Shakespeare & Drama
The 2025 Primary Shakespeare Festival playbill
Wednesday 29th October- Class 3H perform – A Midsummer Night’s Dream 4S – Hamlet 5B – Twelfth Night Thursday 30th October- 3N – Henry V 4C – Much Ado about Nothing 5M – Troilus and Cressida Friday 31st October- 6H – Richard III 6BE – The Merchant of Venice Tickets go on sale from 10am Monday 6th October, from Glen Street Theatre. Performances start at 6pm. …
Week 8 in Upper 1st
English: This week was our revision and assessment week of all of the phonemes that we have been focusing on this term: ai, ay, ie, igh, –y, -y, ee, ea, oa. We also read the story of The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl. We used this as inspiration for both our short burst and extended writing this week. The children did a wonderful job using adjectives in their writing. Geography: We focused on Monkey Mia and Turquoise Bay in Western Australia. We spoke about what Traditional Owners means, and we looked at natural and built features. Maths: This week we are looking at length. We are using informal units to measure lengths and we are discussing the need for …
This week in Year 1 (Upper 1st)
Our spelling and reading focus this week has been “oa”. We also learned about the “shwa” sound and how common it is in Australian accents. In short burst writing the children wrote about a ‘Staircase to the Moon’ and with the help of our wonderful parents, we wrote an informative description of a Thorny Devil. In grammar, we have been learning how to extend our sentences to include when and where. Maths: This week the children continue to learn how to count forward and backwards 2’s, 3’s, 5’s and 10’s from any starting point. The children also identified and described patterns when skip counting using a number line, 100’s chart, counting on and counting down. Philosophy: Our focus has …
Week 4: Just a normal busy week in Upper 1st (Year 1)
English: This week in spelling and reading, we have looked at two syllable words ending in y. The y makes a long e sound in these words. In grammar, we looked at the differencesbetween questions and statements. In short burst writing, the children wrote about camping. In parent writing we focused on using adjectives to write an informative description about a pelican. Maths: This week the children revisited Data and the features of a picture graph. This included how to gather data using concrete materials, tally marks, lists or symbols such as pictures of objects. They learnt about scaling where one object or picture can represent more than one data value. Discuss/Revise the features of a picture graph. The …
The legacy of Shakespearean theatre at John Colet
The students of John Colet immerse in Shakespeare’s work every year, from Kindergarten to Year 6, learning many aspects of stagecraft in the process. As our sixth-class leavers prepare to embark on the next stage of their educational journey, it is apt to reflect on the legacy of their theatrical experiences, to consider “which grain will grow, and which will not” of those seeds that were planted during their seven years at the school. Let us examine first the revelations in performance. What becomes immediately apparent on stage is the high level of confidence, exuding from not only the naturally extroverted students, but from every single child. One remarks the absence of self-doubt: no-one stutters in the flow of …
This week in 4th Class…
The children were so excited to participate in the Shakespeare workshop on Monday. Joanna E, Violet’s mum, facilitated an action-packed session with many activities to build the children’s confidence, acting skills and ability to use Shakespearean language. We also looked at the plot and characters of Romeo and Juliet and discussed themes, including Shakespeare’s use of antithesis. The children had so much fun and developed a deeper understanding of our play. Thank you, Joanna! In English this week, we practised reading fluency with our text, Storm Boy. We focused on the setting of the story and identified strong verbs and powerful adjectives used by the author. We also read a description of a storm and reflected on the way …