24 February 2023
What a week it has been in our Arts Partnership office. Both literally and figuratively, it is exciting to see the range of ways in which the horizons of students across the OX14 Learning partnership can be widened through participation in arts activities.
On Monday, budding playwrights from schools across the OX14 Learning Partnership participated in an inaugural playwriting competition. Fourteen 10-minute plays on the theme of ‘change’ were selected, with their writers waiting to hear whether or not their work will make the shortlist.
On Tuesday, ten members of our Larkmead Film Academy resumed their work with AFU tutor Duncan Pickstock on the editing of their recently filmed murder mystery short. With two weeks of the course to go, the onscreen tension is rising as the students work on their own versions of the film using the footage captured before half term.
On Wednesday, 100 students from Larkmead and John Mason Schools were welcomed to the Amey Theatre for our first dedicated arts partnership NT Live screening. Students sat spellbound as they watched the National Theatre’s acclaimed production of Arthur Miller’s play ‘The Crucible’. During the interval, they watched an interview with designer Es Devlin and composer Caroline Shaw about the making of the production.
In the afternoon, Abingdon’s very own Jason Preece teamed up with recent OA and English / Music graduate Mac Adams to run the latest in their series of wildly popular music workshops at Thameside Primary School in Abingdon. This dynamic duo have been helping the students to raise the roof with rousing renditions of hits by Adele and numerous other chart-topping artists.
Back at Abingdon, the regular AFU Other Half slot was graced by the addition of several new Film Academy members from Larkmead, Fitzharrys and St Helen and St Katharine who are now coming to Abingdon to explore filmmaking once their school day has finished.
Thursday saw the latest online workshop in our series of Oxfordshire Academy of Broadcast Journalism sessions. For this, Abingdon students were joined by their peers at Larkmead and Fitzharrys schools for a session on audio broadcasting led by our professional broadcasters Blythe Lawrence (in London) and Olly Hogben, who on this occasion joined us from Doha, where he was about to commentate on a Champions League match!
