News

Airth Castle Teaching Conference

The 18 pupils from St Mungo’s High School and St Francis Xavier’s R.C. Primary School performance went exceptionally. As mentioned in the previous newsletter, the children were invited to perform their puppet show on the strength of their performance at Callendar House in November 2007. Julia Swan, head of Falkirk Council Education department was keen for the children to do a live performance at the Education Department’s annual conference at Airth Castle on 22nd May of this year. The children and the artists, Noona Owens and Shirley Sweeny, had a short rehearsal before performing to 75 headteachers and education department staff from across the Falkirk area. The performance was met with enthusiasm and much laughter and was enjoyed by all. The children were presented with certificates of merit for their work and they thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

The Personal Support In Schools National Conference at Heriott Watt University;

Again, the 18 pupils from St Mungo’s High School and St Francis Xavier’s R.C. Primary School were asked to present their DVD of the original performance at Callendar House, followed by a question and answer session with the conference delegates from all over Scotland and England. The DVD was met with much applaud and laughter and the children and artists answered as many questions from the delegates as the allotted time would allow. The delegates were particularly impressed with the integrative nature of the project and the children were presented with certificates of merit and a goodie bag from the conference organisers. Since many of the participating pupils will be leaving school or moving into secondary school, this would be the last time the group may come together, so they were given a puppet each to take home. In addition, the DVD of the original performance has been taken over to schools in Poland and has, by all accounts, gone down very well. The children were thrilled to know that their work will be seen in such far flung locations!

The Closer To the Edge music group were asked to perform at the CIC conference at Invercarse Hotel in Dundee on the 12th May, 2008. Six of the group, accompanied by tutor Dee Faulds, performed a variety of songs for the audience and even took a few requests. The participants enjoyed the experience and so did the conference delegates. The group continues to go from strength to strength.

Artlink Central is delighted to welcome children's author Julia Donaldson as its new patron. Born in North London, Julia now lives and works in Glasgow. Her writing career started when she was a penniless student in Paris, and went busking with her husband to make ends meet. Her songs, often made up in the language of the country she was visiting, led to a career as a songwriter for children's TV. We very much look forward to working with Julia in this exciting new partnership.

Following the success of the recent Falkirk Schools Children's Exhibition, many of the images that were on display can now be seen in our Virtual Gallery.

The Artlink Music and Drama Groups present a Christmas celebration at 11.00am on Thursday 15th December 2005 at the Cowane Centre Theatre. The Drama Group will present their interpretation of 'A Christmas Carol', and the Music Group invite you to a performance of their Winter Wonderland concert. This is a unique event as it will be the first time the two groups have merged to produce a joint extravaganza! Please come and share this with us.