Click here for details and how to order your copy.

Sue Warner, Birkett House.

Crazy Hair is adaptation of Neil Gayman’s enchanting and imaginative children’s story and is generously funded by The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation which also funded last year’s acclaimed tour of “Where The Wild Things Are”

Some of the feedback received from the tour of Where the Wild Things Are Spring 2010:

Enthralling, totally entertaining, absolutely brilliant.  It involved all of the students, the joy and excitement on the children’s faces was a real treat to see. M. Timberlake, Breakspeare School 

Absolutely Fabulous. Really good. Brilliant for reaching PMLD pupils which few people get right..  Gill Williamson, Breakspeare School.

Fantastic sensory story – very visual and stimulating.  All students in our room (many have challenging behaviours) all sat and were utterly engrossed. Staff members for Ashgate Croft School

I’ve been involved with the school for 27 years and it is the best thing I’ve ever seen. Teacher, Wren Spinney School.

 Just fantastic – a magical experience. I have rarely seen our children so engaged and responsive.  Thanks for a truly memorable day.  Peter Skingley, Hillcrest School. 

Title – “Crazy Hair”

Ability Range – SLD/MLD

Age range – 7 – 14 [but likely to be suitable for a wider age range]

Performances – two during the day – with the option of booking an additional half hour pmld workshop on the same day

Dates –  28 February – 15 April 2010

Cost – £550 [with a small additional charge to cover extra petrol for schools more than 55 miles from Leicester]

Please indicate your interest by email to gina@bamboozletheatre.co.uk and we will confirm your chosen date if available and invoice you in the new year

One of the interesting outcomes of these revelations [supported as they are with video recordings of what appear to be conversations arranging the fix] is that it has changed how we now see things. Matthew Syed pointed this out in an excellent article in the Times today. He explains that last year t;;he Pakistani wicket keeper dropped an Australian batsman 3 times during an innings which turned the match from what looked like an easy win for Pakistan to an amazing victory for Australia. Before these NOTW revelations it was thought that he was nervously responding to the dramatic tension of the match. But now we are all wondering if the betting syndicates had persuaded him to let the Australians win. Now we know that betting syndicates bet on the outcome of a particular ball we begin to see things differently.

What we look for effects how we see things in the classroom too. If we look for what a child is achieving we find achievement whereas if we look for his failings we will see failing. Mmmmm ….Very interesting!

What we worked on during the time I was there was how to adapt the session to special needs and how to engage SEN students in the artifacts. Often students with learning difficulties need more time to feel comfortable enough to take advantage of opportunities – particularly when on a visit with a finite amount of time before leaving to go back to school. Time constraints are often evident in school or at home too. Knowing that our session has to end in a few minutes because of break time or lunch or whatever else is on the time table can make us, the facilitators, want the students to get on with it – we can be in “hurry up” mode and this can work against what we want to achieve – i.e. give our students a good experience.

There are time constraints at The Ragged School sessions too – the students have to catch the bus back to school. Paradoxically in order to allow students to engage with a drama, or in this case the museum artifacts, at their own pace we first need to remove our desire for them to engage with them. If we are really keen for students to take advantage of the opportunities we place before them we can seem needy which has the opposite effect. If we place the opportunity in front of them and then relax as to what engagement takes place amazing things can happen.

What we did at the Ragged School was to spread the artifacts around the room – cooking utensils in one place, a dolly tub, washboard and other washing materials in another and so on. The actor then took her place in the washing corner rubbing clothes on the washboard, focusing on her own task and taking no interest in the students – she was not trying to get them to take notice, she was just getting on with her job. The students were then invited to sit on the floor or wander round the exhibits as and when they chose. It was ok for them to sit and not engage and what usually happens is that when they are comfortable in their surroundings they go and look at whatever captures their interest or they go and speak to the washer woman about what she is doing.

Sometimes if we put a stimulus in front of students and then just wait and see what happens they take much more interest than when we encourage them to take part. This is one of the strategies we explore during our Drama Trainings. We have two drama courses coming up.
Drama for SEN on 2 November
Drama for Challenging Behaviours on 3 November

As a bonus for Bites Reader we are giving anyone who books one of these training courses a free copy of our teacher pack “Jingwei, The Pirate and The Treasure” which contains 6 detailed lesson plans for a drama project. Simply quote “BITES SEPTEMBER” when you book and we will send you out your F*REE copy.

Click Here now for how you book.

And one way to make it portable is to use a clothes rail – the sort that market traders have – then we can wheel it out when needed or pack it away and reassemble it on a future occasion. You could theme what hangs from the rail around one of the senses. For example:

A sound rail could be for the sound effects for a haunted house. Hang small instruments, cutlery, metal tubes, or any small objects that jangle when knocked together.

A tactile rail with different textured fabrics attached …..

A scented rail with bundles or herbs, scented soaps, a net with hay in …..

A light rail with fibre optics, pen torches …..

Let’s go to the park

I don’t want to go.

[acknowledge their position] I realize that you don’t want to go at the moment, [then suggest what you want] but what would it be like if you did want to go.

Sometimes acknowledging their position and discussing it a bit enables us to see where the resistance comes from.  If we know what’s behind the resistance we may be able to get round it.

Would you go to the mouth of the cave and see if you can see the bear?

I’m too scared.

So you feel too scared at the moment

Child nods

It can be a bit scary can’t it?

Child nods

I wonder what makes it scary for you?

Its dark.

Oh it’s because its dark.

Yes.

What if we took a torch?  Might that help do you think?

Might.

Shall we give it a try?

Okay. 

No guarantees with this of course but I have found that taking time in this way and giving credence to the anxiety or resistance often dissolves it.

This is one of the ideas the we will be exploring more fully in the course in November.  For more information click here.

This idea can be used in our drama sessions too.  It works well to represent things that can’t be easily represented life size.  For example if the drama narrative required a journey across the sea each student could make his or her own model boat and carry it round the room to represent the journey.   Or if the drama was about the aftermath of an earthquake, participants could each make a building that then collapses at the beginning of the session.