‘Children who had struggled to show emotion
since returning to school were jumping out of their seats in excitement’
End, particularly after the lack of experiences we could provide in lockdown. The youngest went to see Frozen, Years 2, 3 and 4 went to The Lion King and Years 5 and 6 went to Wicked. They had never seen anything like these shows before and they were awestruck. During one scene in Wicked, children who had struggled to show emotion since returning to school were jumping out of their seats in excitement. It was magical! We wanted to make use of these
experiences and so we dedicated a whole half-term of learning to language enrichment and the arts, with each group preparing for a community performance related to the show they had seen. We tapped into the sense of wonder the children had got from the shows to inspire and motivate them through richly layered activities around music, writing, art and performance. The children wrote their own
scripts based on the story they had seen. They also learned about lighting and scenery to see what special effects they could bring to their performance and they made all the costumes and props. They really pushed themselves, leading to far higher learning outcomes than we would normally see. We invited parents and community
neighbours into our new school hall for the performances and they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It was a joyous occasion and we are incredibly grateful to the John Lyon’s Charity for this gift to our children. Ruby Nasser, headteacher, Edith Neville Primary School, King’s Cross, London (196 pupils)
14 SPRING 2023 FundEd
CASE STUDY
‘A fundraising portfolio paid for our multi-use theatre space’
Two years ago, FundEd profiled Furze Platt’s crowdfunding campaign for a school theatre. Here’s how it worked – and what has happened since…
A
fter receiving funding for a new hall, we decided to make it a multi-use space that could
be transformed into a theatre both for the school and the wider community in Maidenhead. This required an additional £34,000. The plan was to install retractable seating for 384 people, as well as a production lighting desk and facilities, audio mixer and loudspeakers, curtains and high- quality projection. This would offer incredible opportunities for students in our new performing arts department (created from a merger of drama and music) and for those taking our new curriculum addition of GCSE dance, or studying technical theatre skills. We also
planned to hire out the venue to arts and theatre societies, orchestras and indeed other schools. This addressed a local shortage of performance and rehearsal space, as well as raising revenue from lettings. The fundraising campaign was led
by our PTFA – a registered charity which could claim Gift Aid on donations. We used the crowdfunding platform InvestMyCommunity to build the appeal, create content for publicity and help us with ideas to boost our fundraising potential. One of these was a rewards scheme, with a mention in theatre programmes if you donated £50, and an invitation to a sparkling reception for donations of £500.
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