Music

In the first part of the term, learners worked on understanding (and recognising) the concept of tonality and will be able to distinguish between major and minor chords. They have worked on paired / solo performances of the Sea Shanty 'The Drunken Sailor' using the root position triads of D minor and C major.  In the second half of the term, learners will be given the opportunity to compose their own incidental film music as well as learning about some of the techniques exemplified in the music of blockbuster composers such as John Williams and Jerry Herman.

Drama

During the autumn term, we will be looking at the theme of Night and Day.  This topic will run through the whole of Year 8, leading to an exploration of aspects of A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Initially, they will look at associations between Night and Day, consider Dreams and Nightmares, and think about performance ideas such as shadows and reality. They will look at a script from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, think about the language in his poem The Jabberwocky. Links will be made between the learning in the other iCreate subjects with reference made to artworks and music as stimulus for drama.

Art

During the autumn term, we will be looking at the theme of Night and Day and explore aspects of A Midsummer Night's Dream through the work of print maker Phillip Kingsbury. The artist used this Shakespeare play as the subject for some of his lino prints which we will use as inspiration for observing the human figure using proportion. Whilst in drama lessons, learners will have the opportunity to photograph themselves in different poses which can be used to reinforce their understanding of balance and proportion when studying the figure in art. Learners will also make relevant connections to numeracy and try to understand how artists use number to calculate size. After developing their studies into compositions, learners will then transfer, cut and print their own lino print using the same techniques as Phillip Kingsbury.

 

Music - Night and Day

Students will continue to learn about Film Music and the various techniques employed by composers such as John Williams, whilst finalizing their night film scores using Google Songmaker or traditional means. They use a scene from Phantom of the Opera as a stimulus. Students will then move on to the ‘Day’ part of this year’s iCreate theme learning about Caribbean Music with a focus on calypso music that originates in the region. They will sing in harmony, play instruments and weave in a number of untuned percussion ostinati to produce a group or pair performance of the song ‘Yellow Bird’.

Drama

The students will be exploring ideas of Night and Day focusing on work that will lead to the performance of Pyramus and Thisbie from A Midsummer Night's Dream in the summer term.  During the spring term, they will be focusing on Shakespeare, his life, his work and London in the Elizabethan and Jacobean era.  This will involve considering what we know about Shakespeare and what is still a mystery, virtual tours of London and The Globe Theatre, an exploration of Shakespeare's language and an introduction to the themes and ideas in A Midsummer Night's Dream along with character analysis. Work will be linked to Art and Music from the same period or that has been used subsequently to enhance Shakespeare performances. Practical Drama skills will continue to be taught through a variety of resources and all work will be available via Google Classroom.  there will be a blended approach to learning including research and analysis tasks combined with practical work.  The students will use a comprehensive range of resources and will be encouraged to share their work in a variety of formats.

We will then move on to the topic of movement where we consider the work of Meyerhold and Laban focusing on direction, weight, speed and flow.

Art

Last term, students in Year 8 developed their recording skills working from the figure.  Learners will undertake a series of assignments which explore the figure but investigating this through different themes including movement. After developing their studies into compositions, learners will then transfer, cut and print their own lino print using the same techniques as artist Phillip Kingsbury.

You can support your daughter, through looking at her sketchbook and discuss the work she is doing exploring this theme. You could encourage your daughter to record figure compositions in different settings  through drawing, painting or photography.

Music - Night & Day

In keeping with the Night and Day theme, pupils sing and play the song Walking on the Moon (The Police – Sting): Prior learning is built upon as this song’s verse uses the same two chords (D minor & C major) as The Drunken Sailor covered in Year 7. The chorus of this song introduces new chords F major, Bb Major and Gm7 (this is the only four-note chord covered). Three meanings of Movement in Music: Scales and arpeggios, parallel intervals/harmony / ascending, descending; Movements as sections of classical music, dance (concept, not practical), Beethoven’s Ode to Joy is used to experiment with the movement of parallel harmonic intervals.

Drama

In the summer term, we will be looking at Movement.  To do this, we will continue to develop our understanding of A Midsummer Night’s Dream which was explored in the previous term.  We will think about the dynamics of movement and consider the work of Meyerhold and Laban applying these movement ideas (direction, weight, speed and flow) to successfully convey the characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream to an audience.  The students will have the opportunity to explore the Shakespearean script in more depth and to make decisions about staging and representation to make the story accessible for a younger audience.

Art

In the summer term, we will be exploring Movement as the iCreate theme for this term. We will focus on exploring art work from other parts of the world, specifically Japan and Indonesia. Through exploring the work of Japanese artists we will discover how they depicted movement observing water and fish. To do this, we will be concentrating on experimenting with line and mark making to convey a sense of movement. This will culminate with exploring batik which originates from Indonesia and makes use of drawing with wax onto fabric using flowing and fluid lines. To emphasise the focus of our creative work, we will use colour working with dyes to show the ever changing qualities  of moving water.