Secret Teacher: Issue 101

In the 1970s, I did a teaching degree in English and Drama. I had to read various plays, watch some, and perform in a few. I was surprised to find that I had to sit a written exam on ‘Drama in Education’. My Drama tutor admitted she couldn't help me, handed me past papers and a film to watch, then beat a hasty retreat.

The film showed a plump, mumsy northern lady called Dorothy Heathcote. She was talking seriously with some feisty primary school boys, who were ‘in role’ as pig keepers on an island. They were explaining the problems they were having with their pigs. I was fascinated and decided to try some Drama in Education myself.

I started teaching in a London primary school, in the good old days of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). I could attend as many Drama in Education courses as I wanted, get a drama advisory teacher to come into school and work with my class, and even get Bowsprit Theatre in Education Company to perform and lead workshops with my class. All this was free!

I started attending weekly courses at The Stage Centre (Plumstead) and became an Associate of the Drama Board in Education, (AdBEd). When I moved to teach in a rural county, I was able to attend the RSA Drama in Education course, (paid for by the local authority). Many local authorities had Drama Advisers, drama advisory teacher teams and free Drama courses.

What went wrong? The national curriculum was made compulsory for 5-14 year olds. Drama, (a main art form), was misplaced within English and then ignored within ‘Speaking and Listening’. Drama advisers and their teams disappeared fast. Then, the National Strategies swept in and dominated local authorities’ English provision. For years, they only focused on Reading and Writing. National assessments in Maths and English, and fear of ‘a bad Ofsted’, inevitably fuelled curriculum imbalance. Later, Gove's EBacc became the icing on the cake!

Local authorities have been disempowered. Academy chains operate like businesses. Drama is overshadowed in the profit-driven education marketplace. If only every drama teacher who belongs (so easily and often passively), to a social media Drama group would also join a Drama subject association!

Teachers need to unite and fight for Drama as a subject and pedagogy, and for the provision of well-trained Drama teachers in schools, and not just focus on sharing drama lessons!

Do you have views you'd like to express anonymously? Get in touch with the editor at sarah.lambie@markallengroup.com and ask if you can contribute a Secret Teacher column. We'd love to hear from you!