I have been at Knox Academy now for two years and I have to say, i’m loving every minute of it. In the past two years I have been encouraged to experience new things and given space, by my line Manager Lynn Black and Head Teacher Janis Craig, to build and develop the department.

In my first year I was given time to create courses, develop resources and build up the department. I taught S1, S2 and Core S6.

This Year I continued to teach S1, S2 but welcomed two S3 Standard Grade classes into the department, as well as 22 pupils sitting crash Higher Drama. I was delighted when E Garwood said she’d help in the department by taking some Junior classes and we also had our first teaching student in the department.

We are now moving to the new timetable and our numbers are up again; as well as seeing my two great S3 SG classes moving into S4, we will welcome 3 new S3 SG classes (which is brilliant), 22 pupils taking crash Higher Drama and now we see the challange of offering two new courses at Knox; Intermediate Two Drama and Advanced Higher Drama. I amalso extremely excited to be told we are getting an NQT in the department for next session.

I am so happy the pupils at Knox are enjoying being in the Drama department and enjoy are courses, it means a lot to see the work I enjoy being rewarded in new courses being offered, more pupils opting in and the school allowing the dept to grow.

I couldn’t have done this without saying thank you to Ellie Garwood this year, who’s been an amazing support in the department by teaching S1 and S2. Also to my line Manager Lynn Black who supports our work within the school and also to Janis Craig, our Head Teacher, who alwyas encourages our work. Thank you.

Last week seen the annual Knox Academy Activities Week and I ran this years trip to London. We took 20 S2/S3 pupils down to the Capital for 4 days.

Day One seen us leave school on a coach and head down, we arrived in London at about 3pm, unpacked and went to Lecister Square for dinner before going to see West End and Broadway Hit ‘Hairspray’. What an amazing, feel good show. The pupils loved it and loved meeting the cast afterwards too! Leanne Jones (the actress who plays Tracey) said how sweet and polite our pupils were.

Day Two we were up early to head to London Dungeons, pupils were given the chance to see a different kind of theatrical experience at the hands of this tourist attraction. After lunch in Tower Bridge we headed to BBC studios to take a tour of the famous building and find out how news, weather and programmes are made. Following dinner at Victoria we went to see my favourite West End show just now…. Wicked! After a standing ovation we headed back to our beds.

Day Three: Up early again and we headed for some culture as we were taken on a tour of Houses of Parliment and listened to the history of the building, I always find this fascinating (if not a little focused on England). Following a little look around the sites of London we headed to Covent Gardens for shopping and lunch, where very randomly I banged into one of ex pupils who is studying music in the city. Our evening meal was at TGI Fridays and we then filmed a short documentary about our time in London (after all this was the Lonodn Theatre and Film experience).  We then went to see long time running play ‘The Woman in Black’, to which our pupils were a credit to the school. They sat in complete silence as the ghost story was told in front of them, the audience members around us stated how polite they were… but I think they were quiet as they were scared out their wits!

Day four: We left early and headed to Alton Towers where it was raining but that didn’t stop them having fun, after an exciting and tiring 4 days we arrived back in Haddington at 10.30pm!

I would like to thank The Cast of Hairspray who were lovely to our pupils, The staff at the London Dungeons were fantastic, The pupils who were a pleasure to be with, Miss Good for helping on the trip and to Mrs Craig at Knox for always encouraging her staff to run trips.

Well my pupils have sat their Higher Drama Exam and I would have to say I thought the paper was quite fair. Section A questions seem to the usual variety of asking pupils to think of themselves as either an actor or director and some good questions in relation to key scenes or characters. Section B slightly surprised me by using a random episode right at the end of the play and Section C (Scottish) had a good variety of questions in Gender and Politics, if I were them I would have chosen to write the essay discussing the relationship between women in Scottish Theatre.

Although I didn’t have pupils sitting the SG exam this year I have heard that a lot of teachers weren’t happy with the paper so will be interesting to see what they are talking about when the paper comes out.

So we’ll have to wait and see till August how well the pupils have done…. but i’m sure they’ve ‘done me proud so they have’.

In case you hadn’t yet heard.  Augusto Boal has passed away.
These are sad days, but joyous too in remembering all he achieved and the enormous amount he taught us.

Augusto Boal 1931-2009

Augusto Boal was a giant in so many ways: theatre director, scholar, teacher; pedagogy colleague of Paulo Freire; political representative and statesman in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil; international speaker and teacher; Nobel Peace Prize nominee; and the visionary who conceived and patiently developed one of the most revolutionary cultural and artistic practices of the last millennia, the Theatre of the Oppressed.

The Theatre of the Oppressed has been a genre of theatre that has helped and engaged so many people and groups across the world in looking at the issues that affect them and the world in which they live in.

During my time at QMUC we studied Boal in great depth and what was amazing about his work was that he thought about the people and did it to help them; his work was thought provoking yet fun, engaging and insightful.

This is a real loss to theatre and I’m just happy that his work will continue throughout schools, community groups, theatre’s, towns and countries across the world.

For more information about Boal and his work click here.