Its a christmas play not the WESTEND

[Monkeyblue]

Ds is 9 and DD 5 the school they go to have a play every christmas .

BUT the children can not have a part till a least year 3 when they can audition for it till then they are in the choir in the background

Auditions took part last week and Ds went along

Found out yesterday that not one kid in year 3 got a part and only 2 kids in year 4.
So that means year 5 and 6 got the parts
it been the same for the last 3 years as well as the summer play

The whole school are spending an hour a day rehearsing the play.from nursery all the way up to year 6.

The headmistress is refusing to split the play into KS1 and KS2 or for parents to come in and help so that more years can be included in the play instead of being bored rigid in the choir

It works out that you would have to be at the school for 6 years before you could even see your kid or someone in their year have a small speaking part in the play

THE parents are in uproar

Parents have written in asking why this is
She does`nt respond

This is`nt the norm or is????

Ds is at a junior school, so Y3 - Y6.
3 classes per yeargroup. At his school only the Y6 get speaking parts. It is 'their' play. But Y3, 4 and 5 can audition for dancing parts. Usually there are 12 children from each Y3,4,5 chosen to dance. Then 40 children from Y3,4,5 are selected for the choir. The rest are chorus.

This is "whole" school play
nursery right upto year 6

Our school does this:
KS1 Nativity:
reception are the actors
Yr 1 are the choir
Yr 2 are the narrators

KS2 do a big production number eg Joseph, Oliver. No idea how that is organised (will find out next year) but everyone is involved in some way.

That seems a fair way to do it, and to handle 160+kids on stage at the same time.

Our Primary has 3 plays a year:

Nursery, Yr 1 & 2 have a Christmas play - mainly Yr 2's with speaking parts. Nursery do something en masse (song r similar)

Yr 3&4 do an Easter/Summer production, evenly split parts, but everyone does something.

Yr 5&6 have Christmas Play - more adventurous. Then Yr6 get their leavers assembly.

Each group perform their show to the rest of the school before performing in front of parents.

That is what should happen at our school to make it fair

So every child has a part speaking or not But having a chance to take part

NOT just sitting in the back choir for years on end.
And missing an hour every day to do what really .....watch 20 kids do their parts

dd is a junior school, the year 5s write the nativity and the year 3s act it out (all year 3 have a small speaking part). Everybody sings, the choir might have a song on their own, with a solo from a couple of girls. The orchestra plays at the beginning, some older girls from year 4, 5 and 6 have a few lines introducing the play and ending it.

In the spring they do a musical, the bigger parts go to year 5 and 6, year 3s only get a dance usually (although dd got some lines and two solos in year 3 [proud]), and year 4 get a few lines and a couple of songs. No auditions, teachers decide (probably in conjunction with drama and singing teachers as well).

It seems quite a fair system, the point of the play being that all are involved, and try their best. It's great fun.

DDs school is way too big for all the years to be involved in a play at once (four form entry.)

Year 3 and 5 do a christmas play each.
Year 6 do an end of year play and year 4 have a year off.

Went to see dds (year 5) school play this eve. Was a lovely panto where, although not all speaking, every child had a costume and a spot on the stage. There were obviously some speaking parts that were bigger than others (and the 8 main parts all had two children taking turns at the performances)but very inclusive and a really good show.

Sounds awful the way your school does it. It really would make more sense to have the concerts split into ks 1 and ks 2. Not surprised you are miffed.

At our school the Reception class is doing theirs with the school Nursery. My daughter (Reception) is a Narrator. As far as I know, everyone is going to be involved. I think that everyone should be involved, as you say, it's hardly a West End production.

The headmistress won`t hear of it

Parents have complained to her and she takes no notice.

The children in year 3 and 4 who went forward to the auditions are really upset

This is happening year after year

I'm in Scotland and our school does the concert involving the whole school at once (including the pre-school until this year) so only P7 and some 6 get parts. The other years come on one at a time dressed up as something (elves this year) and sing a couple of songs. If you're very lucky you can even see them. I rarely am as they never think to put the shorter kids at the front.

I go because I feel I have to but I leave after DD's year every year. The older she gets the longer I have to sit there bored rigid though.

Luckily this year she is in the Country Dancing Group which is only about 20 kids and they are doing a show the following week so I get to see her in that.

am really

dd is in reception, they are doing a concert with the kindy....they are all "something"!

the rest of the school divide up to put on 2 more concerts/plays

everyone gets a part, parents all get a seat!

DD's nativity was today and yesterday. She is in Y2.

There are only about 30 children in infants and they did a traditional nativity. Y2 has the principal parts inc the narrators. Y1 and reception had the other parts. The juniors were the choir.

There is another play later in the year where prep has the main parts.

Was lovely. I think a proper nativity is made for the little ones. It just feels right.

DD was Mary and sang solo and we were so proud Parts were selected by the drama and music teacher (all classes have these in normal curriculum) with some assistance from head of infants.

In our primary, all the classes do their own Christmas item (lots of varients on the Nativity).

All children have a part to play whether it be speaking, singing or dancing. There is no choir - they all have an 'important' role.

Of course there are the usual children who get the vast majority of the speaking parts (although not so in my dd1's Nativity, which was [surprisingly] evenly spread across the whole class and very lovely to see!) but even so, everyone has an important role to play.

'Tis lovely

Monkey blue that sounds a bit mad.

Our infant school has a play for each year, all children in it, several speaking roles if you include narrators.

Juniors has one play with all children involved tho most have non-speakign role. Seems fair enough.

Hula bless DD being Mary and singing solo. DD sang solo in Christmas concert last yr and I cried

Hula - that sounds gorgeous: singing solo too - well done her!

Our school has 60 children per year. All children involved in the productions.

Christmas: Every child in KS1 involved. Yr2 dancers, actors and narrators. YR and Yr1 sing and instruments.

Easter: Yr4 dance/act/narrate and Yr3 sing.

Summer: Yr6 only - all involved.

Each show has 2 performances for parents - enough space for 2 tickets per child, and just about everybody comes.

Thanks Roisin.

Ooops, and Clary. Yes, I was very proud mummy

Hula that sounds lovely Congratulations to your DD

To me that is what the Christmas should be about everyone taking partThe kids AND THE parents enjoy it

our headmistress is a total *** humbug

At my ds's school reception class do a slightly more traditional style nativity musical along the lines of Whoops a Daisy, this year was Humph the Camel and ds was a shepherd.

Year 1 and 2 do a play. Year 1 are the choir and Year 2 get the principal parts. Dd is the Good Fairy in Panto Pandemonium. She ahas to sing a solo, the first performance is tonight.

The music teacher chooses the parts and from what I gather she tried out the kids forst, not in an audition but they read through things and she saw who was suited to what. From what I gather everyone has been very well cast.

Year 3 upwards do a Christmas concert.

At our school each year does a small show and they chose different kids from each year to be leads, and alt years they all take turns to sing carols with the junior and senior choirs doing something extra.

Does not seem right to me that each child does not get to do something, what a weird sounding school.

DS is at a lower school - Nursery to Year 4.

Nursery and Reception (30 children) are doing a play - as far as I can tell everyone is involved and there are lots of speaking parts. Year 1 and Year 2 are doing a separate play. Year 3 and 4 are doing another separate play.