Two Haringey schools, Lancasterian Primary School and the Vale Special School, combined recently to plan, perform and stage a brand new musical called 'The Game of Life'. The project, which was coordinated by performing arts charity Arts Insight and also involved support from Haringey Mencap involved more than 250 7-11 year olds from Lancasterian and 18 children from the Vale.

As well as performing in the play, the children also took on roles including costume design, technical crew, stage management and set and prop design. The Game of Life, which explores the theme of aspirations, was performed for the first time in front of a packed house at Lancasterian school last month.

Sarah McLay, headteacher at the Vale School said:

“All pupils, regardless of their needs, enjoyed and contributed to this creative, stimulating and exciting project, and celebrated success together – it was fantastic!”

David Rees, music coordinator at Lancasterian Primary School added:

“The children were absorbed in the activities and rose to the occasion. It was a joy to watch them singing, dancing and acting and to see them flourish in this new artistic environment”

Haadi, a year 3 student at Lancasterian school certainly agreed:

“It was the best musical I’ve ever seen” he said “I wish school was like this every week!"

Cast member Mark from the Vale School said:

“Everybody really enjoyed themselves; my line in the play was ‘I want to be a chef!’”