End of 2024 – how was it for you? I can’t believe we have reached the end of the year already, but here we are. We’ve been through rain, wind, floods, snow (and that’s just in the last fortnight!), plus scorching heat and, occasionally, wall to wall sunshine. Here at FINDING THE WILL we’ve had a year of ‘feast and famine’. Fortunately, the leanest times have followed swiftly on from very busy periods.
2024 – What? Where? With whom?
Jan/Feb 2024
In January, Nick and Ffion spent a week on The Tempest at Great Leighs Primary School in Essex, whilst I headed to Hornchurch to do Macbeth workshops at Langtons Academy. I’ve missed going to Great Leighs for two years now, however that is about to be rectified! Nick and I will be back there to kick off 2025 with Macbeth early next month. Nick then went to Bristol for a couple of days of workshops on The Tempest with Y3 at Whitehall Primary School.
Undoubtedly, the highlight of February was our whirlwind trip to Oman. Delivering Interactive Workshops to children aged 5-11 on ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at The Royal Opera House, Muscat was indeed a once in a lifetime experience! This was part of the Exploring Shakespeare Project which ran alongside performances of Benjamin Britten’s opera of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Richard and I were delighted to be invited and have a faint hope that ‘once in a lifetime’ might turn out to be more than once…….
March/April/May 2024
March was a mad month! Nick and I went to St Michael’s Junior in Chelmsford for four amazing Macbeth workshops with KS2. Y4 did some wonderful creative writing as a result, so good that I felt compelled to record it.
We followed this immediately with another day at St Dominic’s, a fabulous Special Education School in the heart of the Surrey countryside. This was our third visit in two years and this time we ran workshops on ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. From Surrey I headed to Birmingham for a second visit to the lovely St Catherine of Siena Catholic Primary School for a delightful day of Macbeth with Y6 and A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Y5. Macbeth was a bit of a theme that week as I then went on to deliver four more Interactive Workshops in Shellingford School in Oxfordshire and Ann Edwards Primary in Gloucestershire.
In April Nick and I whizzed over to Shropshire for an unusual day at Oakmeadow Primary School, Shrewsbury. It was unusual because we delivered FOUR Tempest Interactive Workshops in one day for all years in KS2. Of course this meant that we couldn’t do the full two hour workshop (not enough hours in the day) but we did a 60 minute version four times and left each one on a cliffhanger. Does Prospero get his revenge? Do Ferdinand and Miranda get it together forever? Does everyone live happily ever after on the island altogether?
Fay and I returned to Montpelier Primary School, Ealing in May for a week of The Tempest with Y4 – and what a week! Truly stand-out performances from some brave and talented eight and nine year olds. At this lovely school, because of logistics, we condensed the play into six rather than eight scenes. This made for some epic scenes and greater risks, but thanks to some incredible support from the teachers, it also made for far greater rewards! We’re delighted to be returning in 2025 for a spot of Twelfth Night – in 6 scenes you ask? Oh yes!
June/July 2024
The summer of 2024 turned into another mad dash around the country! I began at Andover Primary School with a morning of Macbeth, going straight on to Wokingham to join Nick for two days at Westende Junior School. This is one of our regular schools where we run workshops on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet, The Tempest and Macbeth for all the Year groups in KS2. June 2024 was relentless. From here I went to Peterborough to spend a week with Fay at St Botolph’s Primary on Macbeth – another splendid week with Y5 &6.
And then a break – well from school work anyway, I went to Cornwall to perform NAMING THE VIEW with Richard in The Old Cemetery Chapel, Helston and Falmouth Poly.
From Cornwall Richard and I hared up and across the country to Lincolnshire. A week of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the whole of Barkston & Syston CofE Primary School, and when I say ‘whole’ I mean ‘WHOLE’! Reception, Y1 and Y2 were very much part of this week, stealing the show playing fairies, lovers and mechanicals alongside all the year groups in KS2. Magical in every sense! After an epic June, I finished off the academic year with a visit to Brighton in July and Moulsecoomb Primary for a day of Macbeth and a hop over my garden fence to Rowde Academy for another Macbeth morning.
Autumn 2024
After a rare old race round the country in the summer term, there then commenced a long ‘famine’. Nothing unusual here – the Autumn term is traditionally quiet for FINDING THE WILL. But we were delighted to be invited to work in a new school. King Henry VIII Junior School in Coventry. Nick went to run two workshops for Y5 on A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a pre-cursor to their own production of the play. As ever, there were some novel answers to Hermia’s early dilemma of whether to marry Demetrius (and live) or Lysander (and die):
“I’d marry the one my dad wants me to and then cheat on him whenever he’s not looking!”
” I’d marry him, then divorce him to get his money!”
“I’d marry him, then kill him and hide him in the spooky woods!”
Enormous thanks to Miss Brown for organising our visit – we hope your own production went like a Dream…..and maybe we can come and work with you again in future.
Looking Ahead
Already 2025 is getting busy. Return visits to Great Leighs Primary, Montpelier Primary and Barkston & Syston Primary are on the cards for Project Weeks. Interactive workshops are scheduled for new schools to us in Peterborough and Coventry. But there is plenty of availability still, so don’t hesitate to get in touch!
In the meantime, to all our Patrons, Supporters, Teachers, Staff, Children, Parents and, last but not least, our amazing practitioners, thank you for finding the will and wherewithal to work with us for us another incredible year. Let’s do it all again in 2025!
Merry Christmas!
