CPD: Narrative Immersion 24.03.25

Monday evening saw Drama Practitioner Rebecca Bell of Integrate Education take the floor at St Lukes Academy in Endon and deliver a full to the brim session on Narrative Immersion in Key Stage 1.

Handshake Tangle: an icebreaker to get the ball rolling

We have worked with Rebecca over many years and she definitely delivers the goods. In just two hours we went deep into many different strategies that put drama and oracy at the heart of early years practice. The strategies enable the teacher to take on the roles of narrator and faciltator and build deep and immersive scenarios full of rich creativity and learning.

(Hats and costumes are always fun too!)

Rebecca Bell in role as Farmer Flatcap

The session raised so many vital questions:

Why is Drama important?
Why Stories?
What is Drama?
How is Drama different to theatre?

And there were so many answers in response! We shared thoughts and ideas around “sticky learning”, character, role protection, vocabulary. Stories give us purpose, different times and settings, different social strata. Stories stretch our exposure and empathy. We get to imagine ourselves as someone else.

There is so much value in thinking of something new, exploring imagined worlds, solving problems and maybe we get to slay some dragons and meet some new friends along the way!