for helping to fund the project.

The Fuse

Manor Lodge Deer Park

Over 500 years ago huge herds of deer roamed an enormous park that extended from Heeley to Darnall and from Handsworth to the River Don. This year, with the help of children from 4 Sheffield schools, Sheffield Manor Lodge are bringing one of those herds back to life.

Working with artist Daisy Frossard the children have designed and decorated 7 life-size deer sculptures. The herd will go on public display throughout the festival and beyond...

We want to say a very special thank you to the staff and children at the following schools for taking part:

Byron Wood Primary, Concord Junior, Wincobank Nursery and Infants and Stradbroke Primary.

Relay Recitals

For over 6 months, children from Hunter’s Bar Infant School and Lydgate Junior School have been preparing to sing at the festival. Under the expert tuition of Charlotte Ridsdale, 130 children from 3 choirs will be singing on stage to celebrate the Olympic Torch coming to Sheffield.

The children will be singing from a very well rehearsed repertoire of pop and folk hits from the last 30 years. Join us for this free performance and watch the children start off a whole day of celebrations as Sheffield welcomes the Olympic Torch.

Relay Recitals

All Events 2012

FESTIVAL ENDS :(
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