STAGE IN SCHOOLS
UNITED LEARNING
United Learning first joined with us in 2019 to develop a bespoke scheme pairing individual teachers and directors. This is now entering its third year and is underpinned by our belief that when we inspire and inform teachers, they will in turn be inspired to pass on knowledge to their students. We aim to recruit directors who themselves grew up in the city or regions where they’ll be working.
The first 2 years
A pilot project (2020/21) led the way working with schools in Barnsley, Accrington, Stockport and Paddington and in the following year a follow up project took place in four schools in Salford (2021/22).
This year
The success of the project in the four Salford schools has led to all the teachers involved joining in their own initiative to work together on a performance project uniting all four schools. We’ll continue to offer (arms-length) support to the Salford Schools via their original director pairings.
Moving on to our third iteration of the scheme, we are working with schools in Northamptonshire (in collaboration with the Royal and Derngate Theatres’ Education Department).
Here is a piece written by one of our Directors, Joe Gilmour –
"My work with the Directors Charitable Foundation is unique in the work that I do with schools and colleges, in that it has no set outcome. . . . The project is based around a set of conversations over several terms with a drama teacher, accompanied by two in-school workshops. The teacher can bring whatever they want to these conversations, and it's a space to reflect, brainstorm ideas, problem solve together.
The results have been fantastic and very different to what you might expect from a typical in-school experience delivered by theatre organisations: one school has hired a technician as a way to relieve pressure on the drama teacher, and allow her more space to be creative. Another teacher has rewritten the department's terms of work on devising. Neither of these were aims as we started off but will have a positive impact on hundreds of students in the years to come!
And this is the beauty of the project - it starts from where the teachers and schools are at . . . . taking the teacher's lead in what they need"
Joe Gilmour
