Music and Drama Education Expo, Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th March 2019, London Olympia.

Having spoken at the London Music and Drama Education Expo every year for the last three years, I’ve had a long and lovely relationship with them. It is a fantastic Expo and if you have the opportunity to attend it really is well worth it. The range and depth of CPD sessions are amazing. There are some really complex and interesting sessions that will help challenge and develop your teaching practice. It doesn’t matter what background or context or teaching practice is either, whether it’s early years, primary, secondary, university, freelance, international or UK based, there is something here for you.

I won’t be presenting this year but I’m looking forward to going and I’ve picked out some of the 32 different CPD opportunities for Drama Teachers that are on offer. There is so much to choose and there is only one of me, so I can’t physically get to them all! I wish there was a way to avoid timetabling so many clashes of great content! I suppose the only way would be a third day!

Anyway, I’ll be there bright and early (with my coffee) off the train from Birmingham in time to warm up with some  Street Dance at 9am. These warm up sessions are great, they give you a little taster into a new topic, something to take back to the classroom and they wake you up ready for the day ahead!

Come from Stratford-Upon-Avon I am an enthusiast of Shakespeare, so after my warm up and another coffee I’ll be heading over to The Space for a masterclass in directing a Shakespeare scene. The leaders of the workshop promises that there will be useful tips and tricks to bring to life reading a script from cold, layering dramatic intention to captivate audiences and how a large ensemble can add life to a scene.

From there I’ll grab an early lunch. I’ll have been up since the 5.40 train, so I’ll be hungry! But I’ll have to be quick so I can catch a really interesting presentation, again at The Space, on Primary Drama. The description of the workshop is this:

Explore the story of Blodin’ the Beast by Michael Morpurgo, which offers practical opportunities to develop a range of techniques, to empower students to take control over the unfolding narrative. The session weaves aspects of Citizenship and PSHCE into the workshop content, as we believe that creative arts are captivating platforms in which young people can develop skills in debating, independent thinking and self-expression.

I find myself doing more work with Primary Schools. I did a lot of work with Primary 10 / 15 years ago, but the landscape has changed so much there, that I look forward to exploring what Drama has to offer the new Primary Curriculum.

I’m going to finish my day at the Seminar Theatre for a talk on developing cross-curricular performance projects which embed the arts across the curriculum. The seminar promises to share a unique methodology showing how teachers can plan, develop and implement arts-based cross-curricular learning at the heart of their teaching. This is something that I want to find out about because I think it is well worth championing.

Sadly I can’t be there for the Thursday, when there is still so much to do, see and hear. I’m really upset to be missing these highlights:

The Space at 10.35

ENGAGING SEND AND ESL STUDENTS WITH DRAMA

This workshop is designed to provide teachers with practical exercises and teaching techniques to introduce any student to drama, with particular reference to foreign-language students, or students with learning dificulties, impairments, or other restrictions which require more creative, less verbally-reliant teaching techniques.

The Space at 13.35

DEVISING FROM A KEY EXTRACT OF A PLAY USING A PRACTITIONER

An exploration of how you use a practitioners ideas (Frantic) to unlock a key extract from a play (using A Streetcar Named Desire) that sparks a creative devised piece of work based on the ideas or characters from the play. This session caters to the A level Pearson Specification.

The Space 15.45

BOOSTING COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERACY THROUGH MUSIC, DRAMA AND ROLE PLAY

This workshop will provide delegates with the foundations of movement skills to support CLL. Using music and movement delegates can take children on a journey, stimulating all learning styles.

There are still tickets available and it is completely free, so click here to get your tickets now for the Music and Drama Education Expo.