Green room debate: Is there enough support available for one-person drama departments?

Having another drama specialist to work with can be a wonderful security blanket. I have a colleague on a part timetable and it makes life more comfortable. But an increasing number of us work in single-teacher departments and there are things we can do to counteract the isolation.

The British Red Cross has just released figures stating that six in ten people (60%) working in the education sector feel always, often or sometimes lonely. [The findings come from a nationally representative online survey of 4,000 UK adults – 266 from the education sector – conducted by Opinium from 30th October to 5th November 2018.] If you are in a department on your own, it is likely that there are significant numbers of other staff who might want to work on a project with you, and they might benefit from that professional and personal connection, as well as the opportunity to see the students in a different light. How many times do we contradict our colleagues in staff meetings, saying, ‘she's actually pretty focused in Drama’? For a non-drama specialist, seeing students as we do can be transformational.