Welcome to our first newsletter for schools. We are already very busy planning what promises to be the most ambitious Festival programme yet.

Here are some of the highlights to look out for in 2009...

cheltenhamfestivals.com/education

October sees the 60th anniversary of our world famous Literature Festival. Book It! for Schools promises to be bigger and better than ever. Look out for big name authors in the next newsletter. School bookings open on June 10, and booking forms will be available on our website.We also see the return of the Big Read, our project for book groups, and this time schools can join in! This year’s book will be Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.Finally, our Short Story Slam returns after a two year break, and this year we are working with the BBC to bring this fantastic creative writing and social history project for schools to the Festival.

Our summer season kicks off with the Budvar Cheltenham Jazz Festival and 11 schools are already signed up to take part in Jazz It Up!our annual celebration of Gloucestershire’s lively youth jazz scene. Every participating school will work with jazz musician Sid Peacock (profile on page 3) and will perform in the Jazz Festival Marquee. See the feature on page 3 and find out what it was like to be a part of Jazz it Up! in 2008.Don’t miss Jazz It Up! in the Jazz Festival Marquee on May 2 and May 3 from 11.00am.

Once again we will be offering free tickets to schools for all our Music Festival concerts, subject to availability.This year sees a wonderfully eclectic programme, including a feast of music by the anniversary composers Haydn, Handel and Mendelssohn, a Hollywood film scores night, a Jewish music focus and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto performed by Nicola Benedetti.Free For Schools bookings open on May 11

Details of our unique science programme for schools will be available to download from our website cheltenhamfestivals.com/education from February half term.Booking opens on March 11, so to get the event of your choice and a free Discover Zone slot, please make sure you book early. This year we are trialling some exciting new ideas such as day packages for KS3 pupils, and special shorter Science Story sessions for KS1, which will include a Discover Zone time slot. Full details will be available on our website. As part of the expansion of our Gifted and Talented programme, our first Science Day for gifted and talented primary school children will be held at Cheltenham College Junior School on Friday June 7. The Science Festival team are running their annual design competition, sponsored by GE, so why not get your school to enter? See back page for details.

March 11 Booking opens for Science Festival schools’ events.May 2/3

Jazz It Up! at the Jazz Festival marquee.May 11Booking opens for Music Festival Free For Schools.June 10 Booking opens for Literature Festival schools’ events.

Budvar Cheltenham Jazz Festival 28 April - 4 May Cheltenham Science Festival 3 - 7 June Cheltenham Music Festival 3 - 18 July The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival 9 - 18 October

For more details about any of these events, or the work of the Education team in general, please contactPhilippa Claridge 01242 775 891philippa.claridge@cheltenhamfestivals.comNicola Tuxworth 01242 775 822nicola.tuxworth@cheltenhamfestivals.com

cheltenhamfestivals.comKey See details on our website

More than 5000 school children and their teachers attended during six days of Book It! events. A packed programme of top authors this year included a brace of ex-Children’s Laureates (Anne Fine and Michael Morpurgo) and some of our best-loved children’s illustrators (Nick Butterworth and Tony Ross). Julia Donaldson brought her hilarious Gruffalo show to town, and Caroline Lawrence let us in on the mysteries of writing crime fiction set in Ancient Rome.

A night to remember! July 9 Cheltenham Town Hall

This Music Festival project was generously supported by Sing Up, the government-sponsored scheme to encourage singing in primary schools.Time to Sing brought over 260 children from eight Gloucestershire primary schools together for a wonderful evening concert celebrating our rich heritage of traditional songs. The preceding weeks of intensive workshops and rehearsals led by singing teachers Liz Terry and Rachel Gay were hard work for all concerned; however, the end result was extraordinary. Cheltenham Town Hall was filled with the sound of soaring harmonies, dynamic part-singing and rumbustious action-songs. A night to remember!

2008 was a fantastic year for Cheltenham Festivals, with record-breaking ticket sales and attendances. Here are some of the highlights of the education programme...

I was overwhelmed with the fantastic sound that the children produced. Wonderful! ParentRowanfield SchoolGloucestershire

In May and June, artist and scientist Dr Lizzie Burns visited schools and community groups to talk about sleeping and dreaming. Those taking part decorated a mask to reflect their own experiences. Follow-up sessions took place at the Literature Festival, when writer and poet Brenda Read-Brown helped participants produce sleep and dream-related poetry.

Pupils from the Gloucestershire Mandarin School with their masks

Over 6000 pupils and teachers visited a school event at the Science Festival. The free Discover Zone proved as popular as ever. Our hands-on ExperiTent workshops sold out within days, and in the main arena children were treated to various explosions, clouds of dry ice and samples of nitrogen ice-cream. (Delicious, apparently!)

The NOISE exhibit attracted plenty of interest

For many children, meeting their favourite author is a highlight of their visit

This is our favourite trip of the year. If we lived closer we would come every day! Jo Ferris, Holy Trinity School KidderminsterOur hands-on ExperiTent workshops

are a chance for children to work closely with scientists.

An excellent day, enjoyed by students and staff. Dr Bernie Majors, Cotswold School Gloucestershire

In an era of dumbed-down education, this was an oasis of scientific stimulation!Stan Labovitch, Heathlands School Hounslow

The Supercool show was very good and the children enjoyed it very much.Chris Ward, St John’s -on-the-Hill Monmouthshire

Most of the children who attend an event at the Science Festival also visit the free Discover Zone

Jazz It Up! 2009 is already well underway, with 11 schools signed up. This year each band will be playing a cartoon theme as part of their set, and will have two workshops with jazz guitarist Sid Peacock. Composer, guitarist, vocal artist and regular performer on the thriving Birmingham jazz scene, Sid was born in Northern Ireland, moving to England to take a first degree in Contemporary Music at Bretton Hall College and a Masters Degree in composition from The Birmingham Conservatoire. Since then he has taught, composed, played live and worked on a wide range of special projects including work with refugee musicians and homeless people.

David GodfreeHead of Music , Marling SchoolJazz It Up! 2009 will be our third appearance at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and the students are already very excited about taking part. Last year’s event was a huge success, with school bands from across the county playing the jazz marquee in Cheltenham’s Imperial Gardens, in front of a large and appreciative audience. In a wonderful event hosted by jazz trumpeter and Bond actor Colin Salmon, the Marling jazz band played a 25 minute set that was very well received, and the resulting CD is a treasured keepsake for the students.As a lead up to the performance, we had the pleasure of working with young jazz musician Dave Stapleton in two improvisation workshops. Dave had been commissioned to arrange a number of Bond themes celebrating the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth. He made sure that the arrangement of John Barry’s beautiful We Have All The Time In The World allowed plenty of scope for our band’s front line to showcase their improvisatory skills.Following our performance at Jazz It Up! 2008, we were invited to perform at a party for patrons and supporters of Cheltenham Festivals. The evening was a truly memorable experience for the students; the undoubted highlight for them was a request from the young jazz pianist Alex Wilson, of Courtney Pine Band fame, to jam with the band. So, you never know what an appearance at Jazz It Up! might lead to!

Sophia McCraePupil, Balcarras SchoolIn 2008, Balcarras Soul Band performed at Jazz It Up! for the third year. After finding out that we’d be covering a Bond theme tune, I was overflowing with excitement, being an avid fan of the films! Having a professional jazz musician come in and help us with the song was great, our confidence was high but so were the nerves; you would be nervous too if you had to cover the great Shirley Bassey’s Diamonds Are Forever!Colin Salmon praised all the bands but specifically picked ours out, noticing we had a full brass section and no help from the teachers (we run the Soul Band ourselves). We felt that Jazz It Up! helped us to develop our skills together as a band; we were so pleased about last year that we jumped on the bandwagon to do it again. This year we will be joining in and helping with the arrangement. We look forward to Jazz It Up! 2009.

Sophia in action with the Balcarras School Soul Band

Marling School Jazz Band take a bow

I am Sid Peacock the composer working on the Jazz It Up! project. I have heard a lot of good reports about all the schools involved, and I am really looking forward to getting started. It is going to be: Crash! Bang! Wallop! And a lot of fun….

Sid Peacock

Our 2008 celebration of Gloucestershire schools’ lively jazz scene saw eleven bands take to the stage for two afternoons of energetic performances. The Jazz Festival Marquee was bursting at the seams as a capacity crowd enjoyed every jazz style from big band and boogie woogie to soul, blues, and funk. Each band performed a James Bond theme, specially arranged for them by jazz pianist and composer Dave Stapleton, to mark author Ian Fleming’s centenary.

Sophia and friend Lloyd Whittaker with Colin Salmon

Jazz It Up! took place in the beautiful Imperial Gardens

Design your own IMOT: Ideal Mode Of TransportImagine travelling around in your very own IMOT. Would it be like a car? A skateboard? A bike? Or would it be totally different? You can think big or small, but thinking of the environment is a MUST!!This year GE Aviation is once again sponsoring a design competition for school-age children. There will be great prizes in two age categories: 7-10 years and 11-15 years. The deadline for entries is Monday 27 April. Last year’s competition asked

entrants to design a robot.

A gamelan is a collection of tuned percussion instruments including xylophones, gongs and drums (gamelan means orchestra in Javanese). Cheltenham Festivals is the proud owner of a beautiful Javanese gamelan, and we offer a year-round programme of workshops for schools with our expert teacher, Jonathan Roberts. No musical experience is necessary to enjoy playing the gamelan. In 2008 a wide range of schools and community groups enjoyed workshops, including Shrubberies School, Chosen Hill School, Stratton Primary School, Glenfall Primary School and The 1st Woodmancote Beaver Scouts. We are delighted to announce that funding from Gloucestershire Music will enable more county schools to enjoy a gamelan workshop in 2009. Further details will be announced shortly.

Jonathan handled the group brilliantly. Very skilful, calm, clear and positive. I appreciate that very much. Debby Harris, Northleach Primary School

Well-paced, interesting and informative. Mrs Jane Morgan, Glenfall Primary School

I did enjoy the workshop, especially the music. It sounded brilliant. Pupil, Northleach Primary School

Haydn, the father of the string quartet died 200 years ago this year. Painted Quartets will celebrate Haydn’s great legacy by commissioning artists to paint, decorate and transform redundant violins, violas and cellos. We are also producing a large number of violin-shaped outlines on card so that schools can paint and decorate their own instruments, and contribute to what promises to be a truly stunning exhibition. If you are interested in taking part, please contact Nicola Tuxworth in the first instance.

This cello has been painted by Australian artist David Larwill

Jonathan Roberts leads a gamelan workshop at Farmor’s School. Farmor’s school children keep perfect time!

Cheltenham CollegeJunior School