Inclusion, Challenge and Success

An article written by Jacqueline Tordoir, the parent of a previous ISB student, and published in Dutch in the blog of education Think Tank- NIVOZ. You can check it out on this link: http://hetkind.org/?s=jacqueline+tordoir ISB Middle School's recent...

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Artist Toolbox: Sticky stuff

It's early in the year and you are building an ensemble in your class. Would you like to hear about an activity which you might not have heard of? Sure you would! Well, the first activity I have for you is called the Helium Stick, and you could use it in pretty...

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Character alignments: a geek teacher's guide

I love Eric Molinsky's podcast Imaginary Worlds, a show about 'imaginary worlds: how we create them and why we suspend our disbelief'. It's a curious geek's guide to a deeper side of pop culture and well worth a listen if that sounds like your thing. I...

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GCSE Bitesize: A Mantra (but that's probably all)

Today once again, British 16 year-old's received their GCSE exam results. I remember that time in my life and now as a teacher I find myself reflecting on the value of it. With exam changes, increases in difficulty and always a controversy never far from the...

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What I'm watching

Some of the upcoming shows in Brussels that I will be going to see: The Common People Jan Martens -Grip September 15-16 desingel.beThe Common People' is a participatory project, installation and performance by choreographer Jan Martens and film director...

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Time Wise: the products of passion

In a previous post, Time Wise I described how a group of students here at ISB had set up their own youtube channel publishing short films. Well their passion has not faded and now they have created a short film which has shown they are still dedicated to...

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Artist Toolbox: Activities for your final class

It's the end of the year and your classes have been together for a whole bucket of time. They know each other well by now and all that rapport you built up among them in the early days has paid off. But it's coming to an end. Next year will be a new cohort, a...

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Performance is...

Performance is powerful. Performance is engaged in current issues. Performance is thought-provoking. Performance is brave. Performance is about us and our place in the world. A few weeks ago, I wrote a post titled Theatre is not..., in...

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Embodying the spirit of our school

Without doubt, ISB has a fantastic culture within its grounds. Throughout the year there are hundreds of events organised which are exciting, creative, thoughtful, generous and educational. But fewer of those events are organised only by students.  Today,...

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Leaps Of Learning: A Living Art Gallery

A major leap of learning came for me in my first ever class at university; learning which has guided me ever since. It was my opening day studying Contemporary Theatre and Performance at Manchester Metropolitan University and perhaps the teacher thought it would...

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Theatre is not...

After reading the January 2016 edition (Provocative Theatre) of Scene, a monthly Journal from ISTA, I was reminded of my slightly more 'anarchic' days as a student and contemporary theatre maker, in particular by the words from Jess Thorpe in her contribution...

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Making + Sharing

HS and MS students collaborating on a devising project with Action Hero Of course, Making is central to a Performance course. Long gone are the sterile times of Theatre Studies, where a script is poured over again and again by students, to divine some...

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21st Century Skills From Devising

Drama matters, now as much as ever, and devising is a particularly important and powerful part of the subject. In a recent post, my colleague Alan and I talked about why Drama = Life and here I want to expand on how devising supports this. If you're not...

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Devising: my favourite definitions

Devising, as a concept, is a tricky thing to pin down. Companies that devise and academics often talk in loose terms about how devising works. Alison Oddey, in her book Devising Theatre introduced it saying that "devised theatre can start from...

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Drama = Life: Why Drama Matters

the thoughts of two drama teachers... Carl: In the electric blue-white glow of the computer screen, I take a look at my hands. Since the IT and typing lessons of my teenage schooling years, they have learned many new skills; how to manipulate the letters...

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