As I write this in July 2021, the direction of traffic appears to be going towards being back into our own classrooms and Drama studios and moving away from year group bubbles. It was announced last week that bubbles would stop in September and the COVID restrictions would be relaxed elsewhere in society on July 19th.

In my school I’ve been teaching in classrooms for the vast majority of the year and it has been hard. I keep reminding myself that every year there are one or two Key Stage 3 classes who end up having their Drama taught to them in a classroom anyway, but it has been hard to stay positive about the experience. A massive boost came when we were allowed to move the chairs and tables out of the way. Thankfully now I am able to take my students to the Drama Studio because it is no longer being used as a classroom. This has been a big boost not just for me, but for my students too.

It has been a busy term for Burt’s Drama too. I published the book The Drama Teacher’s Handbook: A guide to creating and teaching a knowledge rich, practical and comprehensive Drama curriculum. It’s available on Kindle, audiobook and in paperback. So I’ve been doing a lot of promotional work on the book. I spent a lovely hour with National Drama talking Drama and curriculum.

Stats and posts

Time for some stats. Between April and July 2021 Burt’s Drama received 42,582 views from an average of 7559 unique visits per month. Visits come from across the world, the five biggest being UK, USA, Australia, Canada and India.

As this draws an end to the academic year, let’s just look over some stats from the year. So between September 2020 and July 2021 Burt’s Drama received 127,612 views from an average of 35,294 unique visits per month which is 1160 visits per day from Drama Teachers across the world. At which point I just want to say thank you so much to everyone who has used Burt’s Drama over the last academic year. Well done and look forward to September 2021!

This term Burt’s Drama published 6 articles online:

Other work

I continue to work beyond the virtual world of the Burt’s Drama website.

Online Courses

There are two brand new online courses starting in September. The first is a 10 day masterclass in Drama Curriculum Design and the second in a 5 day masterclass in assessment in Drama. Both of these are learn as you go courses, with participants receiving daily CPD videos, tasks and resources to complete when they are ready to do so.

Drama and Theatre Magazine

Towards the end of the term I wrote an article for the Drama and Theatre Magazine which will be published in the Autumn Term edition of this quite awesome publication.

Resources

I continue to sell a few resources on TES, all of which continue to receive excellent reviews and feedback.

The Drama Teacher’s Handbook: A guide to creating and teaching a knowledge rich, practical and comprehensive Drama curriculum.

Work continues on promoting and working with the book.