Many many thanks to all pupils who showed so much enthusiasm, energy and commitment last term.  I loved our pupils magnificent energy in the Pavilion and all our carol services – well done!
At the end of last term, Year 7 performed ‘The Gruffalo’, Year 8 ‘Roald Dahl’s Cinderella and Year 9 ‘ Rupert Scrooge’.  Years 4, 5 and 6 performed some Christmas poems. It was a super morning of fun, talent and camaraderie. Well done to everyone concerned. M.A.P (music, drama, art and PE) are very excited as we now have a new ‘happy board’. We would love pupils to bring photos of any music, drama, art or sporting achievement they would like us to know about, so we can all feel ‘happy’!

Dates to remember:
1st March       School Eisteddfod
2nd March    Pre-Prep concert for family and friends 2.45p.m.
5th March     Eisteddfod Highlights Concert for family and friends at 6.00p.m.
26th March  Informal music concert for instrumentalists, vocalists and the Prep choir – 2.45p.m.

Clubs:
We now have a variety of music and drama clubs
Music theory           Tuesday 1.30p.m. preparing for grade 5
Recorder group      Tuesday break time
Music ensemble     Monday break time
GCSE drama             Monday after school
Year 7 – 9 drama   Tuesday after school

Many of our pupils attend music, drama and dance clubs outside school including:
 The Performance House
 Bridgend Youth Theatre (BYT)
 Bridgend Youth Dance (BYD)
 Big Talent
 Stagecoach
Many of our pupils continue to show true commitment and determination towards outside music, drama and dance activities.
Congratulations to:
Alicia Cooke, Year 10 who won many gold medals last term in dance competitions. She will be preparing for the Sarah Burnell dance show in March.
Katie-Anne Brown, Year 10 who achieved Merit in Grade 5 Saxophone
Megan Greenwood, Year 7 who passed Grade 2 saxophone
Cian Sparrow, Year 8 who successfully auditioned for a part in the ‘King and I’ which is being produced by the Millennium centre at the New Theatre in May – details  to follow
Bibiana Viazzani, Year 5 who gained a place in the newly formed ‘Kids Aloud’ – they are touring Russia this year. She also won the prestigious Vale Competition.  She will now perform in the Senedd and on the Glanfa Stage in the Millennium Centre.  Bibi has also successfully auditioned for ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ – details to follow.
Stefan Farmer, Year 10 the ultimate professional, who was a joy to watch in the Porthcawl Pantomime ‘Cinderella’. He will also be performing in ‘Billy Liar’ with BYT and in ‘The Producers’ with Performance House.
Dominic Hoven, Year 9 who will be performing with his Band on 27th January at the Grand Pavilion.
Ellen Jeal, Year 4 who has joined a rock club.

Instrumental and vocal lessons
This term we have pupils starting on violin, piano and cornet.  Good luck to everyone.
We are fortunate to have excellent teaching staff:
Mrs. Shawe                Vocals and piano
Mat Ashment            Clarinet, saxophone and flute
Lizzie Prendergast  Violin and ‘Cello
Noel Watson              Drums
Stuart Power             Guitar
Terry Lax                   Trombone, trumpet and cornet

If your child is interested in learning an instrument, please feel free to speak to me or contact the school office.
Mrs. D. Mead

This term we have many musical moments for you to enjoy – here is a brief peep!……

9 November  A visit to see Joseph in the New Theatre for Yrs3-6

21 November  Pre Prep and Prep concert at  2.45p.m.  All welcome – it will be great fun!

28 November Mayor’s Charity Concert at the Grand Pavilion.  It starts at 7.00p.m. and has become quite a tradition in the St. John’s calendar.  Details to follow including how to buy tickets.

5 December Senior concert at 2.30p.m.  Please join us and enjoy the music of our older pupils.

6 December Pre Prep and Prep Nativity at  2.15p.m. in the Crampton Hall. Unmissable!

7 December Second performance of the Nativity.

12 December The Pre Prep and Prep Carol Service at St. John’s Church – another unmissable event.

13 December Prep and Senior Carol Service at the Church starting at 3.00p.m.

Please make a note in your diary of all these events to be sure you don’t miss any of them! We have already enjoyed a CAVMS strings and guitar demo, 2 harvest festivals, a visit to The Sandville and an all day vocal workshop run by the conductor of the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain – so well do everyone.

Many congratulations to all musicians who sat Associated Board exams at the end of last term.
Martha passed Grade 4 singing with merit
Alicia passed Grade 4 singing with merit
Katie passed Grade 4 piano with merit.
Alicia passed Grade 5 Ballet with distinction

Congratulations also go to:
 Martha and Alicia who attended the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain summer course at Shrewsbury school.

Bibi who gained a place in the regional finals of ‘Open Mic’ UK’.  We’ll keep you posted with details of what happens next.

In Drama, many congratulations go to:
Stefan for performing one of the lead roles in the Senior BYT production of ‘The King and I’ and on attending the BYT
summer school and playing the lead role in a performance of excerpts from ‘Harry Potter the Musical’.

We have many pupils performing weekly with various theatre groups:

Year 1  Lucia and Tallulah with Big Talent

Years 2/3  Olivia and Isabella who attend Stagecoach

Year 4 Sam, Skye and Louie who all attend Big Talent. Ellen who goes to BYT

Year 5  Joshua who is part of Maesteg Operatic Society

Year 6  Chloe and Emilly who attend Bridgend Youth Theatre and Bridgend Youth Dance

Year 8 Lee and Cian who attend Big Talent and Kelan who goes to Port Talbot and district Amateur Operatic Society Youth Theatre.

Year 9 Dominic Hoven who attends BYT

Year 10 Stefan who attends BYT and BYD

Joshua in Year 5 is performing as one of Fagin’s boys in Maesteg from 25th – 29th October.

Kelan in Year 8 is performing one of the lead roles in ‘The Vackees’ which is on at the Princess Royal Theatre from 24th – 26th October.

We have an ever increasing amount of musicians taking instrumental and vocal lessons in school.  If you would like your child to learn an instrument, please let the office know. A quick reminder as to when lessons are taught in school:

Monday Piano, singing, woodwind and drums
Tuesday Piano and singing
Wednesday Piano
Thursday Guitar and strings
Friday Brass

I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about our school music and drama news – there is lots to talk about at the beginning of the year.  More to follow soon……………………………….
Mrs. D. Mead

Dates to remember this term:
3 instrumental concerts- everyone very welcome!
Pre Prep Tuesday 28th June 3pm
Prep  Monday 4th July  3pm
Senior  Monday 11th July 3pm

On Monday 11th July we are also holding our final Comenius Concert in school time. Our topic is respecting the environment and the children will be performing their own compositions, songs, plays and much more. Next term we will have a chance to see items from our 2 year project, on the European Day of Languages evening concert in late September.

On May 23rd Yrs 4 & 6 will be attending a Gamelan session in St. David’s Hall.

A BIG THANK YOU to all our pupils and parents who raised over £200 for RDA (Riding for the Disabled). Our cake day was a huge success with so many delicious things to eat. The raffle and name the pony were equally successful. Becky Mead came to give us a talk on RDA and we enjoyed the occasion.

Change of teachers:
Sadly Lindsay Hammer, our woodwind and strings teacher, is no longer teaching with us. She has been so enthusiastic and loyal, we will miss her.
We now welcome Lizze Prendergast who will teach strings on a Thursday and Matt Ashment who will teach woodwind on a Monday.

If any pupils are keen to learn an instrument please feel free to contact me.

Congratulations to:
Martha Sanders and Alicia Cooke who will be attending the Easter Course with the National Childrens’ Choir of Great Britain in Shrewsbury .

Martha Sanders and William Mead who will be performing with the National Children’s Choir and the National Children’s Orchestra respectively in Bristol on 17th April in a joint National Children’s concert of Carmina
Burana

The Big Talent company, based at the Millennium Centre, now has a Bridgend base as well! Many of our pupils already belong. If you are interested please look on www.thebigtalent.co.ukfor details—it’s brilliant!

• All pupils who sat external music exams last term –
           Bradley Thorne who passed Grade 1 trombone with distinction
           Bradley Thorne who passed Grade 1 drums with merit
           Stefan Farmer who passed Grade 2 flute
           Martha Sanders who passed Grade 2 cello with merit
           Dominic Hoven who passed Grade 2 piano with merit
           William Mead who passed Grade 2 piano with distinction

• Martha, Stefan and Alicia who attended the National Children’s Choir of GB  in Petworth, Surrey

• William Mead who attended the National Children’s Orchestra of GB  in Port Regis

They all had a marvellous time and worked very hard rehearsing for 6-7 hours everyday. The concerts were outstanding.

• Ieuan Briers who has been offered a place on the BTEC performing arts course in Gorseinon College

• Thomas Skalitzky-Newman, Stefan Farmer, Annabelle Morgan and Chloe Atkinson who rehearsed so hard for the BYT performance of Mulan. Unfortunately it had to be cancelled but it is rescheduled for August.

On Tuesday 27th April we were able to enjoy a Brass demonstration by the owner of CAVMS music, John Leech. He showed and played us the cornet, trumpet, French horn, euphonium and trombone. Samuel Bevan then tried the cornet – very successfully! Everyone enjoyed and appreciated John’s lively personality. At present we have 4 brass players in our school, who are all very fine musicians. We also have a very highly regarded Brass teacher, Mr. Terry Lax. We also have teachers for strings, saxophone, flute, guitar, percussion and piano. We have a waiting list at present for drum and piano lessons.

On Tuesday 2nd May Yrs 6 & 8 will be attending an integrated arts day. Each group will spend a ½ day in St. David’s Hall in a Gamelan workshop and a further ½ in the museum’s art galleries. Everyone is very excited at the prospect.

Good luck to all musicians practicing hard for all this term’s external exams

Mrs D Mead

Congratulations to:
• Ben Pugh who gained a distinction in his debut guitar exam
• Tal Brown who gained a distinction in his LAMDA exam
• Amy Collins who gained a merit in her Grade 3 piano

Well Done and Thank you to:
• Everyone who took part in the Eisteddfod and the highlights concert. The Pre Prep were fantastic and the Prep and Seniors were brilliant
• Everyone who took part on the Rotary club event on March 1st in the Hi-Tide. They loved having us and many of us loved having the chicken nuggets and chips
• Last but not least a huge thank you to all the parents. You do a great job and without you it wouldn’t be such fun and we wouldn’t have such a great audience
• Extra big thank you to: Mrs Skalitzky-Newman, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Briers and Mr. Kearle