This year our Year 5 play was inspired by Phillip Pullman's story - 'Clockwork' or 'All Wound Up'. Thank you to Mrs. Kay for the suggestion. The idea of individual cogs working together towards a shared purpose fitted perfectly with us having to write the script individually, due to Distance Learning, then bring it together to tell a cohesive story. We started the process with the notion of performing on screen, but were ultimately able to film our 'play in a day', adapting our ideas to fit the current theatre rules.

Imagine a world that runs like clockwork - until it doesn't. Inspired by the legend of the Master clockmaker who created the Astronomical Clock in Prague, their own research into individual clocks around the world, and a glass snow globe (that ultimately met its fate in the paws of a curious cat), the children wove a story which begins in a small snowbound city. Rumor-spreading townspeople are wondering whether or not their extraordinary clock will start again. The story within the story then transports us back in time to reveal the creation of the clock, the attack on its creator in order to guard its secrets, and his ultimate revenge: to stop time itself. The storytellers are constantly interrupted by pompous councillors, arrogant clockmakers, incompetent guards and questionable assassins: so you will have to keep up! It is not until the townspeople learn to forget their petty jealousies, remembering instead that kindness keeps the world ticking, that time is allowed to restart.

The children created: their story, their playscript, their characters, their costumes, props and artwork. Well done to them for working as a cast, to step over the barriers that Distance Learning tried to throw up against them. Filming a play in one school day involved cramming all of our characterisation and stage development work into the same day as filming. Thank you to Mrs. Belshaw for working together with us in Art lessons to create the cogs that have helped the story to tick. You will see some of these in the film, and on display in this year's exhibition. Thank you to Miss Flynn (our on-line reviewer), who shared some of her reviews with us and created the 'Year 5 Play - Top 5 Performance Criteria’ to facilitate the children's performance and self-assessment. Thank you to Mr. Hartley who filmed our 'play in a day' and has created the final film which has enabled us to share this year's play with you. 

We hope you enjoy 'Clockwork' by Year 5...