Space Project with Bramley Park Academy

Growtheatre worked with Bramley Park Academy as part of the SPACE Project, which aimed to give teachers and creative practitioners space to explore developing creative work together. We worked with children from Year 1 to Year 6 to explore how drama and creative experiences can positively impact on the self-belief and confidence amongst their most vulnerable learners.  The project has provided every child involved the opportunity to be creative, develop their team-working skill, to have a voice and be reflective. At the start of the Space Programme, quite a number of the children were under confident and a little embarrassed when asked to perform but slowly but surely they became more and more confident – both in their creativity, self-expression and in how they supported and encouraged each other. This was especially impressive as the project required children from different year groups to work with each other.

In making the Bramley Park Academy Audio Tour with KS2, the  children have had the opportunity to contribute to all aspects of the creative process and they have taken the decision making really responsibly and seriously; they feel really invested in it. As well as script writing, performing, producing and recording sound effects for the Audio Tour, the children have demonstrated considerable confidence in team-work, especially in encouraging and supporting each other to do their best; negotiation and problem-solving when challenges have arisen and in giving and receiving constructive and creative feedback, which has helped them develop their performances. More than anything, the children have demonstrated over the weeks an increase in confidence in taking risks and giving things that they may find challenging a go.

Working with KS1 has allowed Mollie and I to teach the children a range of drama skills and techniques, including: frozen images, mime, hot seating, thought tapping, in-role work, developing dialogue and scene building. We wanted to increase the children’s imagination and ability to come up with original ideas and we thought developing lots of creative and imaginative drama workshops. At the start of our work, many of the children were quite shy and reluctant to participate or they would copy a more confident child. We spent lots of time, modelling come up with lots of different and imaginative ideas and also praising children who had original ideas. Slowly, as the children became more familiar with Rachel and the drama, children began to throw themselves into the activities with confidence and creativity and they began to have more imaginative responses. Overtime they worked confidently together to create fun, creative and imaginative worked Furthermore, the children worked really well together, supporting and encouraging each other in all they did. They loved working together and this came through strongly in their thoughtful reflections at the end of each session.