Perse Pelican pupils make a song and dance during Music and Drama Week

13 Mar 2020

Perse Pelican children let their creativity shine through during the school’s Music and Drama Week.

Children’s composer Rachel Leach, director Tim Yelland and singer and actor Catrine Kirkman led the pupils, working with them in groups throughout the week to come up with ideas that were turned into songs and stories.

The theme of the project was ‘kindness’, with an emphasis on looking after the environment to tie in with the Pelican’s involvement in the Roots and Shoots education programme, which aims to implement positive change for animals, people and the world around us.

Through workshops, they explored and developed a story about rubbish being thrown in a river by Nanny, played by Catrine, who is supposed to be looking after children at a sleepover party. The children become sad when they discover the detrimental effect Nanny’s littering has on the otters and other wildlife living in the river, but the tale ends with redemption through recycling.

Tim said: “It’s a mixture of us coming along with the bones of a story and within that structure, we hang a lot of their creative ideas on it.

Catrine added: “For example, if there’s an otter as a character, Tim would ask them what they knew about otters, what they look like and how they move and then we make up a song about an otter from there.”

The youngsters rehearsed their pieces before performing them to the rest of the Pelican at the end of the week.

Tim said: “This is the third time we’ve been here and it’s been really good fun. I think the children really enjoyed the creativity of it, inventing stories, songs and movements with the rest of their class and then seeing it all actually happen.”