SHORT BREAK GRANT SCHEME
Woldgate College are now working in partnership with Accessible Arts & Media, iMATA (interactive Music Accessible To All) and East Riding of Yorkshire County Council. Other support has been given by Elvington Air Museum, Apollo Creative, HETA (Humberside Engineering Training Association), Pocklington Youth Club – DofE students, Francis Scaife Sports Centre and Kings Mill Special School.
Martin Trevaskiss, Head of Specialism at Woldgate comments, “Woldgate is committed to working with the wider community as part of its role as a Specialist College for Performing Arts and we are proud to be a major partner in this innovative and fairly unique venture”.
The club is free to join and will teach skills in dance, music, singing, drama and performance. There will also be opportunities for backstage techniques including making props, creating sound effects and recording studio technology.
Jacki Dealtry, Project Manager, said: “This is fully inclusive, allowing students from mainstream and special needs schools/colleges to take part. It’s a brand new initiative and something that has never been done before in the East Riding”.
“I love working with children and wanted to make a difference”, says Jacki. I believe in giving all abilities the opportunity to take part in music and to have fun. I’ve been wanting to do something in my home town of Pocklington for years and wanted to do something for the community itself. The response to the project so far has been amazing!”.
The club is being funded through the Short Break Grant Scheme from East Riding Yorkshire County Council for Voluntary Youth Services. The school is giving its facilities – which include studios for dance, recording and drama – free of charge for the duration of the project.
Jacki said: “We have got a lot of people involved including a Theatre practitioner, dance practitioner, community musician and a sensory/switch music artist. Students will be split into little workshops and have opportunities to have a go with everything. For people that don’t want to perform there’s a range of other activities, from writing scripts to creating sound effects, backstage skills to prop making.”
New sensory music equipment will be purchased for the project called Apollo Ensemble. It uses movement to trigger or play sound, light, image, video and special effects. Students will learn how to create content for the Ensemble, including recording sound effects and designing lighting scenes. They will then be able to control these with the blink of an eye, the movement of a finger, the stamp of a foot, or a roll from a wheel chair.
The two portable kits will be used throughout the project and additional training provided so that schools, colleges and community groups in the East Riding of Yorkshire will have the opportunity use them.
The first performance will be on the 13th December – a Christmas Celebration. It will be a show case of work and skills that the students have learnt from the start of the project.
http://www.school-portal.co.uk/GroupHomepage.asp?GroupID=87420#
