This update is all about the girls... (& Shakespeare)

Girl Power

Beyond the classroom based in South London are an educational social enterprise, they use theatre and mentoring as tools to teach skills and knowledge. They work with schools and youth groups to support formal curriculum learning. Their mission is "to equip young people with the tools to make decisions/take action based on their own needs, feelings and motivations." They do this through music, dance, drama, mentoring, film and open dialogue.  On Sunday 29^th September Beyond the Classroom’s staged a public performance of Girlhood to Womanhood (G2W) as part of an SRE (sex and relationships) TIE (theatre in education) initiative. It is primarily delivered to young people in schools, colleges and youth centres  and this performance was a rare opportunity for the general public and key community stakeholders to see the play. Annoyingly I missed the production but I am looking forward to catching up with Amma from Beyond the Classroom at the end of October and hearing more about their productions, workshops and the general ethos behind their work. You can read more about the performance here.

Tomatotastic!

An all female team (Rita, Lily, Jessi and Jing) from Shanghai's 'Tomato Art' came to Trinity College London for a meeting with various members of our development team. Presentations were given from Artsmark, Arts Award, Music and by me for Drama & Performance looking at what we offer and how we can support their work in China. Tomato Art has been running in Shanghai since 2009 and has over 100 franchises throughout China, the art classes run all year round, outside of the school curriculum for 3-12 year olds. Tomato Art was set up to allow children to focus on learning through the creative arts. It was wonderful to hear that the structure they have created is similiar to the structure of Arts Award. Our Young Performance Certificate particularly interested them and I look forward to working with them on how they can make it work in their settings!

Shakespeare Schools Festival

Finally, just to make it fair... as I can't talk all about girls! Our main 'man' Shakespeare is brewing up to dominate the arts world during 2014 so to get you started with all the Shakespeare celebrations I will drip feed a little bit of what is happening each month... So first up - Shakespeare Schools Festival are now taking bookings for the 2014 festival you can read more about registering your school to take on their website. For the 2013 festival Trinity College London are in the final stages of the pilot 'Plays in Production assessment' for the November schools taking part. If you are interested in registering for SSF 2014 you will also be able to get your student's final performance certificated and professionally assessed, although booking for 2013 is now closed you can read more about the process here and get in touch if you want to learn more about the options for 2014.

That's all for now... Until next time,

Holly