Site blog
Hello all,
Well we’re nearly at the end of November and I’m sure the preparation for plays and performances are in full swing as we edge toward December and the end of school term? I’ve been out and about seeing performances at the Shakespeare Schools Festival and examining for Trinity, a job I've thoroughly enjoyed for 14 years...
More from the Shakespeare Schools Festival
I attended a super evening at the Shaw Theatre in London to watch four performances of Shakespeare plays. It was a wonderful night and the plays performed ranged from Hamlet to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was fantastic to see so many young learners engaging and participating with the stories and language of Shakespeare. The most striking thing for me was the sense of immersion in the performances and a strong sense of community for all the participants. The camaraderie and support for each of the four schools on stage and in the auditorium was palpable. Clearly for the performers and the schools involved in the festival the relevancy of Shakespeare as a playwright of our times for young people is evident. If you get a chance please go to one of the local performances still available. Check out the Shakespeare Schools Festival website for times and venues.
Trinity exams
Many schools are taking Trinity College exams nationwide and overseas at this time. For those of you planning your exam sessions in 2015 this is a reminder that the teacher support pages on the VLE include resources and syllabus support to help with planning and exam sessions. Additionally please do not hesitate to email dramateachers@trinitycollege.com if you need any additional syllabus help.
Auditions
Some of your pupils' may be considering applying for higher education courses in September 2015 which means the audition process for places is on the horizon.Trinity graded exams can certainly support this process and align on a number of levels with the need to prepare audition material. Additionally individual and pairs Trinity graded exams attract UCAS points at grades 6-8. As importantly, Trinity examinations provide a clear indication for higher education providers of not only attainment levels of learners regarding performance skills, but also their soft and transferable skills in areas such as communication in the interview process. I am often asked by learners where they can find more information about higher education courses? My starting point is always www.dramauk.co.uk, the website is full of useful information and well worth a visit.
UCAS tariff points, future changes
Whilst I am on the subject of UCAS points the UCAS tariff points structure changes in September 2017.The changes should not impact upon learners and their future choices,but for those learner’s planning to enter higher education in September 2017 and applying in 2015/2016 the changes will apply. Please visit the UCAS website and links to find out more.
That's it from me for now, until next time...
With best wishes,
Carol
Hello, I’m Carol Harvey-Barnes and as Holly told you last month I will be covering Holly’s maternity leave. On that happy note Holly gave birth to a beautiful baby boy Madison on September 26th, 2014. The proud parents and baby Madison are all doing well.
A little about me, I’ve been an examiner for Trinity College for over fourteen years and a teacher of Drama and Musical Theatre for even longer! Besides running a performing arts school in the Midlands, most recently I spent five years in a further education college originally as a teacher of A Level Drama and Theatre Studies and then BTEC Level 3 to 5 in Acting and Musical Theatre. I firmly believe that my knowledge and experience, professionally and personally, can support your delivery of Trinity College exams as I understand the challenges we all face in both formal and informal educational contexts.
More Pupil Premium.....
Following on from Holly’s September blog, I attended the book launch of, 'A Practical Guide to the Pupil Premium' on Thursday 18 September at St Joseph's Primary School in Covent Garden. The morning launch was an informative, interesting presentation and an opportunity to hear other teachers’ experience of the Pupil Premium and the wider experience that the author Marc Rowland, Deputy Director of NET, had in order to research the book. Tim Coulson, Regional Schools Commissioner launched the book and gave his views on the Pupil Premium. We at Trinity are particularly interested in how the Pupil Premium could be used to support your delivery of Trinity examinations in the curriculum or as enrichment activities to support arts education for disadvantaged learners. As always email your thoughts to dramateachers@trinitycollege.com
Changes to accreditation.......
Ofqual the exams regulator confirmed on its website on October 14th that it is changing the way it regulates vocational qualifications. Chief Regulator, Glenys Stacey said that the accreditation requirement for most qualifications will be removed from 3rd November. The announcement also clarified that awarding organisations will be audited and checked for the duration of a qualification in England and Northern Ireland. The aim of this is to ensure the quality of a qualification is ‘valid and reliable at the design, delivery and awarding stages’. GCSEs and A Levels will remain accredited as they are checked against detailed and specific criteria. Ofqual suggest that the changes will provide employers and students with more trust in vocational qualifications and their reliability.
Whilst we are on the subject of Ofqual, a consultation document is in progress on the proposed changes to GCSE and AS/A Levels including Drama, in 2016. You can comment via the Ofqual website, the consultation closes on November 19th. If you feel these changes might impact upon your teaching of the Drama curriculum or your delivery of Trinity examinations then this is an opportunity to share your knowledge and ensure that change works for all. If you have any thoughts you would like to share with us at Trinity then please get in touch.
To the Bard.......
The Shakespeare Schools Festival (SSF) is in full swing… with the promise of some great innovative performances and interpretations of the Bard’s work on offer and many schools are taking Trinity ‘In Production’ exams too. I will blog more about the festival in November so watch this space.....
So, I’m signing off for now as I get ready to see lots of exciting performances….have a good month.
Best wishes,
Earlier this month at St James Theatre in London, Trinity College London’s Drama & Performance team ran the annual International Festival of Playwriting and Performance (IFPaP) this year it ran for 4 days, the longest festival to date!
So why do we do it? What is it for?
The productions that are staged are winning plays from our International Playwriting Competition (which happens earlier in the year) and winners are then awarded in two categories. The categories are ‘One-act plays suitable for performers’ ages 11 years and under’ and ‘One-act plays suitable for audiences aged between 12 and 16 years.’ The groups who then stage the productions are from youth theatres, schools and colleges.
When the international playwriting competition was first started back in 2010 the main purpose was for it to create new content for young people and for Trinity College London to engage with youth theatres/youth groups and as you will see when you read on we have certainly done that!
Since 2010 we have staged 11 plays, 2 of which have been taken to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well. The 11 plays have been staged by primary schools, Performing Arts Colleges, Drama schools and youth groups. Our plays have been taken to Language events in India and the winning young performers play from 2012 was even published as a special edition and given to teachers in India as a resource to support practical drama teaching.
The Festival has taken place at the Garrick Theatre, Unicorn Theatre (twice!) and this year we moved to St James Theatre in Victoria.
What’s in it for a school?
If you are a school performing in the festival then the possibilities are endless. You can read more about this in the schools packs I created in the IPC area of the VLE. This year’s performance of ‘Virtual Enchantment’ was performed by Hermitage Primary School and their teacher Laurie Steel had lots to say about why rehearsing and staging this play has helped with the curriculum:
“My class linked the performance to ICT in terms of persuasive writing. We created posters, leaflets and brochures encouraging people to attend the performance. Next term, I will link the prop making (the alien masks) to Design & Technology - we made the alien masks for the performance during an afternoon art session, but we will now evaluate the masks in light of the performance and try to improve on our designs, which also gives us the chance to research aliens! Maybe with next year’s scripts I will link the play scripts in with Literacy.” Laurie Steel, Class 5 Teacher, Hermitage Primary School.
If you are a school attending the festival you have access to free workshops and performances. This year our secondary school day which was focused around the teaching and learning of Shakespeare had over 200 students in the main house at St James theatre and English & Drama teacher, Katrina Hasthorpe from St Thomas More Language College in Sloane Square found out about our Festival and was very excited to get along with her Year 9 students!
Look at pictures and videos of the festival here.
Arts Award Voice came along and ran a theatre review workshop on the Saturday morning of the festival which was a great workshop for people to engage with. Some of the Youth Network Leaders (Mollie Tuttle wrote the reviews below) for Arts Award Voice then stayed and enjoyed the matinee and evening gala performances of the festival and wrote the following reviews:
In Conversation with David Wood - review by Flossie Waite
Youth Theatres & other Festival links...
This year we engaged with the Shakespeare Schools Festival and it was wonderful to have Coombe Boys’ School perform their abridged version of Henry V. The links to other festivals helps to highlight how Trinity’s Drama & Performance see the overlaps and strengths in what we do with other organisations, SSF and Trinity coming together on this platform was fantastic and all the more pleasing following our successful pilot of assessment with SSF in Autumn 2013. You can read more about how we assess SSF’s work here.
This year’s festival also saw the revival of previous productions and plays that had previously been awarded ‘Highly Commended’ were also brought to the stage. Putney Arts Theatre’s resident Youth Theatre Group 64 staged ‘The Belinda Tree’ and very excitingly for them they had a theatre critic in the night for one of their performances and this was what their 4* review said:
“...Using a relatively simple narrative, the play explores an impressively deep range of themes, including friendship, family, growing up and loss. These ideas are portrayed through a young cast who are skilled far beyond their years. Emotive performances from Ilhan, White and Tier make the central characters relatable and entirely convincing. The dialogue feels natural and contemporary for the age group, an achievement from both the actors and the writer John Moorhouse.”
You can read the review in full here.
Watch this space with what will happen in 2015...
Until next month,
Holly
Welcome back and a Happy New Year to you!
So where to begin?
Playwrighting - Internationally
2014 is going to be a very big year! We have our International Festival of Playwriting and Performance, which is even bigger and longer than our previous years. This is happening at St James Theatre in London from May 6th to May 10th. Find out more here.
The plays that are due to be performed are currently being read by our judging panel and the winner will be announced at the beginning of February. I will of course update you too in next months blog post!
Playwrongs?
So many students and even adults find the teaching of Shakespeare 'dull and difficult.' I often wonder why? I think back to my own schooling and feel fortunate that my English teacher was passion about Macbeth and The Tempest and all it left me thinking was why did this William man have such few words to choose from? Not, 'this is so boring and I don't understand.' I soon came to realise during my own teacher training (Secondary) that encouraging my teenagers to engage with Shakespeare was a real challenge due to the preconceived ideas they had!
It wasn't until I went to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust's launch of Shakespeare Week that I appreciated just how crucial primary 
Shakespeare education is. I am delighted that Trinity College London are cultural supporters of the 2014 Shakespeare Week.
With this year being William Shakespeare's 450th Birthday here at Trinity College London we are also running several events in celebration of him as well as supporting other cultural organisations! Currently we are reviewing our Shakespeare qualifications, finalising our Shakespeare specific workshops for our International Festival, shadowing projects with The Globe (see more below...) and working to support the 1,500 schools engaging in the Shakespeare Schools Festival this year to gain certification for their work.
Education at the Globe
The team at The Globe Education Department are facilitating several projects with schools & teachers. Myself and the Head of Drama & Performance here at Trinity have been out and about observing these projects. During this month's blog I am going to talk about this one...
'Our Theatre'
The project is a celebration of the creativity and achievements of Southwark students and teachers and is free to all participating schools. Each school works with a Globe Education Practitioner over fifteen weeks across two school terms to devise and rehearse a scene selected in consultation with their class teacher.
To celebrate the life and work of Shakespeare the schools are doing this though an exploration of the ‘All the world’s a stage’ speech from ‘As You Like It’:
All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
The 6 schools and the Globe's youth theatre will perform on the Globe stage at the end of February. As an observer of this project I have been to two of the schools that are taking part. Before Christmas I travelled to St. Saviours & St. Olave's Girls school to watch them working on the 'Childhood' stage of man, they were exploring this through the princesses theme in Richard III. It was really nice for me to observe young people engaged in their work and not having to do a teacher or student lesson observation like the last time I observed a lesson - looking at learning in a different way is quite liberating! It was pleasing to find out that these girls had 'applied' to their teacher to take part this project and were doing so after school in their own time. Even more pleasing, some of these girls were engaging in this project out of pure enjoyment and love for Drama beyond the classroom.
Just this week I went to observe at Tuke School. This exceptional SEN school was being led by an inspiring practioner and their dedicated teacher and specialist support assistants. They were working on Henry VIII Act V. Scene IV exploring infancy as their stage of man. The work that these students were doing was quite mesmerising! They were clapping out the syllables of the lines, certainly there was no 'playwrong' in Shakespeare creation of Iambicpentameter here it was helping these students, there was no boredom or confusion within this class, they were breaking down dialogue using the very rhythmical pattern Shakespeare had created. The still images they created representing the archetypes within the story was quite magical to watch unfold. The students in this group were breaking down the so-called 'barriers' of Shakespeare's language with severe disabilities ranging from Global delay to ODD and Autism. This project just showed me that there is no 'Playwrong' in Shakespeare's playwriting - simply a lack of wanting to 'play more.' I can't wait to see these students perform again at the "Our Theatre" performance next month.
Until next month,
Holly
Ample 'ATCL' goes forth...
Josie Campbell, Head of Drama & Theatre Studies at Ampleforth College in Yorkshire teaches the ATCL Performing diploma (Level 4) to provide additional performance opportunities for her A level students.In 2012 Lucy Bird (Speech & Drama), Giorgio Palazzo (Speech & Drama) and Oliver Moore (Performance Arts) entered for the ATCL prior to taking their A levels studies with Edexcel. Both Giorgio and Oliver achieved B grades at Drama A level which unfortunately was not high enough to secure their places at Manchester (Oliver) and Exeter (Giorgio) universities.
As their teacher, Josie approached the admissions tutors at both universities and explained that, in addition to their A-levels, they had successfully taken a Level 4 qualification. The students did not realise when applying through UCAS that they could enter their ATCL qualification as it wasn’t listed on the application form. Josie spoke with UCAS regarding the Level 4 ATCL diplomas and as a result both Exeter and Manchester University then accepted the students on to the BA course. Since speaking to Josie I contacted UCAS and discussed the content, credit level and guided learning hours of the ATCL and now students can add the ATCL under the ‘other qualifications’ section of their application form.
This is a great example of how Trinity’s practical examinations have the potential to support students to progress into Higher Education.
Good luck with your ATCL students!
Photo below (From left: Lucy Bird, Giorgio Palazzo & Oliver Moore)
Good 'Goffs' almighty!
The Shakespeare Schools Festival for 2013 is almost over but for Trinity College London our assessments are just beginning. 10 Schools are being assessed across the range of grades giving over 200 pupils the chance to have their work assessed. Our marketing team recently sent out a press release about Goffs School in Hertfordshire and here are some of the highlights...
"18 students from Goffs Secondary School in Cheshunt were each awarded Grade 5 Plays in Production certificates from Trinity College London for their recent Shakespeare Schools Festival (SSF) performance. The students, aged between 12 and 16 years, performed an abridged version of Macbeth on the stage of Broxbourne Civic Hall.
Sarah Cowen, Head of Performing Arts at Goffs School said: ‘Having the performance accredited meant that our students have gained so much more than just the joy of performing in front of a large audience. It was wonderful to have their talent, hard work and dedication officially recognised and rewarded. This is something that we will definitely take part in again as a school’."
Photo below from Goffs School 'Macbeth' rehearsal
That's all for this month... Don't forget to get in touch if you want to share anything with us!
Holly
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 29th 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