Schools projects

Creative Partnerships - Choppington First School (July 2010)

As part of their Enterprise Week, Choppington First School, GemArts artist Melvin Thomas, brought ‘awe and wonder’ to their Stories from Other Cultures’ theme through Caribbean drumming and dance workshops.
As a Creative Partnership Change School the staff have been developing a more creative approach towards the teaching of Literacy through story telling and focussed on Afro-Caribbean culture. 
Workshops allowed children to experience the stories/theme through dance and music. 

Gateshead School Linking Project (May 2009)

Working in partnership with Gateshead Council, GemArts are delivering workshops in several schools in Gateshead to help boost awareness of other cultures.
Gateshead is one of only four areas across the UK, which is currently trialling the pilot scheme – entitled Linking Schools. If successful the pilot will be rolled out across all other schools in the UK.
African Drumming and Dance Workshops were delivered at Roman Road Primary, Music Production workshops to create a song around identity with students from Falla Park primary and Bollywood dance workshops at Fell Dyke Primary during April-May 2009.

Please see the article below:

A programme of culturally diverse after school arts workshops during the whole academic year with primary schools in Gateshead.

Current workshops include Chinese Dance, Caribbean Dance, Drama, Art, African Drumming, Bollywood Dance and Chinese Art.

Schools we are currently working with include:
Glynwood Primary
Kelvin Grove Primary
Dryden School
Oakfield Infants
High Spen Primary

St Mary's Roman Catholic School Year of Dance (September 2008)

Following on from taster workshops in January 2008, GemArts has been delivering dance sessions with Year 12 BTEC dance students to enable them to gain new dance skills and knowledge in different dance form to work towards their BTEC dance qualification.
Students working with artist Sarita Kalele for their World Dance module, concentrating on Khatak dance, a traditional classical Indian dance form.
Following on from those sesisons students are currently learning Street Jazz Dance with dancer Nadia Iftkar for their final assessment.