Review: Tom Gates Live On Stage

This week, the brilliant world of Tom Gates has been brought to life on stage at Milton Keynes Theatre. Translated into 43 languages and with over 8 million copies sold worldwide, this series is a huge hit. Tom Gates is a series of illustrated stories for older children by graphic designer-turned-author, Liz Pichon. 

This story, written specifically for the stage, is aimed at children although is fantastic fun for the whole family. I am told (by a couple of true Tom Gates experts) that the show is funny, energetic, lively, colourful and just what they expected Tom Gates to be if he was a real-life boy. Following Tom, his friends at school and his family at home (including the scary older sister Celia) we get to see the highs and lows of being a ‘smiley face’ or a ‘sad face’ student - Tom just has to make sure he makes it on the School Trip Of A Lifetime! Just don’t doodle on the wrong wall (face palm.)

The staging was ultra-modern and unlike anything I’ve seen before which included a large digital animated screen that changed to show different scenes or bring Tom’s doodles to life. It really was super clever and you will be fascinated by the screen as well as the fantastic actors that made this show so fun. 

The genre will appeal to most children and adults alike, with lots of silliness, a bit of rebellion and plenty of live music too. We love chips, when do we want them? Now!

Catch Tom and his friends this week at Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday 11^thMay. www.atgtickets.com

World Book Day Today

If you've got children, or work in a school, you'll likely be very aware of today's world book day event. Children and teachers across the country are today dressing up as their favourite book characters and enjoying book related activities at school.

World book day is a celebration of reading; celebrating authors, books and illustrators. The celebration is worldwide, and is marked by over 100 countries across the world. This year marks the 18th World Book Day, and as well as celebrating reading, the aim is to encourage children to read and explore books and reading. Over 14 million book tokens are given out to children in this country, allowing them a choice of one of ten free books, or £1 off a book costing over £2.99 at a participating retailer.

We'd love to know if your child, school or workplace has dressed up or got involved for World Book day, and it would be great to see some photos of what you've dressed up as- feel free to share what you've been up to on our Facebook Page. We've already seen pictures of some Where's Wallys, Harry Potters, Peter Pan's and more, all looking great so far!

Ousedale Admissions Debate

If you haven't yet seen the story regarding Ousedale school in the Phonebox Magazine then grab your copy now and take a read! If you have children at the school or live in the surrounding area, you may well have been aware of some high activity on social media over the last few days and weeks.

This is all due to a proposed change in admissions arrangements for the school, which would give priority to a select number of pupils with an aptitude for music. Applicants would be ranked and assessed on the highest levels of music, on a bowed, stringed, brass, woodwind, keyboard or percussion instrument.

Facebook and Twitter carried the story to begin with, with parents in particular voicing their views and opinions. It highlights the way news spreads today, and the impact that can be had if people share their views, and even set up online petitions. News travels far and wide, much further than if just discussed at the school gate, as would have been the case in previous years.

As the school is an Academy, they can arguably do what they like in terms of admissions outlines. However, in a time where getting a place in the school of choice can be a hard enough task in itself, to make priorities for those with musical aptitude didn't seem quite fair for many local parents.

10% of places were to be allocated in this way, according to aptitude for music, across the Newport Pagnell and Olney campus'. Not a high proportion, but it's enough to have an effect, and has clearly got people talking...

As a result of parents reactions and outcry, the school has decided to continue to make pupils in the catchment area a priority. It just goes to show the power of speaking out, and the power in a community standing together to fight for what they believe in.

Hope MK is back- Young People Making a Difference in Milton Keynes

Last year you may have read about an initiative called Hope MK in the Phonebox magazine. Well it's that time of year again, and during the half-term break starting tomorrow (27th-31st Oct) more than 130 young people aged 11-17 will be out across Milton Keynes, challenging the negative stereotypes which are usually associated with them. By giving up their school holiday to run a variety of community building & social action projects, they will demonstrate that young people are not lazy, apathetic & good for nothing.

Through an initiative called Hope MK, a small army of 130+ young people will spend their mornings with the Hope MK team being trained & equipped, before heading out to projects taking place in communities across Milton Keynes each afternoon. Projects include children’s work, drop-in cafes, a social media project, Messy Church, community clean-up/gardening, & play sessions. All the activities are free, and everyone is welcome to join in. 

The team will be dressed in purple & yellow hoodies to make sure they stand out, but also to challenge the widely held misconception that wearing a hoodie means you’re a threat or a nuisance. At last year’s event over 100 young invested a total of 5400 hours in communities across the city; this year we anticipate that will increase to 6500 hours!

‘Seeing so many young people committing to give up their half-term break to invest their time & energy to bless communities across MK is amazing. We hear so much about young people leaving the Church, so it’s great to know that these guys are leaving for the right reason: in order to go and serve others & share the hope that can only be found in Jesus Christ.’ Ricky Rew – Hope MK Team 

The initiative ends with an event for Year 7-13s from 7:30pm on Friday 31st at St. Paul’s School to celebrate all that’s been achieved through the week, and will feature a variety of activities including sumo suits, inflatable demolition derby & gladiator podiums, and human foosball. 

Twenty churches, six local & four national organisations have been working together for a year to plan & prepare for the event. Look out for the teams of purple & yellow hoodies around MK during half term!

Hope MK is a partnership of churches and organisations across Milton Keynes. 

'tap dance day'

Time for one of those bizarre 'days', and today is National tap dance day! A day to celebrate tap dancing, it began back in 1989 in America, and is now celebrated in many places by tap dancing shows, clubs etc held on the day. 

Why not get inspired to try tap dancing on this national day of tap dancing?! We've had a search for some of the local dance schools in the area if you fancied it... 

• The Olney School of Dancing - Ballet and Tap Dancing classes for children and adults. The Olney School of Dancing is a well established dancing school which holds a range of classes in both ballet and tap dancing . Children can be entered for the  Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing examinations in tap dance.
• Sue Coles School of Dance - The school follows the I.S.T.D. syllabus, with classes from Primary through to Advanced standard. The children and students can work towards a graded examination if they wish to. An Adult Advanced class is also available.

• Leanne Hughes Theatre School - We offer weekly classes in ISTD Ballet, Tap, Modern dance, as well as classes in Jazz and Musical Theatre.  Weekly adult classes are also held in Ballet, Tap and Modern and are suitable for all levels.

• Diamond School of Performing Arts - Diamond School of Performing Arts runs classes in Newport Pagnell Youth Club. Classes include Drama, Singing, Musical Theatre, Ballet, Tap, Freestyle and Hiphop. Diamond Students get so many wonderful opportunities including professional work (film, television, theatre, radio and modelling), performances at numerous charity, community and corporate events plus we have 2 school shows per year – our Review Show in June and a full scale production in October.

• Arts1 School of performance - Classes from aged 4 up to adult. Learn the technique and step sequences often seen in Musicals in the West-End and Broadway and in films of the Golden era of musical theatre in a class led by a fully qualified ISTD tap teacher. Students take part in a nationally recognised and accredited exam syllabus, learning choreographed sequences and exercises focused on developing rhythm, muscularity, musicality, co-ordination and performance technique.

This is just a small selection, but there are clearly lots of places to learn tap dancing in the local area! Why not get on those dancing shoes and give it a shot?!

'Tell a fairy tale day'

For adults and children alike, fairytales have a special place in many of our hearts, and some of them are even aimed at the adults- a little bit too scary for the kids! Today is tell a fairy tale day, whether or not this tends to be implemented in schools or libraries I don't know, but I can imagine these would be the places to celebrate the day! For those of you with kids it might be the opportunity to get out some of the old-school fairytales or opt for the more modern day film versions of one of them!

Fairytales go back for centuries, originating as tales which were dramatically told or enacted rather than written into books, and the idea of telling such stories has carried on through the ages. The Brothers Grimm were the first to actually put the fairytales down into book form, in a way of trying to preserve the plot and characters of the stories. They initially collected German fairy tales, and later went on to re-write many of them to change them more into stories than folk tales.

Called fairy tales because of their inclusion of fantasy creatures, the term is perhaps a bit looser today than it was, but the stories typically include fairies, trolls, goblins, elves, dwarves, giants, witches etc. So it should be easy to find a tale with one of them in, have a read and enjoy tell a fairy tale day, or why not use your imagination and invent your own! (or get the kids to!)