Samba in the Square!

Hundreds of school children brought a real carnival atmosphere to Sheffield earlier this week by performing their samba rhythms in Tudor Square as part of our CU Samba Day!

Sheffield CU samba in the square

CU school pupils perform in Tudor Square

20 of our CU schools came together to perform a samba piece that they have composed have and been practicing since November in a fantastic event at the Crucible theatre. And the samba rhythms could not be contained in the building as they spilled out into Tudor Square and created a real carnival atmosphere!

The day started with a fantastic visit the BBC Radio Sheffield breakfast to talk to Toby Foster about the day ahead. Katie was joined by Millie, Martha and Millie from Dore Primary School who talked about their Samba Club and had fun explaining what instruments they had learned to play!

Katie, Millie, Martha and Millie arrive at Radio Sheffield

The Samba day was planned to give schools the opportunity to take part in a number of large scale performances and to learn new pieces. Children and young people who attended also had the opportunity to play with an established Samba band and performed some of their own compositions on the Crucible stage too.

CU schools performing on the Crucible stage

Each year, we work with one of our Learning Destinations to create a 'Project-in-a-box'! The idea is that we give our schools sustainable resources and lesson plans to start a unique out of school club. This is exclusively available to our CU schools, and is one of the many benefits of being part of our fantastic club! In the past we have had rocket science boxes, STEM themed activities, a games compendium and even a forest school tool kit! This year we worked in partnership with our friends at the Sheffield Music Hub to create Samba in a Box!

Last November, 40 staff from schools that are part of Sheffield Children’s University joined together in a session, where they received their very own Samba kit and supporting lessons plans. The Sheffield Music Hub led the event, introducing the staff to the instruments, and the rhythms and techniques of Samba styles before releasing them back to share their learning with pupils from each of their schools. Since then, they have been using their ‘Samba in a Box’ kits to hone their pupils’ Samba skills, perfecting a piece ready for this celebration event, which was a great start to the build up for the Rio Olympics!

We were joined at the Crucible by the Deputy Lord Mayor, Councillor Anne Murphy and Councillor Chris Peace who both joined in on the action and played their very own agogo bells!

Deputy Lord Mayor, Councillor Anne Murphy, Councillor Chris Peace and Head of the Music Hub Ian Naylor perform their solo!

Better still, the parade and music performed by our schools in Tudor Square made such an impact, it was featured on BBC Look North! We had a FANTASTIC day and want to say a huge thank you to everyone involved who made the day such a huge success. You can find more photos from the event by clicking here: Samba Day 2016