Bring your parents to School day!

Earlier this term Year 5 parents were invited to join their child’s Drama lesson and a few weeks later a group of brave souls arrived.  After a quick welcome the parents were thrown straight into it with a warm up game - the old favourite, Funny Faces - a game that I have played with young people all over the world.  This was followed up by them working in groups with their children to make a variety of sculptures using only their bodies - some examples included make something that flies, something with wheels and something that switches on and off.  Even the teacher Matt who was innocently walking through the lesson got sucked into a group and ended up as part of a microwave!

An exhibition of recent written work and drawings were then curated by the artists themselves.  Finally the children shared an improvised piece inspired by the plight of the evacuees during the Second World War, showing off a number of theatrical styles they had been learning over the term.

Our visiting parents impressed us all with their willingness to be challenged, take risks and collaborate so effectively with their children.  These experiences are so important for a myriad of reasons, but I will leave it to William’s Mum, Sarah, and Roman’s Dad, Adam to sum it up…

Ollie and I absolutely loved being part of the Y5 drama lesson and getting to experience what the children do in drama. The exercises were thought provoking and fun, and it was really impressive tosee every child expressing themselves so creatively. Thank you very much for the opportunity to be part of the learning and the wonderful Dolphin community. 

(Sarah, William’s Mum)

I never thought I'd get the chance to be back in Judy's drama lesson again, it was like stepping back in time except the hall had shrunk somehow. It was the most fun thing I've done in ages, eventhough everyone thought our group's washing machine was a microwave for some reason! It was fascinating finding out all about the children's evacuee alter egos. I could tell that they had got to know them really well, and imagined their personalities, lives and experiences of being evacuated in real depth. The children's performance gave us a vivid picture of the way the evacuees must have felt, and it was incredibly moving: sad and funny and thoughtful. I thought they were all absolutely amazing!  

 (Adam Kowalczyk, Roman’s Father and one of Judy’s first Dolphin Drama students!)