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The Arts at Finchale 2017 - 2018

Hello and welcome to our Arts page. I am Mrs McGuire and I am delighted to be the Arts Co-ordinator at Finchale. I have a background in dance and welcome the opportunity to look after The Arts at Finchale which is a thriving area for our school.

The Arts

Music, Singing, Dance, Movement, Visual Art, Drama, Poetry.

There are other areas of our website that also contain information about The Arts.

Class Pages - Class assemblies and activities in class show how learning about The Arts is embedded in many of our lessons.

Sports Page - this shows lots of dance and movement.

Celebrating Achievement - this shows many individual and group achievements with music, drama, dance and visual art all represented.

Seasonal Events - this shows many individual and group activities like music, singing, creative art, drama and performance.

Click the links below to see more information.

Class Pages from: 2022 - 2023

Take a look at our Sporting Achievements from: 2017 - 2018

Look at How we Celebrated Achievement Last Year 2017 - 2018

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Back Chat Brass Visit Finchale 19/7/18

Year 6 Back Chat Brass Trombone Workshop 19/7/18

Brass Concert 13/07/18

June 2018 - Some of our Year 5 girls performed at the Gala with other Primary Schools and Durham High School for Girls and presented 'Yanomamo'. A Musical about the life of the Yanomamo tribe in the Amazon.

June 2015, Bernard Young came in and read poetry to us about Road Safety. The whole school then created their own Road Safety poems and presented them, in assembly, at the end of the day.

June 2018, Revered Caroline and Anita came in and taught us about Moses and the Red sea. We enjoyed acting out the story and all the plagues.

Ceilidh, 21st May 2018

May 2018 Lego Club

In lego club we have been creating digital animations with stop motion animation. Here is just one of our creations.

Performance Outside of School, April 2018

Well done to our children from left to right:

Rosie Y1

Patrick Y4

Freya Y1

Emily Y1

They performed as part of a Gala Theatre Stage School Production of "Decades - A Musical Journey". They said the performance met with huge applause from the audience and they thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the whole experience.

Community Art Project, March 2018

Eleven of our Year 5 pupils visited Framwellgate School Durham to take part in a creative art workshop. They used Photoshop to modify and add effects and colours to images of Durham Cathedral and people in winter (given to them by Nathan Y11). Their work will be put onto LED acrylic glass for an exhibition to be held at Framwellgate School, to which the children and their families will be invited. We look forward to seeing their work on display soon.

Music Lessons, Trumpet & Baritone March 2018

The B-Word by Firehorse Productions, 07/03/18

Years 2 - 6 watched a wonderful play this afternoon all about Anti-bullying. This professional drama took us through all the different types of bullying and what we should do if it happens to us.

Ukulele for Year 3, March 2018

Year 3 have started their ukulele lessons. We learned in our first lesson about the different parts of the instrument and how to strum correctly. February 2018

School Assemblies: Dramatic Acting, Atmospheric Music, Beautiful Singing and Energetic Dancing

The Vikings in Action... (March 2018)

Divinity Quintet performed for us from Durham University. We all went on a journey to Finchale's school zoo. February 2018

Age of Enlightenment Performance, February 2018

We performed at Durham Cathedral in the vocal festival to perform The Fairy Queen with our singing and trombone playing. It was an amazing experience, all the children and staff enjoyed the event.

Quotes from children

"The evening was really good and I enjoyed going up on stage and watching the Orchestra."

"The performance was really exciting. My favourite bit was singing with all the other children."

"It was really nerve-racking but it was also fun seeing the actors argue during the play."

Dancing at the Valentine Disco, February 2018

There was some fantastic original disco dancing at the Valentine Disco. Lots of fun and creativity on display the break dancing was also great fun to watch!

National Youth Choir Workshop, February 2018

A group of children from Year 5 and Year 6 got the opportunity to go to the local comprehensive school to take part in a workshop with the National Youth Choir. We sang all morning and thoroughly enjoyed it. We sang; A Nigerian song, A Jazz piece with beatboxing, A Latin song and an African slave song also with beatboxing. The children were so inspired they are intending to use their new skills to audition for Finchale's got Talent.

Ecclesiastical Art, January 2018

Year 3 visited All Saints Church to look for all types of Christian Symbols and art. The Church Stewards explained what the artwork means to Christians today and how important it was in the past too. Pictures were very important in the past when people could not read, stained glass windows told stories as well as being decorative. When we returned to school we decorated pebbles with the Christian symbols we found.

Year 4 Mini Trombone Lesson with Mr Wilkinson, January 2018. Please click below to listen to our playing...

Year 4 have been working with Mr Wilkinson this year to learn how to play the mini trombones. The children have learned a few notes and have performed these during our Christmas celebrations.

The Age of Enlightenment workshop, January 2018

Year 4 have been really lucky to be asked to take part in the Fairy Queen performance at Durham Cathedral with the Age of Enlightenment orchestra. Mrs McGuire and Mrs Whitton went to Ushaw College to learn the songs before volunteers came into our school to teach us also. Since then Mrs McGuire has been rehearsing with Year 4 ready for our performance. The performance will be on 7th February at the Cathedral, we are all looking forward to it.

Finchale Choir, December 2018

Durham Young Musicians - St Cuthbert's Church

The Choir have been very busy this year, the photo shows them practising Christmas songs. They have performed at St Cuthbert’s Church (a collaborative event with Durham Young Musicians), Lindisfarne Care Home (in our local community) and finally at Sainsbury’s Supermarket (raising funds for school). Well done to the children who all volunteer and sing in their own time after school. They have certainly brought joy and happiness to many people this Christmas. Finally many thanks to Mrs McGuire and Mrs Grabham for the coaching and guidance they have given the group.

Christmas Productions, December 2017

Christmas Art, December 2017

Tomas Year 5 drew this fantastic award winning picture which won a competition. His picture appeared on the Chief Constable's Christmas card and was sent out across the country. The design was entirely his own and his colouring with pencil and felt pen was very realistic.

Yinuo Y5 and Emma Y1 had their fantastic art work on our MP's Christmas card. Yinuo's was on the front and Emma's was on the back of the card. Roberta Blackman Wood sent the card out across the country. It is quite something to think that 10 Downing Street will have cards from three budding artists from Finchale Primary School.

Come Dancing for Year 5, November 2017

Line Dancing, Bollywood, Street Dance & Rock n Roll

Brass Concert, November 2017

Poetry, November 2018

Year 2 pupils read the poem "In Flanders Fields" and Year 6 who had analysed the same poem, read out, in their own words, what it really meant to them.

Outdoor Art - Inspirational Murals

Julianne is a wonderful artist who has worked with Finchale for many years improving our school grounds with colourful art. Julianne has painted many murals around our outside space as well as turning our climbing wall into an inspirational mural. Julianne always consults the children before up taking any project and especially for our inspirational mural every child drew things they are inspired by or that they would like to achieve in their life.

Community Outdoor Art - The Finchale Soldier in Willow, September 2017

Little Finger Music & Movement Session in Year 1, 27/9/18

Our Little Fingers music lesson went active on 27th September 2017 to celebrate National Fitness Day. Music and movement was a winning combination and Mrs Glover, teacher, said the children loved it!

Durham Brass, July 2017

Finchale's Got Talent, June 2017

Our annual talent show where our children get an authentic experience of auditioning and performing to take part in the show in the hope of winning.

The Happy Prince Performance, June 2017

Some of our Year 5 girls took part in a performance of ‘The Happy Prince’ at the Gala Theatre in Durham. They joined children from a number of local primary schools to support Durham High School for Girls with their annual production. Ella, Brooke, Amelia, Niamh and Jessica had a fantastic time, encouraged each other and represented our school very well. It was very impressive to see the girls learn new vocals and new choreography in a relatively short space of time. Well done girls!

Productions from past years have included: Ocean World, One Sun, One World, The Selfish Giant, Noah's Ark and Yanomamo.

Key Stage 1 Artwork Hung in May 2017

We take pride in our Art work at Finchale. Each year group produces a piece of art, multiple times in the year, and this is displayed in photo frames in our school's corridors. This makes our corridors lovely and colourful as well as celebrating the children's wonderful art work and their success. Our corridors are like mini art galleries. Have a look at some of our wonderful art in these slide shows.

Key Stage 2 Artwork Hung in May 2017

Dance Festival, March 2017

Year 3 gave a fabulous rendition of Irene Cara's "What a Feeling" from the 1983 movie Flashdance. The leg warmers were a treat to the eyes and brought back happy memories of the 80s, although some of the pupils initially were rather bemused by the socks with no feet!

Year 2, calling themselves The Together Gang were winners of Most Energetic Routine at the Dance Festival. They performed their High School Musical dance to "We're All in This Together". The American-themed costumes were fantastic, pom poms, ra ra skirts and basketball strips.