[Closed] School Play

3 weeks rehearsal and the play will still be shite! 😀

...been there, done that - sat on a small plastic chair for nearly 3 hours in a hot muggy school hall with loads of overly enthusiastic parents filming on their phones!

School organised professional filming (I think thro one of the kids parents). Reduced to zero the phone recording though one dickhead still used his dslr with pop up flash... play actually brilliant to be fair.

More fool you for putting up with it. I wouldn't rank that as important, far better things to be doing with your lives.

After Y6 SATS most schools couldn't really care less about anything other than their stats - i.e. attendance. However, I can't think of anything worse for a teacher than to have every single kid in rehearsal for that long every day. It's a bit different if it's a drama club or a production that has selected parts (full auditions and roles given) - these tend to be more professional.

As an amateur dramatist, that sounds tailor-made to suck every bit of fun and creativity out of the whole thing. Pros might put that amount of time in, but only after many years of training.

Edited to say, this is supposed to be fun. Unless... the school isn't RADA, is it...? 🙂

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We look forward to the review 🙂

It seems an excessive amount of rehearsal, however:

[quote=P-Jay ]In the same week we get a letter to remind us how important attendance is (and it is) we're told that Jnr. will be spending the last 3 weeks of Junior School rehearsing for the end of year play - not for an hour a day, oh no, all day, every day.

Y6 - so once they've done SATS there doesn't seem to be much more academic going on. They seem to spend a lot of time on the play in our school, though it's not excessive like that and the kids all really enjoy it from what I've seen (my oldest is only Y5, so has still been doing real work and only has a minor role in the play).

Y6 - so once they've done SATS there doesn't seem to be much more academic going on. They seem to spend a lot of time on the play in our school, though it's not excessive like that and the kids all really enjoy it from what I've seen (my oldest is only Y5, so has still been doing real work and only has a minor role in the play).

I think this is probably the most annoying thing about it.

When I was in form 5 in Secondary there was a few weeks after GCSEs when you didn't have to do go to school, it made for a 10-week summer hols or if you were very unlucky an extra 3 weeks working your first job whilst the rest of us sacked it off. That I could understand, back then education or training till 18 wasn't mandatory and only about half the school was going to be coming back in September.

But, they're starting High School in September, our Tutor lines up extra work over the summer hols because she knows if she doesn't the kid’s minds turn to mush, but the Junior school are more "well, we've got our stats, your performance is no longer important to us".

The Lad has had a guts full, his shoulders ache from being tornado number 4 or whatever and twirling around like a dick for 3 weeks, his school mates are sick of it and they're just being told off all day for not being enthusiastic enough.

I’m going to make a note of this though, when the youngest gets to Yr6, I’m going to book a lovely family holiday on the cheap.

I’m afraid I won’t be able to review the play myself, I’m not going – my little rant was written outside of school waiting for him to come out, his Mum is going to see it tonight.

Seems to me that most teaching activity seems to hit the buffers from mid-June onwards around here. Watching films in class, 'enrichment' weeks (always fun for the kids whose families can't afford trips to theme parks etc). My two are bored senseless.

just wait till they get to me in secondary!
"Can we do something fun today sir"
"no"
"why not?"
"you have met me before havent you?"

A school play is also a pretty small minded last act for them too isn't it. School plays always remind me of those vacuous girls that knocked around school practising some sort of crap routine then insisting everybody watch what turned out to be self indulged drivel and attention seeking.

Why not use the promise of reasonable weather and the removal of pressure to trawl through curriculum to do something useful. A community project making something better. Time spent in a residential care home. If you must put on a play because that's the only thing the teacher knows how to do make it a travelling play put on at sheltered accommodation and retirement homes or hospitals. Go tend a garden for someone who can't. Instil a spirit of giving something back, and more importantly help them to be seen by others giving something back. Especially important for a generation accused by others as being generation me, me, me.

[quote=P-Jay ]But, they're starting High School in September, our Tutor lines up extra work over the summer hols because she knows if she doesn't the kid’s minds turn to mush, but the Junior school are more "well, we've got our stats, your performance is no longer important to us".

Tutor? 😯 I don't think it's even that though - I presume once the kids have done SATS they've had enough, and by that point they have covered the required curriculum. I don't personally have a problem with them having an easy few weeks at the end of primary (and my son won't be getting extra work next year - he doesn't seem to have a problem getting going again in September after a normal holiday, if anything he's refreshed and ready to go). It's the same at all primary schools, so not like they're dropping behind. Nor do I think it's something new.

Our school did Oliver. It was actually pretty good overall. Some quality acting and some really top singing. The 'orchestra' though was shocking. Fortunately barely audible over the traditionally assertive piano playing.

The younger kids were in the chorus, they did spend a week in rehersals, I've no idea how long the older ones spent though.

Tutor?

Yeah he sucked at Maths so we got him to see a tutor once a week, she's done wonders. She's a former Head Teacher and current Schools inspector.

He has to do 10-15 mins a night of homework for her.

I don't think it's even that though - I presume once the kids have done SATS they've had enough, and by that point they have covered the required curriculum. I don't personally have a problem with them having an easy few weeks at the end of primary

I sort of agree I guess, I'd prefer it if they did fun science or some community work as someone mentioned above, but what they're not doing is having an easy time, they're totally fed up of it. The Lad has been looking forward to Year 6 since reception, they really make a fuss of them in his School, the rest of the school look up to them, idolise them even, if Panini made stickers of Year 6s my Son would have completed the book every year, but all he wants to do now is leave and never come back.

As I say, lesson learned, it's a long way off yet, but when Miss gets to Year 6 I'm taking her out of school for the last week or more for a nice Holiday, Lad will be only waiting for Exam results so we can all go - School won't care given they've got their SATS ans stats. Jobbed.

[quote=P-Jay ]I sort of agree I guess, I'd prefer it if they did fun science or some community work as someone mentioned above, but what they're not doing is having an easy time, they're totally fed up of it.

Fair enough - I agreed with you about it being excessive in my first post and it sounds like your school has got the balance wrong. At our school I just see lots of enthusiasm for the play from the Y6s, but then I'm sure they're also doing other things (I'm not quite sure what, but in general they all seem very happy - I'm not in the school this year, but the previous few years I've been helping with IT, so it's not just an external perspective, I've seen what's happening inside the school).

School play is probably the best team building exercise they'll ever do in their whole life....they might not like it but that's what work is like.

You only get out of it what you put in. There is a shed load of arts, maths, technology, research skill to put into action. Dismiss it at your peril. And for some one it might be deciding their future positive or negative!

This school sounds like it's beating it to death - three weeks of all-day rehearsals? How can you put any energy into a performance as a child after that?

The School Nativity Play is hated by teachers, kids and parents alike. The only people who do like it are the "darlings" who get starring roles. '3rd reserve sheep' is not seen as RADA potential.

We sat through an awful play this week that the kids clearly couldn't have cared less about. They had practiced loads, but loads of lines were forgotten and the singing was, well lacklustre to say the least. The teacher involved was desperately trying to save her job by bouncing around in the wings trying to inject some enthusiasm into it, but she'd beaten that out of them already with her boring approach to rehearsals all week, which involved shouting at the children, lots.

In a very hot and sweaty hall, where no-one wanted to be, the highlight of the performance was a joke about parents at school plays, videoing their darlings on camera phones. Cue twenty phones disappearing from my view from the back and all of a sudden I could see what was going on - awesome!

I was sitting at the back so that I could get the full view of the stage... Some parents queued for an hour at the last nativity - apparently if you're not in the front row, you don't love your children. Get real.

[quote=sparkyspice ]The School Nativity Play is hated by teachers, kids and parents alike.

Amazingly enough that isn't universally so, but I guess if you're going in with that attitude it's not surprising you don't enjoy it.

At our play the singing was great, the kids were clearly enjoying themselves (some of them had some great lines), as were the teachers involved and the audience. No camera phones that I noticed (they'd got somebody taking good quality pics at the rehearsals which pre-empted that). Just a few technical hitches with the audio which made it very hard to hear some of the kids (the poor narrator was upset as her mike didn't seem to work), but that's a relatively minor thing. Not the best performance I've been to - but then the one a couple of years ago when they had a few very talented singers in Y6 capable of holding a song all by themselves was always going to be hard to top. Hopefully they'll sort out the audio issues next time.

We have just done our school show, it was incredibly tiring with quite a few weekend rehearsals and evening after school. However it was all worth it, seeing normally shy unconfident children come out of their shells, and discover that they do have talents is brilliant. As a teacher they get to see me as something other than the slightly grumpy Science teacher. Today we are all tired, but they are buzzing!

Schools are about making citizens and NOT grade factories! Sometimes that requires doing activities other than things which get you ready to sit a test!

they get to see me as something other than the slightly grumpy Science teacher

slightly grumpy and tired?

School play is probably the best team building exercise they'll ever do in their whole life....they might not like it but that's what work is like.

You only get out of it what you put in. There is a shed load of arts, maths, technology, research skill to put into action. Dismiss it at your peril. And for some one it might be deciding their future positive or negative!

They're 12, plenty of time for that later. No wonder kids feel so pressurised if that's the sort of crap they're being laden with.

So glad we never had that nonsense, we just finished the year and then had our holidays as normal.

aracer - I go in that sweaty room every time hoping for glory, but the look on most of the children faces ranges from a little puppy that has just got caught crapping on the carpet, to one that knows it's going to the vets for the big injection. It's hard to get enthusiastic about a load of kids singing a song that they've forgotten half the words to and barely whisper. If I'd have farted everyone would've heard it...

Perhaps it's just our school. It probably is. Church is rammed down them a bit too much and there's no real sports day as such. Instead it's called "Shorts Day", where you get points in groups for throwing bean bags into hoops on the ground or walking on stilts made of buckets and string. There's not even a parents race anymore...

I'd love to be clapping and cheering with some sort of integrity - I really would.

Mixed feelings about this. My daughter is in year 6 and they did a play based upon Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream last week.

She did not get a starring part (which she was upset abou) and was very bored during the weeks of rehearsals but seemed to really enjoy the actual performances. My wife and I both enjoyed the play which we had been dreading.

It seems most of the kids enjoyed it but were a bit bored during the run up to it. Maybe a bit more thought about keeping the kids occupied would have been a good thing.

[quote=sparkyspice ]Perhaps it's just our school. It probably is. Church is rammed down them a bit too much and there's no real sports day as such. Instead it's called "Shorts Day", where you get points in groups for throwing bean bags into hoops on the ground or walking on stilts made of buckets and string. There's not even a parents race anymore...

Maybe - ours is admittedly very good all round. Though it's also a bit churchy (but not objectionably so). We have a reasonable sports day - it's competitive but strikes the right balance of not being overly competitive. Never has been a parents race in the 6 years I've had kids there - for which I'm actually fairly grateful as I suspect I'm seen as being very sporty (I am for the average mid 40s bloke) but I've never been a sprinter, and for the last couple of years I'd have refused to take part due to running injuries.

Last night our daughters Year 5 & 6 groups put on a performance of Joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat. The singing was a bit ropey in places, though a couple of them can properly sing, the costumes a bit "meh" apart from the final bit where they used one of those old parachute games things to make a huge flowing coat, and two of the Year 6 lads absolutely blew the other others off the stage, one camping it up as a pantomime dame playing Potiphers wife and the other rocking a sensational Pharoah in the style of Elvis. Bloody great night - surprisingly so given that both of ours are quite musical and last night was the 8th of 9 shows/concerts we have this month

Last one tonight - MrsMC has gone to, eldest performing at the end of a four day County schools orchestra residential week [/stealth boast]

I've felt like this term for me has been about getting the class to be performing monkeys. Every class has to put on a class assembly, one per year. My year group is usually part of a local schools singing performance which needs a lot of rehearsing. Then as a one off we've had some kind of performance arts showcase this year that I didn't take very seriously because it was downplayed initially. I never arranged any rehearsals after school and only rehearsals of 30 min chunks - the kids get bored otherwise.

Our Y6s do put on a leavers show, which will be rehearsed about an hour or two a day for a week or so before with limited rehearsal usually just in class beforehand (making sure they all know their lines). One of the big differences is that our Y6 usually write their own assembly. After SATS ours tend to do a topic that errs on the side of art and sport rather than the 3+ hours of English and maths every day.

make it a travelling play put on at sheltered accommodation and retirement homes or hospitals

Bit harsh

Andrew Lloyd Webbers School of Rock.

3 hours.

3 HOURS!