‘Summer is a Coming in, loudly sing cuckoo!” I’m not sure if you’ve heard the cuckoo yet but the summer term is coming in, along with new practitioners for FINDING THE WILL. But before we get in to all of that, have a little listen to this…..
End of the Spring term
The Spring term was a busy one for FINDING THE WILL visiting schools old and new to us. We finished up at the beginning of April with a return visit to St Edburg’s Primary in Bicester. It’s been a while since we last visited – 2016 in fact – so 6 years later, it was great to be back to work with KS1 on A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.
For those of you not in the know, ‘The Dream’ is a really complicated play! It’s three stories all interwoven into one big knot that slowly gets untangled during the course of a couple of hours. For 120 five to seven year olds to sit quietly, fully focused and thoroughly engaged for this length of time – albeit with opportunities to stand up and yell at each other – was quite remarkable and is testament to this lovely school. Nick and I hugely enjoyed our morning with Year 2 being entertained by some cracking actors. The children in Year 1 in the afternoon were equally delightful and, even if the voices were naturally quieter, the laughter wasn’t! There is something heartwarming about a room full of young children giggling and gasping as a story, written 400 years ago, unfolds.
Summer Term – new faces!
So now we are heading into a busy summer term, returning to three ‘old’ schools and visiting one new one. I will also be working with three new practitioners – new (or nearly new) to FINDING THE WILL anyway. Let me introduce you to Ffion Glyn, Fay Greenhalgh and Angie Sims, three highly talented and experienced practitioners. Angie worked with us some years ago on a Project Week in Wiltshire and so we’re delighted that she’s coming back to work with our old friends at Heritage Park Primary, Peterborough in June. Just before that, Ffion will be with me at Barkston and Syston Primary, a new school to us in Grantham. Well the school is new, but the head teacher isn’t! Miss Lyon was a teacher at another regular school of ours pre lockdown. Ffion is also throwing herself into a two day marathon of four different workshops for four different year groups at Westende Junior, Wokingham – we’ll have some fun with that! Fay will be making her debut with FINDING THE WILL at Montpelier Primary in Ealing next month. I’m so looking forward to working with all three of them.



NAMING THE VIEW – SPECIAL OFFER!
Finally I want to make you aware of a Special Offer to all Secondary Schools, Sixth Form Colleges and Universities. FINDING THE WILL is offering free access for one year to the filmed version of the stage play NAMING THE VIEW. There is absolutely no catch. We have been told by live audiences that this is a piece of theatre that would be brilliant for students of English, Drama and PHSE to watch, so here’s your chance! Read about it below and then contact me before midnight on 29 April. You will receive the URL on Sunday 1 May. It is then yours to use as you wish for one whole year free of charge.



Please share this special offer as widely as you can – it is only available from 1 May, so time is of the essence! (And just in case the egg shells don’t work, here’s the trailer!)
Look forward to reporting back at the end of next month! ‘Til then, take care everyone, and take care of each other.





