Enabling creativity to flourish in Special Education: the potential of tech under lockdown and beyond

[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm63EWoC5Y8&w=854&h=480]

Over the last twelve months C&T has been using our Prospero technology to enable a thrilling programme of work in Fort Royal Community School in Worcester, UK. C&T has long history in working in Special Education, from collaborations with regional theatres to work in therapeutic and care settings. Our collaboration was a logical progression and expansion of this work and commitment, taking us in new and exciting directions. We are now looking forward to sharing some of these discoveries.

Fort Royal is Worcester’s main provider of Special Education for primary age children. The school caters for children with a multitude of needs, including many very young children with profound disabilities. Early in 2019 C&T and Fort Royal began discussions as to how the two could collaborate on a programme of creative learning that could not only address the children’s curriculum needs but also connect them to the wider social and cultural life of the local community. Our partnership secured the support of the National Lottery Community Fund who agreed to invest in as major three year programme of work called Time To Be Seen.

Time To Be Seen was designed as a termly rolling programme of cross-curricular arts education that could use the latest tech to enrich opportunities for collaboration and learning. For example, Roald Dahl’s classic James and The Giant Peach was used as a springboard for a Virtual Reality tour of New York’s skyscrapers (as part of C&T’s partnership with NYC’s Department of Education) , a digitally ‘gamified’ version of the story using a range of drama techniques and a trip Skylounge - one of Worcester’s tallest buildings (see the video above). This partnership approach was central to the project - building relationships with other agencies who offer opportunities to the children of Fort Royal.

At other points we have used our professional, high-spec drone (we must be the only theatre company with CAA pilot's license) to give children a birds-eye view of their city, createt interactive walks around the school grounds, as well as holding open space events with a host of local groups, including Worcester Cathedral, the university, Asda and the City Council. This has allowed us to take our approach beyond the classroom into settings right across the city, with two more years of activity planned.

C&T’s Prospero platform was at the core of the project. Prospero has enabled us to flexibly respond to not only a diverse set of curriculum content, but also to address a range of special educational needs. From VR to GPS tours, drone flights to embedded QR codes, Prospero has offered us tremendous versatility. Next year we will be using Prospero to create multimedia immersive experiences in the school’s hydrotherapy swimming pool.

Since lockdown Prospero has enabled us to reach out to parents, carers and families, providing valuable online distance learning materials ion subjects such as Ancient Egypt. We hope to be making these resources freely available to all in the Prospero Library very soon.

Now we want to grow our knowledge and share our experience. We are. hosting a Prospero online forum to talk about our experiences and hear from others about teaching drama to children with SEN under lockdown. We hope you will join us. We’d love to hear your experiences.