What drives me... (part 3)

According to another Head in Wakefield, my decision to go to work at a secondary school in Barnsley was like going to do ‘missionary work in the back of beyond’. He meant it as well. I rocked up to The Kingstone School in September 1996. My remit was to set up and develop a Drama department. And teach some GCSE English. And some Music. And a smattering of Dance. Yes, Dance. Those days of throwing shapes and busting moves to the strains of Dexy’s Midnight Runners was about to pay off.

It was with the appointment of a new Headteacher at Kingstone in 2003 that my whole approach to Drama and creativity moved on. Matthew Milburn, a Drama teacher turned school leader, opened the door to a new world of Drama that I hadn’t previously known about. In his first year, he introduced me to the work of Dorothy Heathcote and to the Mantle of the Expert process. I was suddenly focused back in to my passion for teaching and learning through Drama, whilst this fresh approach (to me) of Mantle of the Expert demonstrated that learners could be challenged in their thinking as well as in their performing. In fact, and this was a revelation to me at the time, performing suddenly didn’t matter. Prior to this, it had been everything. Although there appeared to be a leaning towards the use of the process in the primary phase, it was clear a new challenge was being thrown at the door of the creative teachers at Kingstone, of which I counted myself: developing the system as a vehicle of learning within a Y7 creative curriculum.

That was five years ago. Since then my own creative practice has been overhauled. I became an Advanced Skills Teacher in 2004, an NCSL Consultant Leader in 2007 and in July 2009 I left my post as Head of Drama/AST at Kingstone to pursue a new career direction in the form of the creative development of teachers – a key driver for me. My work has Mantle of the Expert at its core. I have been privileged to work with outstanding practitioners – Luke Abbott in particular - and have collected, refined and questioned my own learning, assumptions and practice.

I am tapping this away on my laptop on the train to London where I am working with Y9 Science learners at a school in Camden. We’re launching a Mantle this morning.

And it’s really exciting.

“Creativity is applied imagination”

- Sir Ken Robinson

Hywel Roberts