1.
Expressive Arts at Southfields Academy
Southfields Academy’s expressive arts department has been busy over the last half term. We ended
both the Year 11 and Year 13 courses with two spectacular performances and we eagerly await our
results for the Year 11. However, we are pleased to confirm our results for the Year 13 level 3 BTEC
performing arts students; 100% merit and above and 90% achieving a distinction – distinction*.
There is a lot of discussion being had about the performing arts’ place in education at the moment
but embedding creativity in the curriculum has been beneficial to these Year 13 students. Many of
them will not be studying the arts at university, however, they are well equipped with high grades to
enter the UCAS system and have applied to top universities as a result. For those students entering
the world of work the performing arts course that they have studied over the last two years has
been valuable as 1 in 6 London jobs are creative which generates £68.4 billion into the UK economy.
These students have had a broad and varied arts curriculum and so many feel confident to apply for
these roles. We wish them the best of luck. This has and will continue to be a priority for the
department and as a result we have booked a workshop with Cultivate Ambitions, an inspirational
session that aims to encourage creative careers. This will be open to Year 9 and 10 students as well
as our older students who will return to Southfields Academy on Wednesday 28th June. This will be
hosted by Theatre 503.
In keeping with offering our students a plethora of arts experiences we have been lucky enough to
have booked two visiting dance artist companies that have been leading fantastic workshops for our
dancers in Year 10. These companies not only performed and delivered practical performance and
choreographic workshops but also engaged in discussion about how to enter the creative industries,
including how to set up your own dance company and how to make this financially viable; a rich and
fantastic opportunity which the dance students relished. Both companies have been integral in
supporting the Year 10s in creating their own production which will be shown on the 14th June at
4pm in the black box. We have also had Zoonation delivering a house and hip hop workshop to the
dancers of Year 9. They had a masterclass in learning the original repertoire from the West End show
The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, and this will also be performed on the 14th June, so please do come
along and watch.
We have had two Year 7 drama showcases which provided a platform for other members of staff to
see what the very talented and committed Year 7s have been creating and performing in their
lessons. These were fantastic, with full scale productions that included costume, lights and music
and because of this high standard of work we will offer these performance platforms more regularly
this half term and in the next academic year and we would love to see many parents and careers in
the audience where this is possible.
Speaking of our younger members of the academy, Year 7, 8 and 9 students have been busy
rehearsing and performing an extract of Jungle Book. This has been to the West Side Story whole-
school production and auditions for the cast will be open to all year groups, but we are especially
keen to scout our younger members of the academy from Years 7 and 8 and we will host these over
the next two weeks.
In our final half term of the year two final dance shows are coming up; The Southfields Academy
Dance Challenge, which will be hosted by the expressive arts department with 10 primary schools

2.
from around the borough performing dance pieces which they have been busy working on. This is
open to parents and will be the first opportunity many of these young people will have had to
perform in a professional space like the black box. This is the first year we are running this event, so
we would like to wish all participants a very big good luck! It will take place at 4pm on Tuesday 13th
June. Our final show of the year will be the eagerly anticipated summer dance show, Elevate. This
will be a showcase of all of the dance talent here at Southfields and a final assessment for the Year 9
and 10 students. Their pieces are stunning so please do come and watch at 4pm on the 14th June in
the black box.