Musical Theatre Club

The Musical Theatre Club is a collaborative class of Woldingham girls and students from The Orpheus Centre who learn the songs and dance routines to songs from the musicals together.

The Orpheus Centre is a specialist college for young disabled adults with a passion for the performing arts.

Aims

The aim is to break down barriers between able and less able young people. Woldingham was aware that our younger girls had no opportunity for outreach work in our local community. The success of this club is based on the full participation and commitment of its members [from both Woldingham and The Orpheus Centre] and the wonderful work of the Director of the club, Heidi Acraman. This club benefits both schools - Woldingham girls learn about dealing with those less able than themselves, they learn how to interact with the students from The Orpheus Centre, and how to work alongside them. Orpheus students learn how to work alongside more able students too, how to interact with them, and they learn from them - they're pushed to full capacity.

Background

Our Head of Year 7 & 8 approached our Chaplain, Fr Gerry Devlin, about some outreach work for the younger girls in the school. Fr Gerry knew of The Orpheus Centre and sent in an email explaining that we would be keen to meet them to see if there were any opportunities to work together. Lynn Reddick, Head of Learning, responded and said yes! The collaboration between our two organisations has been going since September 2017.

Resources

We use the Barn Theatre at The Orpheus Centre for weekly rehearsals at no cost to any of the Woldingham or Orpheus students. Woldingham uses its own minibuses to get down there.

Impact

The students from both The Orpheus Centre and Woldingham really enjoy this weekly session. They always work together towards a showcase for parents/carers and this is always so warmly received, and appreciated by all. The same students turn up week on week and the drop out rate is very low. Those who have dropped out have dropped out after quite considerable time with valid reasons.

Pupil Involvement

6 girls from year 8 at Woldingham School, aged 12-13,  and 15 mixed gender students of various ages from The Orpheus Centre, were involved

Frequency

This activity has been taking place once a week during term time since September 2017 and is ongoing; it lasts for one hour on each occasion.