June 2009  

I'm sorry but it's very late this month but it is finally here...the CAPP June Blog

Midsummer falls in the month of June but despite the favourable weather we have been experiencing recently, one would argue that not one of us really considers June to be midsummer - especially as our CAPP schools still haven't broken up for our long summer break yet.  This midsummer reference probably means the period of time of the longest day of the year; otherwise known as the 'summer solstice' and the celebrations that accompany it. 

It is thought that the pagans celebrated this festival because the sun sits in a specific position at a specific time and day in the northern hemisphere and this was thought to make Europeans go a little crazy!!  In 2009 the summer solstice also happened to fall on Father's Day, so we all had the perfect midsummer excuse for purchasing silly socks, tacky key rings and chocolate footballs (or many of those other novelty gifts that appear around this time of year).

Midsummer is also associated with Wimbledon, witches, magic, fairies, dancing, and mud at Glastonbury.  In complete contrast to my May blog, the focus for this crazy midsummer June Blog is marriage (and the old joke "I must be crazy ...I have a marriage certificate to prove it"), fertility, power and joy.  For reasons unknown it also seems to feature biscuits.  In fact this link to marriage stems from the name June from the Roman Goddess Junno, Goddess of Marriage, and for this reason, June has always been looked upon as the best month to marry:

Married in the month of roses - June
Life will be one long honeymoon

June's Caption Competition

Because of this June tradition surrounding power, joy, marriage and fertility, June is also seen as a time to have courage and seize new chances; which is fabulous news for your extended services coordinator who is about to embark on a bit of amateur dramatics.  But in the case of Andy Earl (pictured above) perhaps that should be "Seize the biscuits?"  If you have a fitting caption for the photo of Andy and his large plate of biscuits, then please feel free to send them in.  There's no prize but you will get the opportunity to tickle our partners funny bones (no rude, un-publishable ones please!)

Joking aside, may I take this opportunity to pass my thanks to our Police, Fire and Rescue and Youth Team partners for their dedicated hard work on our Safety Net Inclusion Project at Portchester Community School over the past year.  They have all worked incredibly hard to make this a success, so it certainly hasn't all been about biscuits! I hope to share more news about the end of project celebration event and evaluation in July.

So I shall now seize the chance in my very limited time between rehearsals, and squashed between all of the other amazing things happening in East Fareham this June, to offer you the...

Just a quick reminder to all of our partners about the:

Fareham Parenting Workshop

Friday July 10th

 4.00pm @ Odyssey Young Persons' Centre, Portchester Community School

It isn't too late to book your place on our Parenting Workshop on Friday 10th July 2009. This two-hour session will be jam-packed with information for school staff, children's centre staff and all voluntary and statutory services who deal directly with families across the borough.  As you may be aware, when I carried out my school audit visits back in 2008, one of our gaps in extended service provision surrounded 'engaging parents' so this is a really important local event to share and explore developments in parenting provision.  Please feel free to contact Susie if you wish to attend this informal workshop and cream tea.

Also during the week beginning the 6th July we see the fantastic annual International Arts Festival taking place over three days at Portchester Community School. The marquee has arrived and the performers are carrying out their last minute practice.  This is a fantastic annual event that involves the whole school community - with a primary school event on the Wednesday, the amazing steel bands performing on the Thursday evening, followed by a grand finale with the intergenerational community choir, dancers, steel bands, singers and special school guests from Chernobyl and the Netherlands on Friday.  Tickets for these three events can be purchased at Portchester Community School.

New for this year is the 'Gig Nite' on Saturday 11th July that has been made possible through Youth Opportunity Funding.  Situated in the marquee, three local bands will perform to our audience of 13-19 year olds, including Fresh Legs (pictured right), who according to my teenage son are pretty cool!  For those who are 'into' their modern music, this local band have supported The Maccabees (pictured left), who oddly enough I met a couple of years ago while they were a support band. 

It's a small, small world!

Which leads me nicely onto our 'wannabe' Rock Stars at Portchester Gala on 20th June 2009.   Some of our young people from Westland's Youth Club joined me bright and early to take part in the procession, dressed as rock stars and clutching their inflatable instruments.  They certainly made me proud with their patience while we waited for the procession to begin, and when we were finally given the go-ahead to set off, they raised lots of money for the event shaking their buckets.  Well done to all of the youngsters who helped on the day, and a particular thank you must go to my older youth club volunteers who remained during the day to help us promote Keepsake Children's Centre.

To say a big thank you to the children for making the youth club such a roaring success since the re-launch, and before we close Youth club during August (sadly due to staff holidays it would be unsafe to continue opening), there will be a Westland's End-of-Term Summer Disco (for our registered 10-13 year olds) on 24th July 2009 at 7.00 - 9.00pm. 

D-Day, Discos and Downloads: "Between the Hill and the Sea" - It's full steam ahead for our community play as the production date creeps closer. Costumes have been collected from Hampshire Wardrobe (including some rather striking platform shoes and flares) and the set is starting to take shape in the dance studio and classrooms; including a replica of a 1970s living room, a 1940s kitchen and a reproduction of Portchester Castle walls.  The promenade play, which recreates the stories of local residents from three different eras, will take place over three days, from 17th - 19th July 2009.  As we have restricted the audience to 100 people per performance, I would strongly urge partners to get your tickets while stocks last.  The bargain ticket price also includes refreshments...so don't be surprised at the intermission if you are offered a cup of weak tea in a chipped mug and a Union Jack flag!

As you can imagine with a production on this scale, it has been a huge commitment for our production team and amateur actors; including students from our two partnership secondary schools.  Many of these children and young people have given up many of their Sunday afternoons, and at least one evening a week to rehearse.  And of course, by this time in the production all of our enthusiastic actors know their lines, they all know exactly where they are supposed to sit, stand and when and where to come in...and my children from Castle Primary behave like complete angels offstage.

Can you detect just a hint of sarcasm liberally dripped in desperation?  I believe that pre-production nerves are simply part and parcel of an actor's life and it's natural to be a little apprehensive, but taking part in the play has actually taught me a very valuable lesson. I now keep biscuits in my handbag!  This is simply a precautionary measure in case I have to keep a group of eight year olds deathly silent for longer than five minutes again.

How useful biscuits are proving to be in this role - perhaps they should be supplying them with the tda Extended Services Toolkit?

Please could partners help us to sell those last few tickets so we can celebrate a full house for this Big Lottery funded project.  There's a flyer for you to download and display below - and please don't hesitate to ask for hard copies and/or posters if you need them:

D-Day, Discos and Downloads Flyer

Meanwhile down the road at Cams Hill Secondary School there has been the sounds of beat-boxing and hip-hopping during the month of June.  Please see the school press release about the Urban Arts Festival below:

URBAN ARTS FESTIVAL
	The Urban Arts Festival took place on Tuesday with nearly 70 pupils from Wicor Primary School visiting Cams Hill School for Music, Art, English and Dance lessons. Pupils were split up into groups that represented five areas of the world that have specific urban issues: The Favelas, Rio d'Janeiro Oakland, Los Angeles The Bronx, New York Brixton, London South Side, Chicago Selected Cams pupils from Years 8, 9 and 10 led sessions in beatboxing, music technology, DJ skills, graffiti, hip hop dance and slam poetry, giving the primary pupils creative ideas to think about how to be responsible and respectful to the community in which they live.
Each primary pupil contributed to a graffiti wall (see below), made loop-based music using music and DJ technology. They also created poetry. and were led by a professional beatboxer and hip hop dancer in exploring these art forms. The day finished with a show and tell session in the Events Hall. I would like to thank all of our pupils for their enthusiasm, as well as Mrs Pugh and Miss Kariya for their hard work behind the scenes to make the festival happen. Mr S Lawrenson, Head of Music

Then there another opportunity on offer for talented performers from both Portchester Community School and Cams Hill Secondary School when our students were invited to perform at the School's Festival at The Ashcroft Arts Festival.  It was a steamy week for the young people; with temperatures reaching the high 30s in the studio at the Arts Centre.

This is the third year of the successful festival and this time around the schools tackled the most difficult and thought provoking subject of "Human Rights, Human Wrongs". In total, five schools took part, using subject matter including child soldiers, children’s rights, HIV and domestic violence. The Cams Hill piece, ‘Tres Meses’, looked at the way that Cuba deals with HIV, choosing to lock away people with the virus, denying them their basic human right of freedom. Our Portchester students portrayed the plight of child soldiers.  The cast were fortunate enough to work with the Red Cross and the theatre company Shared Experience in preparation for the festival.

As a bonus this year, the fantastic set (above left) was designed and constructed especially for the festival by a second year student from the Guildford School of Acting. The design incorporated a projection screen so that schools could produce a multimedia performance, something that really wowed the audience!  I have to admit that the harrowing Domestic Violence set performed by Brune Park School, not only brought a tear to my eye; but left a little girl sat behind me sobbing.  How's that for a true-to-life performance?

Well done to all of the amazingly talented performers that I have had the pleasure to meet over the past month...I believe that they must put something in the water around here to spawn so much talent.  With that in mind, do keep your eyes open for the new Acting Academy that will be starting at Cams Hill School in the autumn term. 

I have plenty of other important documents and extended services 'stuff' to share with you - but sadly the one thing that my role does not allow me are those extra hours in the day to put them on the web site.  Please accept my apologies for this 'blip' in information sharing, but the Strategic Group (our decision making body) are exploring how to share some of this increasing workload as we speed towards the 2010 deadline for extended schools.

However brief, I hope you continue to enjoy these updates,and I promise that I shall be back with a full update in July. 

I shall leave you for now with a mini-gallery of pictures from the 2009 Portchester Gala featuring the fabulous team from Keepsake Children's Centre - including the star of the day 'Doreen the Donkey'.