April has been just as busy as the other months so far this year so here is a round up:

Rehearsals for the International Festival of Playwrighting and Performance are well under way...

All four of the plays that are being performed at next month's festival have been busy rehearsing and Group 64 staged a performance of their play 'The Belinda Tree' last month at Putney Theatre Arts. Our team here went along to watch, it was so great to get a preview of the performance, we can't wait for next month now! We have the other 3 productions being staged by Rose Bruford, Hermitage Primary School and the final group were audienced and formed specifically for this festival. If you haven't booked your tickets yet don't miss out! Remember there is a special day dedicated to Secondary and Primary aged children with packages and free tickets on offer. 

GCSE and A Level reforms for Drama

I have been lucky enough to form part of the small team that have been tasked with providing the subject content to Ofqual for the the awarding bodies to rewrite the new GCSE and Alevel Drama qualifications for first teaching September 2016. The team are currently responding on Version 3 of the new drafts and the final version should be ready to submit to Ofqual by the end of June. If you have any particular content you would want to see included please email and let me know, where possible and practical I will try to include your requests. 

London Drama NOW! conference

I recently attended this conference along with another colleague from our UK Business development team and it was great to see (as usual) a community of Drama teachers sharing good practice. We had a stand in the book stall area and were overwhelmed with positive responses to our exams as well as the support and events that we offer as an awarding body. 

The keynote speech by Dr. Sally Mackey (Professor of Applied Theatre and Performance at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama) was looking at the positives of the position Drama is currently in and how the creative industries supports the GDP and UK economy. Interestingly the Creative Industry's 'Gross Value Added' within the UK economy has continued to grow through the recession.
Also don't forget what the DCMS defines as 'creative industries': advertising, architecture, art and antiques market, computer and video games, crafts, design, designer fashion, film and video music, performing arts, publishing, software; television and radio. Even better most of these 'defined creative areas' can all be covered in some aspect or another within one of the many exams Trinity's offers. 

But finally, let's stick with the positivity and remember what UNESCO stated a few years ago:

"Culture and the arts are essential components of a comprehensive education leading to the full development of the individual. Therefore, Arts Education is a universal human right, for all learners, including those who are often excluded from education, such as immigrants, cultural minority groups, and people with disabilities"

(UNESCO, Road Map for Arts Education: Building Creative Capacities for the 21st Century, 2006)

Sunshine in Scarborough too for the National Student Drama Festival #nsdf2014

This year, for the first time Trinity travelled to run a workshop specifically for the teachers that were attending with their students. The teachers found it wonderful to sit down and catch up with all the latest Drama education changes and how Trinity's qualifications were fitting in and supporting teachers with these reforms. If any teachers would like a copy of the powerpoint please comment below with your email address and I will happily send that out to you. 

It was great to attend NSDF and see the performances that young people are producing, watching and reviewing - I was lucky enough to be able to catch the performance of 'Punk Rock' by Arts Ed sixth form students and it was a superb! I was hooked from beginning to end, it's a play I have always wanted to read but never got round to so it was great to see it brought to life by them.

Off now to prepare to Stage Manage our festival next month - so more on how all that goes next month!

Holly