Walking for Stowlawn Performing Arts

Hi, my name is Amy and I am walking from Stowlawn Primary in Bilston to Birmingham Hippodrome in October. Being joined by another teacher from school, Rach, we are ready to take on this challenge.

The Arts in school holds a huge place in my heart and I am walking this to raise funds to provide access to this, at a minimal cost to our parents. Having always had access to the arts as a young person and into adult life, I understand the significant impact that this can have on our childrens’ mental and physical well-being and endeavour to provide as many extra-curricular opportunities as possible to our children removing any barriers with costs or transport. I have chosen to walk to the Hippodrome as a point of significance as this is a place that provides access to the arts for young people. Having chosen to walk here, I feel I can demonstrate the difficulties our children face, when overcoming barriers, as this is not a simple walk and will require lots of resilience, determination and planning, which is what our children face when trying to access the Arts.

In the last academic year, we provided many performance opportunities for our young people. We had children perform at ‘The Prince of Wales Theatre, Cannock’, ‘The Alex, Birmingham’ (who then progressed to national finals) performing at ‘New Oxford Theatre, Oxford’.

We then were lucky enough to provide performers for ‘Armed Forces Day’ in West Park, Wolverhampton and Prouds Lane, ‘Celebration of the Park’ organised by Wolverhampton Events team alongside the Mayor of Wolverhampton.

In School, we offer performance opportunities and have performed Peter Pan, Cindererella Rockerfella, Bah Humbag and will cast another show this academic year. The funds will be used to provide costumes, license fees and staging for our young children.

All of the opportunities we have provided so far has had a positive impact on the childrens’ overall confidence and happiness in school. My aim is to make this a fully-inclusive approach removing all barriers, and allowing all children to have access to the arts, no matter their ability.

The funds will be used to provide dance, drama and singing opportunities with external providers, who work professionally, as an extra-curricular approach as well as providing the young children in our school opportunities to attend local performances. By offering these opportunities with external providers we feel that we can provide our young people with the fundamental skills to achieve their future aspirations.

Please support us in any way you can to continue to provide our children with these opportunities.