We still get excited about the ways that we can support the curriculum. Whether it's looking at how drama can improve social and emotional aspects of learning (SEAL), how enjoyment impacts on engagement and achievement, how drama and music can be used to encourage creative writing, helping children with assessment for learning (AFL) or looking at how music can be utilsed in the classroom. These are just a few of the things we've been working on over the years with local schools and teachers.

But these are just our words… Here is what Kate Parkin of Bawtry Mayflower Primary School wrote about a project we worked on together:

"With writing results declining and a cohort of low attaining, disengaged boys we embarked upon a project that would engage boys and inspire them to want to write.

Working alongside Beci we planned a project based around the idea that ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’ with the aims of building the children’s love of writing and helping them to grow in confidence about their own writing ability.

A burglary was used to capture the children’s attention and imagination. The classroom was sealed off, clues and finger prints were scattered everywhere and the adjoining hall was set up as a crime investigation unit.

All the children were issued with their very own detective note pad and pencil and the day’s challenges began. Rotating through a range of activities the children got to take part in different challenges including:

• becoming crime scene examiners
• photographing the evidence
• writing down clues and taking fingerprints
• calling the police to describe the crime and jot down key information they were told
• interviewing adults in school using the small microphones and making notes about the evidence they collected
• listening to music that was heard playing at the time of the burglary and using it to decide on the mood of the burglar

All the children thoroughly enjoyed the day - boys were keen to write down the interesting facts and were disgusted by the fact that their ‘learning weapons’ (pencils) had been broken.

To follow up from the initial ‘burglary’ the children were sent anonymous letters. All typed and each time giving a little more away about the burglar and why he felt the way he did.

At the end of each letter the children were set a challenge linked to music and writing. These challenges included: writing a song about how to write a sentence, using bells to create sentences to explore how they felt after the burglary and putting sound effects to a story they had written.

Each week the children were desperate to find the letter and all the children worked well to answer the burglar’s demands. After several weeks of letters and learning more and more about the burglar, his attitude at school and where this had left him as an adult the letters suddenly stopped!

The head teacher came rushing in to explain to the children they had a visitor… William (aka the burglar) wanted to say sorry.  Frantically, the children wrote down questions they wanted to ask him and when William appeared the room fell silent.

Using the information they had gathered over several weeks the children questioned William about why he had stolen their learning weapons. William was able to explain how their replies had built his confidence and now he was starting to write children’s stories.

As one final request William asked the children to write a song about what it was like meeting him... a song aptly titled. “It was fun, fun, fun!”

Throughout this topic the children had looked forward to Wednesday afternoons and were all desperate to reply to William’s letter and build his confidence while inadvertently raising their own confidence about how much they knew and getting them to write sustained pieces that had a real audience and purpose.

To bring the project to a close the children designed and delivered an assembly for their parents, covering all the main areas they had learnt about. Everyone joined in confidently."