A Voice in my Hands

A New Direction

Downhills Primary, a Creative Partnerships Change School, collaborated with the Little Angel Theatre Company to further the drama skills of their pupils. The project began with pupils and staff visiting the Little Angel Theatre to meet the practitioners, observe rehearsals and watch a performance of ‘Petrushka’.

The practitioners then planned a series of classroom sessions in school where children would design and make puppets inspired by different stories for each year group.

Year 2 learned new vocabulary and design techniques to fulfil the original intention of ‘working big’ to create a large train which they filled with their original puppets. Year 4 explored creating environments to design a series of fantasy worlds for their puppets. Whilst Year 6 explored fables, giving them new cultural context which reflected the countries their families came from.

The project culminated in a whole school sharing day that was extremely well attended by parents.

Two twilight inset sessions were held for staff which enabled the practitioners to show simple techniques for making puppets from readily available materials which were then displayed in the staff room.

Across the school, displays of puppets, writing, storyboards and art work covered the walls; even those classes which had no direct contact with the practitioners made and displayed puppets of their own and many children spoke of making puppets at home and in their own time.

Project objectives

• To develop pupil’s skills in speaking, listening and writing through story-making and story-telling;
• To develop drama and improvisation skills to encourage collaborative working;
• To link the work to both the existing and new emerging curriculum;
• To develop staff skills for use beyond the life of the project.

Results

• Pupils learnt many new skills in designing and making and had the freedom to experiment new materials;
• Pupils spoke of confidence in performing, supported by learning acting techniques and working collaboratively;
• Concentration was improved in some cases – working for extended periods on the project helped concentration in other subject areas;
• Pupils expressed a greater interest in literacy: speaking and listening, some ‘fantastic’ writing, finding new content for stories;
• Staff learned puppet-making skills, drama exercises, ways of incorporating puppet work in the new primary curriculum.

http://www.littleangeltheatre.com/lat/
http://www.downhills.haringey.sch.uk/