Hope you’re having a great first day of the holidays. With no school for the next two weeks you may be thinking that you might be getting bored due to a lack of things to do. Well, you’d be wrong – there’s loads of things happening across the city that you can take part in and they may even be something you can sign off on your OppNotts challenges.
You can bring Nottingham lace to life with giant looms and noisy machines at Nottingham Contemporary. Or why not help Robin Hood at Nottingham Castle and try not to end up in the stocks! Follow the clues to find the missing Easter eggs hidden around the grounds? Find them all to claim a prize! There’s also daily crafts sessions in the morning and a chance to handle objects from medieval times every afternoon. Entry is also cheaper if you take your CityCard! Dinosaurs are on the loose at Wollaton Hall – follow the Dinosaur trail around the Hall museum to see if you can find all of the hidden dinosaurs! Plus, take part in crafty fun where you can create your own dinosaur badge, mask or mini dino! Or, bake your own Easter inspired cakes over the holidays at Green’s Windmill using their own ground flour!
There’s also loads of events happening at your local library like Nottingham Children’s Book Award craft sessions at Hyson Green, Sneinton, Clifton, Bilborough, Radford Lenton, Aspley, Wollaton, Bulwell Riverside, Southglade Park, Meadows, Basford, St Ann’s Valley and Nottingham Central libraries – check the links for the days! And events in your local park: use your detective skills to work your way around Vernon Park, Radford Recreation Ground or The Forest and see how many natural items you can scavenge. Why not join the park rangers at The Forest on a fun and exciting activity and make your very own woodland mobile to take home? Or try an orienteering session at Highfields Park to hunt for Captain Steve’s treasure – follow the clues he’s left to find the great lost treasure, with games and challenges along the way! Back at Highfields again there’s also the chance to hear tales of fabulous fish, mythical mermaids and a host of other weird and wonderful creatures from the deep with Maggie McBride’s Pirate Tales!
With so much going on, you’ll need another break before going back to school in two weeks time! Have a great first week off and enjoy getting out and about in Nottingham!
Blasting off on a musical adventure last Wednesday were almost 1500 pupils from Nottingham primary schools. But this was no NASA mission – it was Nottingham Music Hub’s Great Orchestra Experiment at Nottingham’s Albert Hall. A 100 piece orchestra made up of Music Service staff, local professional and semi-professional musicians and members of the Robin Hood Youth Orchestra played all the pieces from the stage with support from the young players from St Mary’s Hyson Green, Bulwell St Mary’s, Greenfields, Dovecote, Hempshill Hall, St Margaret Clitherow, Portland Spencer, Claremont, Heathfield, St Augustine’s, Radford, Warren, Forest Fields, Bluebell Hill, Rise Park, Southwold, Seely, Middleton, Mellers, Stansted, Scotholme, Glade Hill, Bentinck, Melbury, Haydn, Robin Hood, Dunkirk, William Booth and Southwark schools! (Sorry if we missed anyone off!)
Over two concerts we were transported to Jupiter (by Holst of course!) and then across the globe with musical wizardry from South America’s samba swinging rhythms in the number Micaela and powerful, pounding percussion from India, West Africa and Japan in form of tablas, djembes and taikos in the world music fusion piece Fire Track. There were exciting challenges from our shipmate narrators and we were wowed by brilliant soloists: singers in Van Morrison’s Moondance, although very much in the style of Michael Bublé, and on the trumpet in Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in Eb.
The best moments though were when all the young players were singing and playing – particularly when singing along to Jupiter, plus the counting and swaying along challenges during the piece – and the orchestra playing John Williams’ Star Wars Overture, complete with all the orchestra’s strings players having LED lights on their bows to make them look like lightsabers! There was also the amazing response of the young players when the smoke machine went off!
This was the third annual Great Orchestra Experiment from the Music Service and there were schools clamouring to sign up for next year! With so many of Nottingham’s schools taking part we’re hoping every single one of them will be signing off their “be involved in a play, concert or exhibition” challenge. It was a fantastic event and we’ll be looking forward to next year’s too.
Last week pupils from Our Lady St Edward’s, Rufford, Cantrell, Westglade and Brocklewood primaries stormed Nottingham Castle’s gates and spent the night sleeping over in one of the city’s most famous landmarks. Although no longer the fortress from the time of Robin, the sheriff and King John, the 17th century ducal mansion offered up a whole heap of activities for our intrepid explorers.
There was orienteering in the grounds and a visit to the caves beneath the building, deep in the sandstone of Castle Rock, taking in King David’s Dungeon and Mortimer’s Hole! There was also time to play in the Hood in the Wood, learning all about life at Nottingham Castle in the Middle Ages and our most famous outlaw (with added dressing up!), and practice our art skills looking at one of the museum’s most popular paintings: Arthur Spooner’s Goose Fair. After this, it was time to bed down and get some sleep in the castle’s splendid Long Gallery.
This was an amazing experience and a great collaboration between SOLAR and the City’s Heritage and Museums team. For more on how you and your school or group can get on one of SOLAR’s super residentials check out their new website here and for more on Nottingham’s museums and heritage, including free trips to Nottingham Castle and art sessions like Take One Picture, click here.
