The Arts
"Plentiful opportunities help to develop pupils’ sense of curiosity and creativity. Pupils proudly perform Shakespeare plays for their parents or take part in musical workshops, where they get to play along using musical shakers and bells. Pupils enjoy dance classes, which help develop their physical strength and co-ordination. Opportunities like these provide pupils alternative ways to express themselves through the arts" - Ofsted 2024
We are very proud of the work we do at the Wyvern School, as we aim to be a centre of excellence for engagement in the Arts. We have held Platinum Arts mark since 2019 to 2024, this year we achieved Platinum Arts Mark for the second tome. This prestigious award demonstrates our commitment to promoting the arts through enriching opportunities for our pupils which goes above and beyond the core curriculum offer. Our principal aim is to promote opportunities for inclusivity within the creative industries for our learners.
See below for more information regarding the projects we are involved in supporting and engaging with:
Work with the Primary Shakespeare Company
We have been working with the Primary Shakespeare Company for a number of years, each year the show grows and develops and has been a wonderful link to forge and develop as a school. In 2023 we performed The Twelfth Night; students from across the school engaged in a variety of projects from arts and design with Animate Arts, to developing dance, choreography and acting with our Artist in Residence, developing Music with Rose Bruford College and building a multi-sensory performance which we proudly shared in June 2023. The beauty of this project is the inclusive nature of the work and allows all children to be involved at some level, we also included 60 pupils from a local Mainstream School who performed alongside our learners in what was a tear jerking and thought provoking performance.
Last year (2024), we performed 'Julius Caesar', it was a wonderful immersive experience for all pupils both onsite and offsite. The event was wholly inclusive of all pupils, we had the pleasure of Animate Arts supporting the production of an outdoor market. Pupils across the school made goods to sell at the market. We immersed ourselves in Julius Caesar/The Romans as part of our curriculum offer for Term 5 utilising the topic to hang learning from. The school was a hive of activity with pupils learning about being part of a battalion, tasting a range of foods and learning about about the experiences of a roman spa. This immersive experience culminated in a range of presentations to parents in the form of an outdoor promenade, a story telling session in our STEPS pathway and a Roman Baths experience for our INSPIRE pupils. Not to mention the spectacle that was the school performance in collaboration with Rose Bruford Collage MA students, and the Repton Manor Primary School. We were very proud to share the work with the Mayor of Ashford and other stakeholders who valued the experience first-hand.
Work with Confidance
The Wyvern School has been working with Confidance, an inclusive dance company, since 2014. We are celebrating our 10-year anniversary this year, which will see our students performing in a celebration event later in 2025. We are really lucky to benefit from one full day of input from two artists. Pupils from across the school are given the opportunity to engage in meaningful dance and choreography development using symbols which have been developed alongside the speech and language therapists in school. Confidance provide opportunities for our sixth form pupils to engage in work experience, there are further opportunities for our students to go into payed employment with the company when they move on from Wyvern. Confidance take a graduated approach of introducing classes to the idea of dance choreography and inspire pupils through showcasing the work of their peers in a variety of sharing events across the year. Confidance have engaged in a number of projects within the school linking external agencies to build knowledge and understanding of inclusive dance, The Element Project being the most recent which explored the work experience opportunities for pupils in sixth form with SEN. Other projects have included a Speech and Language project; dive into dance; which saw the collaboration between expert school staff and artists to come up with a common language and visual system to allow our pupils to connect with dance and gives our pupils the opportunity to be independent and make choices.
For more information about projects we have supported see here:
https://www.confidance.org.uk/
Confidance run an inclusive youth group at the Stour Centre in Ashford for 13-25year olds with Special Needs.
https://www.confidance.org.uk/community - link to sign up.
Work with the Playground Project
For the past 2 years Wyvern have collaborated with Kent County Council to support the work of the Playground Project. The Project initially piloted in a range of children’s centres and focussed on early development and interaction in under 5’s. Through links with performers in the Playground Project we have developed a working relationship around supporting our youngest pupils with SEN to interact and engage in a multi-sensory environment with a variety of performers and stimuli. The Project has morphed this year and Wyvern has become a beacon of exemplar practice in engaging pupils with SEN. Arts Council England representatives have been to visit the school and the sessions run by the Playground Artists and talked to staff about how to best include pupils with SEN. The collaborative nature of this project has allowed our Early Years pupils to develop communication and interaction skills and supported staff to explore intensive interaction strategies using a variety of sensory stimuli. We are excited for the future of this project and how we can be part of its growth.
Work with Moonbeam Theatre
In the past few years Moonbeam theatre have worked closely with teachers in the INSPIRE pathway to support the development of a truly inclusive sensory theatre show. We have been very lucky to have access to sensory workshops where the actors bring sensory props, music and lights for pupils to interact with ahead of a larger scale performance. Last year we had the pleasure of supporting and exploring “Scuba-de-Scuba Daa”, and “All About the Garden”. The show toured for the first time nationally last year. A member of our staff is on the advisory board for the theatre company and will be providing input on the development of wonderful sensory experience for pupils with PMLD specifically. We look forward to welcoming Moonbeam Theatre back to Wyvern later in the academic year.
For more information about Moonbeam Theatre see here: https://www.moonbeamtheatre.com/
Music at The Wyvern School
We are fortunate enough to have access to a Music Therapist who comes and engages with a variety of our PRIMARY classes. Using music, rhythm, rhyme and familiar songs our children can engage in building social relationships with their peers and adults. The repetition of familiar phrases and songs encourages language development. The pupils interact with a range of instruments and songs from different cultures. Pupils in our INSPIRE pathway and 6th Form have had the pleasure of experiencing drumming and multi-cultural music from Kevin Richards who provides a fantastic sensory experience whilst playing a variety of instruments and singing. In previous years we have worked with Tenterden Folk Singers are also engaging our INSPIRE pupils in wonderful folk songs. The children anticipate their music sessions and engage fully in all opportunities to hear different musical genre and musical instruments.
Pupils have previously performed in the 'Square Pegs Arts' Kent Album Project. Pupils from our 6th Form took part in collaborating with the project to produce a music track.
See the link - 
For more information:
Musika - https://www.musikaclass.co.uk/
For more information click the links below
https://www.primaryshakespearecompany.org/special-schools