Why Drama? The Impact of Drama within the Primary Curriculum
Drama can be highly motivating to pupils, as it draws on their personal experiences and excites their imaginations. It engages pupils physically, emotionally, actively and creatively. Working in role, they can be empowered as problem solvers and decision makers. This can be stimulating and rewarding, resulting in memorable, deep learning outcomes
ABOUT THIS EVENT
- Hear the latest thinking of experienced Drama in Education practitioners.
- Participate in practical workshops which model the use of drama pedagogy to engage and inspire all learners.
- Personalise your training by selecting three workshops including EYFS/KS1, KS2, SEND and Leadership for Drama options*.
- Develop your knowledge, understanding and Drama advocacy with a panel of leading Drama experts.
- Take away ready-to-use ideas for your own classroom and strategies to help develop your school through the power of drama.
*After booking you will be sent further details of these options.
FEES
Early Bird until 30th June 2024 | £65.00 |
Regular | £75.00 |
Additional Teacher at the same school (Early Bird) | £50.00 |
Additional Teacher at the same school (Regular) | £60.00 |
Students | £20.00 |
Concessions | £45.00 |
National Drama Members Early Bird until 30th June 2024 | £50.00 (via promo code) |
National Drama Members Regular | £60.00 (via promo code) |
National Drama Executive | £30.00 (via promo code) |
Note 1: National Drama is absorbing the Eventbrite fees to make this event as affordable as possible: what you see is what you pay!
Note 2: National Drama Members can claim a discount on this event. Please apply to finance@nationaldrama.org.uk for the promo code.
FAQ
The conference is open to all with an interest in Drama in primary schools irrespective of experience and expertise.
The Alma Lodge Hotel is situated at 149 Buxton Road, Stockport, SK2 6EL and is just a few minutes from Junction 1 of the M60 motorway (Manchester orbital). Regular trains stop at Stockport Rail Station (including from Manchester and London) – Alma Lodge Hotel is a short taxi ride from the station.
The hotel has a large, free car park for hotel residents and visitors.
The hotel is offering delegates a special rate of £83 (double room for single occupancy) on both Thursday 26th and Friday 27th September. Book directly with hotel reception.
WHAT IF IT WERE TRUE? How can drama help develop reading for meaning and pleasure at EYFS/Key Stage 1?
Larraine Harrison
This workshop explores how using simple structured drama strategies can bring books to life for children in EYFS and Key Stage 1. The activities support the development of a language rich curriculum and encourage reading for meaning and pleasure. The workshop is suitable for those with limited experience of using drama as a learning medium.
How can drama be used effectively to engage learners in the delivery of specific subjects at Key Stage 2?
Peter Kennedy
This workshop will demonstrate the power of drama’s role to create irresistible learning experiences in foundation subjects. Participants will experience a scaffolded sequence of DEAL (Drama, Engagement, Active Learning) strategies to empower the teacher and engage the learner.
How do I plan for Drama?
Deborah Pakkar-Hull
This interactive session will introduce an accessible eight-stage Drama planning process, designed to be used across the primary curriculum. The session is suitable for both senior leaders looking for a tool to support curriculum planning, and for classroom teachers interested in integrating Drama into their teaching and learning. Material relating to the Great Fire of London will be used to illustrate the planning process in action, and resources detailing the planning stages will be provided for participants to take away.
How do you use story for cross-curricular teaching and learning in both EYFS and KS1?
Peter Kennedy
This workshop will exemplify the power of narrative for young learners. With an enquiry-rich story at its heart, participants will understand how this can be used to explore learning across the curriculum.
EXPLORING KEY MOMENTS: How can Drama make a significant contribution to Reading for Meaning at Key Stage 2?
Larraine Harrison
This workshop focuses on some simple structured classroom drama strategies that can make a significant contribution to Reading for Meaning at Key Stage 2. The drama activities have been selected to support some of the skills associated with reading for meaning, such as empathising with characters’ feelings and making inferences from a text based on evidence. The workshop is suitable for those with limited experience of using drama as a learning medium.
As a leader for Drama as a powerful pedagogy, how might you approach embedding it in your curriculum for whole school impact?
Rebecca Bell
This workshop will introduce you to critical leadership actions that will ensure Drama is engaged with by all staff and embedded with commitment, confidence and impact.
What are the core principles and practices of the Magic Story Box approach in EYFS?
Rebecca Bell
This workshop will introduce you to the powerful ritual of the magic story box; a practice that ignites learning and development through dramatic, enquiry led learning in the imaginary world of a story. By using role play and drama strategies, communication, language and literacy development are placed as the central axis of FS curriculum.
Inspiring learning: can Teacher in Role help?
Deborah Pakkar-Hull
This participatory workshop will explore the different ways in which Teacher in Role can be used to support children’s learning. Drawing on real-life learning contexts from the primary classroom, examples of Teacher in Role will be practically demonstrated, involving participants actively reflecting on the pedagogical potential of this multi-faceted Drama convention. Planning time will be given in the session for participants to identify where, why and how they might use Teacher in Role in their own practice, supported by accessible resources.
How can we create, within Drama, inclusive learning spaces for SEND children, their peers and their teachers?
Gill Brigg
This session will explore the challenges facing teachers who wish to offer an inclusive, drama-rich learning environment, and will examine the benefits to all children in placing the needs of those with SEND at the core of the experience. We will discuss ways in which we can create aestheticised physical spaces within which to create stories in ways that won’t overwhelm the senses and will encourage emotional engagement. We will address the implications for school leaders of teachers adopting these practices.
Speakers
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Aisling SwiftPanel Chair
Aisling is the Primary Officer for National Drama. She has been teaching Drama and Performing Arts for over 20 years. Initially qualifying as secondary drama teacher, the majority of her experience has been as a freelance drama specialist, working within primary schools; with theatre outreach programmes; arts charities and organisations; and the wider community. As a professional singer and trained dancer, Aisling’s teaching practice also incorporates dance, music, musical theatre and creative mindfulness, as well as drama. Aisling also works as a freelance director and choreographer, and as an actress and singer – currently fronting two bands. Advocating for the inclusion of drama in primary curriculum, as well as its high-quality delivery, is at the heart of Aisling’s professional ethos.
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Dan JonesPanellist
Dan is a primary school teacher with sixteen years classroom experience both in Birmingham and Outer London. He currently works at Allens Croft Primary School in Birmingham with responsibility for Early Years and leading the arts team. As Creative Arts Lead, he has led the school through three successful rounds of Artsmark, achieving the Platinum Award through successful work with local partnership arts organisations in order to drive up the quality of arts outcomes for pupils. He also sits on the Strategic Advisory Board for Birmingham Arts School, whose mission is to build greater and more meaningful connections between schools and arts organisations in the region. He is studying for an MA in Shakespeare and Education through the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham.
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Deborah Pakkar-HullWorkshop Leader Panellist
Deborah has nearly 30 years’ experience working in Educational Drama and Theatre in a variety of roles, including Actor-Teacher, Drama Teacher and Advisor. She has held three Artistic Director positions at The Play House, a Theatre in Education company from Birmingham; on the York Mystery Plays, an outdoor community theatre event; and at Theatre Company Blah Blah Blah, a company specialising in work for children and young people based in Leeds. Deborah has also led projects in primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong, Nigeria and India.
Deborah’s recent experience includes working as a Teaching Associate on the Royal Society of the Arts’ Performing Pedagogy initiative, and facilitating a year-long, whole-staff professional development programme in partnership with a primary school in Leeds, together with Dr Geoff Readman.
Deborah regularly teaches at universities across the UK and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
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Derri BurdonPanellist
Derri is Chief Executive of Curious Minds, a national charity that works to diversify, equip and empower the cultural education workforce to deliver a creative entitlement for all children and young people. She is Co-Chair of the Cultural Learning Alliance, Chair of the Ellesmere Port Cultural Learning Exchange, and a governor at a secondary school. Previously, she was Head of Enrichment for Learning at Bolton Council where she was responsible for leading strategic school improvement initiatives, including government funded Find Your Talent and Inspiring Communities pathfinder programmes, and Bolton’s UFA and Children’s University partnerships. She was a QISS (Quality in Study Support) Critical Friend and an Extended Schools Remodelling Consultant.
Inspired by her own family and childhood experiences, Derri is passionate about improving outcomes for all children, especially the most disadvantaged and vulnerable. She believes that rather than attempting to ‘close the gap,’ we should be filling it with enriching and inspirational cultural and collective learning experiences that the most fortunate families take for granted.
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Dr Geoff ReadmanChair National Drama
Geoff Readman has worked extensively in drama and theatre as an actor-teacher, primary and secondary drama specialist, inspector and university lecturer. In 1976, as Leader of the Wakefield Drama Team, he worked extensively with LEA primary schools leading CPD and cross curricular Drama projects. At Bishop Grosseteste University, he established an undergraduate degree for Drama in the Community.
International experiences include teacher training projects in India, Hong Kong, China and South Korea. For several years he was Visiting Professor of Drama at Hong Kong University.
He has also directed primary Theatre-in-Education programmes with Blah Blah Blah in Leeds, The Playhouse in Birmingham and Chengdu Theatre in China.
He is currently a freelance Consultant in Theatre and Drama Education.
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Gill BriggWorkshop leader
Gill has over 40 years’ experience as a cross-phase Drama Teacher, Theatre-Maker, and Advisory Teacher. She has worked for the last 20 years in Specialist Schools as a TIE performer, Drama specialist, and class teacher. She has experience in working alongside SENCOs within mainstream schools, specifically to offer support with access to Drama methodology for increasingly neurodivergent cohorts of children and young people. She works nationally and internationally with teachers, actors, and academics, developing their practice with neurodivergent groups. Collaborating with Theatre-Makers to make pieces accessible to audiences with complex needs, she also serves on boards and advisory groups to represent the cultural rights of children and young people with limited access to Theatre and Drama.
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Keith WrightPanellist
Keith Wright has had a teaching career spanning more than 30 years. He has taught from ages 5 to 11. He was a head teacher from 2006 to when he recently retired in 2024. He has worked within many authorities including Rotherham, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, and Lancashire. He graduated from Bishop Grosseteste College in 1992 specialising in Drama and Teaching Studies: his final year being under the tuition and expertise of Dr Geoff Readman. Keith is passionate that drama for learning has a presence in the primary curriculum. In autumn 2022, his school hosted a workshop for primary, special and nursery school teachers from around the Morecambe Bay locality. He represents the North West Region of the National Association of Head Teachers, including sitting on the National Executive from 2021 – 2024. Since 2015, Keith has been an inspector of primary schools in the North West Region on behalf of OFSTED. He has recently been appointed to the Executive for National Drama.
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Larraine HarrisonWorkshop leader
Since qualifying as a teacher in 1969, Larraine Harrison has taught all ages and abilities including some time working in a special school. She has been a leader of a Local Authority drama-in-education team, a literacy consultant, a drama consultant, an Ofsted inspector and a Local Authority school improvement adviser. She has written several books including 2 children’s novels: Red Snow and Angel’s Child and 7 practical drama books for teachers covering EYFS to Key Stage 3. Her two most recent drama books are Drama and Reading for Meaning ages 4-11 and Drama and Writing ages 5-11 (Routledge).
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Patrice BaldwinKeynote Speaker Panellist
Patrice Baldwin is Chair of the Council for Subject Associations, a Higher-level Action Learning Facilitator (ILM), and an internationally recognised ‘Drama for Learning’ specialist. Patrice has published several books, most recently, ‘Process Drama for Second Language Teaching and Learning,’ (Bloomsbury, 2022), with Alicja Galaska, and ‘40+ ‘Drama’ Strategies to Deepen Whole Class Learning’ (Routledge, 2024). She has delivered conference speeches and Drama workshops in almost 40 countries. Patrice was Chair of National Drama (2004 -2014) and President of the International Drama Theatre and Education Association (2010 -2013), having been a primary headteacher, local authority School Improvement Professional, Arts Education Adviser (Norfolk), and an Ofsted inspector. She was Sir Jim Rose’s Editorial Expert for Drama in his proposed Primary national curriculum, and Oak National Academy’s Primary Drama curriculum leader during the pandemic, (2020-2021). She has also worked as a BBC Education scriptwriter and series consultant for Drama, (radio and TV).
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Peter KennedyWorkshop Leader
Peter Kennedy is a Drama-in-Education specialist with more than thirty years’ experience. As Consultant Practitioner on Stockport’s Drama, Engagement, Active Learning (DEAL) programme, Peter works with children and teachers, equipping both with this powerful pedagogy to make learning irresistible. As part of the North West Drama Services team Peter directs Children’s Shakespeare Festivals in both Stockport and Oldham.
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Rebecca BellKeynote Speaker Workshop Leader Panellist
As Director of Integrate Education, Rebecca works as a Consultant Practitioner in Education, specialising in creative teaching and learning, curriculum design, teacher training, leadership development and accredited coaching (ILM). Beginning her career in Education as a Secondary Drama and Theatre Studies Teacher, she has worked as a teacher, manager and leader in schools, and an Associate Lecturer in Education at Manchester Metropolitan University. Rebecca currently supports individual schools, Multi Academy Trusts, Local Authorities and Museum Services across the UK. Her work also takes her into international schools around the world, as an Artistic Director and Consultant Practitioner with ISTA (International Schools Theatre Association). Rebecca has a reputation for her commitment to action research and advancement in education. She takes delight in sharing her learning at conference events as a speaker and workshop leader, and through published articles.
Hourly Schedule
- 9.00 - 9.30
- Registration
- 9.30 - 9.40
- Welcome
- Geoff Readman
- 9.40 - 10.15
- Keynote 1 - Why bother with Drama in the Primary Curriculum?
- Rebecca Bell
- 10:20 - 11:20
- Workshop 1
- (3 Choices)
- 11:20 - 11:45
- Break
- 11:45 - 12:45
- Workshop 2
- (3 choices)
- 12:45 - 1:30
- Lunch
- 1:30 - 2:10
- Keynote 2 - Drama in the Primary Curriculum – why, when, where and how?
- Patrice Baldwin
- 2:15 - 3:15
- Workshop 3
- (3 choices)
- 3:15 - 3:30
- Break
- 3:30 - 4:30
- Whole Conference Panel
- including Patrice Baldwin and Closing Address/Evaluation by Geoff Readman
The event is finished.
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National Drama
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The Crypt Centre
St Mary Magdalene's Church
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