Key Stage 1

St Margaret Clitherow Nativity 2013 – Stable Boy.

For our nativity this year we performed a play called ‘Stable Boy’. So many different people were involved and it took a long time to practice, prepare and perform. All of year two had a speaking part and they all performed with such clarity and no one forgot a single line! Class one and class reception performed a song each with no help from anyone else. Butterflies nursery even came along and sung in two of the three performances.

Mr Wallace, Miss Cotterill and Mrs Cotterill have so many people to thank for their help. We need to first thank all the children who put in so much extra effort in learning their lines, learning their positions, learning their songs and their patience. We also need to thank the families of all the children who helped with all of the above and supplying costumes as well as making sure the children we there for every performance – especially the evening showing.

We also couldn’t have a show at all without the help of all of the support staff in the lower school (I hope I’ve remembered everybody) – Mrs Butler, Miss Levett (our bouncer at the door), Mrs Baker, Mrs Palmer, Mrs McDade and thank you to Mrs Gibson for her production line of tickets from the office. We also had help from our South Devon College students Praw and Miss McCrum. Everything would have been a lot lower and darker if it wasn’t from our lifters, shifters and technical help – Mr Dingley, Mr Motil and Mr Sanders. Also thank you to Miss Irvine who took and uploaded the photographs to the school website. There are so many people involved in our little production, and I haven’t finished yet! Thank you year three, those poor children had to spend extra time and do some lessons with Mr Wallace when they thought they had gotten rid of him – they had a competition to design the front cover which Daisy won. Finally thank you to all the other staff and children who had to put up with our constant rehearsing and singing, especially Mrs Callaghan and Miss J who said some very kind words at the end of each of our productions. It was all worth the effort in the end!

And what of the show itself? Those year twos were simply excellent! Joshua, Erin and Jacob had so much to say as our narrators and they did it with such clarity so everyone in the room could hear. It took a lot of courage to do that. Did you see those divas Amara and Jess? They got into their characters a little too well! Didn’t George, Callum, Jack, Max and Ronon do well with those animal jokes – George is a bit of a method actor and took his role very seriously and studied very hard for the performance. Austin did something I never could do – sing some solo lines to over hundred people! That was very brave Austin, well done! Lucas, Evie, James and Tamiesha had a tricky job to remember their timings and they were all perfect and really funny too. And what about our ‘wise’ people – Marcus, Trinity and Abe – wise, very wise indeed. Sonny was a very mean and intimidating innkeeper who had a lot of lines to remember and was absolutely brilliant to say all his lines to such a big crowd. Weren’t Nyall and Millie an adorable Joseph and Mary – and they had a whole verse to sing by themselves – they were outstanding. The last word needs to go to our star. Oscar was simply wonderful as ‘James’. He remembered every single line, acted with such emotion and gusto plus he also had to sing by himself to everyone. He, quite literally, threw himself into the performance. At least once a show! It’s a good job he bounces!

We also had year one fishermen and shepherds who stepped in and sung to everyone – imagine what next year production is going to be like with those guys in the starring roles! Finally can you remember our beautiful dancing stars who danced around ‘James’ as he slept?

It is amazing how many different people doing so many different things are involved in our little show. But it really does show what St Margaret Clitherow Catholic Primary School can do when they work together and put their mind to it.