Collaborative Drama Project exploring Self-Representation

A collaborative drama project between Hornsby House School and Lark Hall School, hosted by the outreach team at the Ovalhouse Theatre. The project explored themes around self representation through story writing, allowing the children to investigate their similarities and differences within a drama context. Sixty children from each school, 120 boys and girls altogether, took part in the project and the process was recorded by the Ovalhouse team in a short film.

Aims

The aims of the project were to build on the successful art collaboration between the two schools the previous year and allow both groups of children to explore their wider community and work with children who they haven't worked with before. Schools can be relatively insular organisations, which may often be a positive but there are also limited opportunities to learn how to collaborate and problem solve with other children they don't know. This project looked to overcome this situation and encourage the children to embrace the opportunity to do so.

Background

The Deputy Head at Hornsby House is also the Vice-Chair of Governors at Lark Hall Primary School and identified the mutual benefits a partnership between the two schools could bring. Working closely with the Heads from the two schools has allowed a relationship to be fostered within which collaborative projects have been completed for the benefit of the children and best practice shared both ways to the benefit of the staff. The partnership has been in place for three years now.

Resources

In order for the project to be a genuine partnership we learned from the art project that a third party host allows for a neutral environment within which both schools can enter into a collaboration on an equal standing. The Ovalhouse is a fantastic theatre and their Outreach Team were the perfect facilitators for the project. Staff from both schools attended and got involved in the workshops. Hornsby House covered the theatre's costs for the project.

Impact

Quotes from both Heads and children involved will be available soon but the overall assessment of the project was that it was a great success and actually provided more candid discussion than was originally predicted. This allowed us to pick up some of the themes that emerged from the workshops in personal, social, health, economic and wellbeing lessons once the children were back at their respective schools.

Pupil Involvement

60 children from Year 5 at Hornsby House and 60 children from Year 5 at Lark Hall School. An even split of boys and girls across both schools.

Frequency

The project lasted three weeks, which catered for all 120 children and then the film was produced post-workshops.

The partnership will continue and this year we will be looking to run a project within one of the key arts subjects, which one is to be confirmed.