School ties

School Ties is a partnership project between the Theatre Royal Plymouth and primary and secondary schools in Plymouth. It was born out of a desire to get more schools interested and engaged in being part of their local theatre, leaving a lasting legacy of theatre and drama in school. The project is designed to enable young people between the ages of eight and 14 to work collaboratively in writing, producing and performing their own plays on a professional stage. It also offers the chance for them to experience all other aspects of the day-to-day operation of the theatre – from tickets sales to copy writing – offering them an opportunity to apply numeracy and literacy skills in real life situations. Our overall objective is to demystify the whole theatre experience, helping to highlight the power theatre has to facilitate employability and job opportunities at an early age.

Being part of the theatre can offer so much, be it as a career avenue or as an audience member, and the legacy of School Ties aims to ensure all of the young people taking part feel that they have ownership of their theatre and continue to use it. Alongside supporting the development of drama, School Ties also supports the delivery of the National Curriculum across subject fields. It has proved that this kind of learning when applied across the curriculum has tangible benefits to individual learners and whole school communities alike. Through working with Key Stages 2 and 3 jointly on each production, it also supports the transition of young people from primary to secondary education, making this move for young people seem a little less daunting.

This year’s School Ties project saw young people from Plymouth’s Stoke Damerel Community College and Stoke Damerel Primary School working together to produce and perform two plays to mark the centenary of Captain Robert Falcon Scott reaching the South Pole. School Ties offers a great opportunity for teaching staff to enhance their own professional development. Rather than through formal INSET or Twilight training sessions, this is an ongoing experience delivered though regular planning meetings and with a clear expectation of how teachers and theatre facilitators can work collaboratively to embrace the project.

The project has now been running for two years and we are still tweaking and making improvements to it. We have secured funding from the Theatre Royal Plymouth’s Applause Club (TRAC) which has enabled us to take the project to the next level and helped us to really consider what the professional development for the teachers, and what the overall impact for the young people, could be.