Wimbledon Civic Theatre and Mitcham Town Community Trust – Rehearsal for Life

Wimbledon Civic Theatre Trust is a known and valued provider of quality educational arts work in Merton. Mitcham Town Community Trust is a well-established local school cluster with a strong tradition of cooperative working. Our partnership has proved a secure foundation on which to develop the Rehearsal For Life project, which aims to embed innovative, drama-based practice and creative approaches to learning across six primary schools.

After 18 months of co-working, we find ourselves at a key moment in the project which demands we think deeply about what we have learned and achieved and where we might focus resources in the future.

• How have we influenced teachers’ practice? 
• Can we clearly articulate the Rehearsal for Life approach? 
• How well does this model engage with pupils across age and ability levels? 
• Is it provably clear and effective?
• Is this a model which can be reproduced by schools without significant and sustained external support and how can we best facilitate that?

• Three of our schools have made commitments at Senior Leadership level to continue with the use of drama-based work within the English curriculum. 
• Six teachers have adapted activities developed in team teaching sessions in other areas of the English curriculum and with other year groups.
• Two teachers have taken the activities modeled in English lessons and applied them in other areas of the curriculum, specifically maths and science.
• We have evidence that pupils’ writing has progressed in grammar, vocabulary and in comprehension – written work is more expressive and confident. 
• Teachers’ reflections and evidence collected via the IRIS video capture system show that pupils not normally engaged with literacy lessons are actively participating and have shown new interest in poetry and story-telling.
• Teachers not initially engaged in the project have requested training in the Rehearsal for Life approach, which we have facilitated.
• One school is talking to us about ways they can apply the Rehearsal for Life approach across the curriculum. 
• We have worked with our teachers to develop our website, including lesson plans, resources, teachers’ testimonials, a selection of drama-based activities and three levels of potential engagement for other schools to experience Rehearsal for Life for themselves. We will launch the site before the end of summer term. 

Although Covid-19 is no longer so prevalent, we still regularly engage with our teams remotely. IRIS is an excellent way of obtaining quality reflections – teachers and practitioners are encouraged to feedback jointly immediately after sessions. We are still using Zoom for team meetings and 1–2‑1 sessions with our practitioners.

Our final INSET this year will be at Green Arts Centre and all our schools, heads and teachers from the life of the project will be invited.

This will broadly be a celebration event but we will also discuss ways in which we can continue to provide support in 2023–24. We want to maintain a relationship with our schools and if possible, extend the project’s reach beyond the two-year life of Rehearsal for Life. Possible ways forward might include;

• Open twilight sessions at Green Arts Centre for Cluster schools. Topics could include representation skills, language and storytelling, scriptwriting, grammar work, character development, using movement and mime, and Shakespeare’s language. 
• A support programme for Rehearsal for Life graduate teachers and other schools in our cluster, covering a specific element of the literacy curriculum and including a lesson plan, a shared team-teaching session and debrief/​feedback session. 
• A programme of bespoke literacy lessons, giving teachers skills and confidence to apply drama techniques in the classroom unsupported. This programme would be offered to new as well as current schools.