Puppet Workshop

A workshop for children in Y6 at a local primary school run and delivered by a group of St George's Drama scholars. The workshop involved building puppets and creating collaborative stories with them.

Aims

The aim of the activity was to build pupil confidence, both those receiving the workshop and those delivering it. The St George's Drama pupils had undertaken a workshop on puppetry and their teacher thought it would be nice to share this experience with local pupils. The beneficiaries were both the pupils who designed and delivered the workshop and the Y6 pupils who received the session.

Background

The idea was presented by the Drama teacher at St George's School. This teacher is very supportive of partnership initiatives and thought it would be beneficial for all parties. 

Resources

The pupils delivering the workshop had received specialist training themselves, which they were cascading down. For the activity they needed rolls of brown paper and masking tape, which were provided by St George's. The St George's pupils were transported to the local primary school with 2 members of staff and the event lasted for 2 hours.

Impact

The pupils at Cheapside gave feedback at the end of the session and progress was measured at the start and in the main activity. At the start , none of the pupils had acted with puppets before. By the end of the session all pupils had produced a small 3-minute performance in groups making the puppets 'come alive'. Teachers and Teaching Assistants also commented on how well the children worked together. Overall the end product was excellent and showed the children how creativity can be achieved through simple means. It also provided some initial ideas about acting and acting techniques.

Pupil Involvement

St George's sent a group of 6 Drama scholars from Y9 upwards to run the workshop for 30 Y6 pupils of mixed gender.