I trained to be a primary school teacher in 1985, in an era when, apart from using reading schemes, we largely planned our own curriculums. We considered what was likely to inspire, appeal to and be relevant to our class; and yes, admittedly, what was likely to inspire, appeal to and be relevant to ourselves.

One term there was a small building site next to the school where I was teaching, which my year 2 children could see from the playground.  They were fascinated by the activity going on…so I made our topic for the term ‘buildings’.

✅ Maths, tick…measuring, tessellation etc.

✅ Writing, tick…’Instructions for how to build a wall’, ‘My favourite/imaginary building’ etc.

✅ Science, tick…experiment with strength of materials etc.

✅ History, tick…building styles through the ages.

✅ Geography, tick…building styles/materials across the world.

✅ Art, tick…observational drawings.

✅ RE, tick… building styles of places of worship.

PE…tricky…oh well, they love a game of dodge ball (I’m not saying the ‘system’ was perfect!)

Best of all, in the days before risk assessments and safeguarding were paramount, I contacted the building contractors and, equipped with hard hats, we visited the building site, returning to school with a wheelbarrow full of red bricks, breeze blocks and cement mixture with which we built our own wall, in the classroom! Fabulous fun for teachers and children alike and loads of learning.

Of course, a down-side of all this random planning was that if a child had a different teacher every year, each of whom had a thing for ‘water’, they left primary school knowing a lot about capacity and rivers…and not much else.

Enter, Kenneth Baker and the National Curriculum!

Whilst I was nostalgic for the days of ‘Let’s learn about Japan this term’ (because I had been to Japan during the summer holidays!), I could see the pros. No longer would a child, who moved school, be at risk of studying the Romans in year 3 at one school and then again in year 4 at a new school, and if they moved schools several times, possibly in years 5 and 6 as well! Every child in the land would be studying the Tudors in year 4, the Greeks in year 5 etc.

Freshwater Theatre Company is born

Enter Carol Tagg, Helen Wood, Freshwater Theatre Company and ‘Trapped in Tudor Times’.

We had both trained as teachers, been to drama school and just completed a Theatre-In-Education tour together! If every child in the country had to study the Tudors in year 4, surely it wouldn’t be beyond our wit and skills set, to write a play that would cover the QCA units and really bring the Tudors to life for children…and possibly lead to a way of combining our passions in life, drama and teaching, to build a business? The rest, as they say, is history.

‘Fun, engaging, enthusiastic!’

More than a quarter of a century on, Freshwater has delivered approx 75,000 sessions to approx 2,500,000 children and receives thousands of feedback forms every term from teachers and children in the vein of:

“All of our children were fully engaged”,

“We loved that we didn’t have to sit and listen all the time. We got up and imagined and acted. It was fun and we learned new things”,

“The children found the workshop fun, engaging and they learnt a lot”,

“The children’s faces said it all! Every single child in the class was so engaged and were so enthusiastic throughout the whole session.”

What shines out for me in these, and many other quotes I could have used, is the frequent use of words and phrases such as, ‘‘fun and exciting’, ‘engaged and excited’, ‘so enthusiastic’; all words which could have been applied to a lot of the ‘in class experience’ of children back in 1985 when my teaching career started.

Disheartened

And this brings me to the heart of what I want to say.

Alongside my role as a Freshwater Director and show performer I do a couple of days supply teaching a week. Between these roles, I go to dozens of schools every term, and it breaks my heart to say this but, to quote the bard, I get a sense that ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’…for Denmark read, ‘English Primary Education’.

As a supply teacher I am frequently asked, for example, to make a class of year 1 children sit at their desks all day and perform tasks way beyond their developmental level. Just one example from a recent day’s teaching… ‘analyse a diary entry looking at 1^st person narrative, past tense verbs and chronological order’. Half of the children, quite understandably (they were only 5 rising 6!), were not able to read and/or write and at the very outset of their school careers they are becoming disengaged and developing a low sense of self-esteem.

More emphasis seems to be placed on ‘covering the curriculum’ and testing the children on their knowledge of that area of the curriculum than is placed on judging whether they are engaged in their learning and understand what is being flashed up before them on the white board.

Most tragically of all, the vital bond between fun and learning seems to be broken. In the minuscule lull that happens before Christmas, when teachers and children can very slightly relax and escape from the ‘must cover the curriculum’ and ‘testing’ regime that seems dominate in many schools, I was sitting with a group of year 4 children, teaching them how to make snowflakes…’doily style’. This is honestly, verbatim, the conversation I was part of:

Child 1: I’m really enjoying this. It’s the most fun lesson ever!

Child 2: Yeah, but it’s not a lesson is it because we’re not learning anything.

Me: I beg to differ…you’ve learnt how to make a square out of an A4 piece of paper, you’ve learnt how to fold accurately, make a cone…and practiced your cutting skills.

Child 3: But also, it’s not a lesson because it’s fun and lessons aren’t fun.

Me: [wanting to cry] What!!!!!!!?

The system isn’t working

When did this happen? That lessons and learning, school and education became SO detached from fun and engagement and excitement. I mean, don’t get me wrong…I know there have always been children for whom their school days are not the best days of their lives, but the widespread disengagement and yes, sometimes distress, that I sense and see in schools, feels like a phenomenon which has grown in the last few years.

At this point I want to be absolutely clear that I do not lay the responsibility for this lack of engagement and fun at the feet of individual teachers themselves. It is the fault of the system; it is the demands of the curriculum; it is the demands of the testing regime; the pressure of the inspection regime; the demands of SMT’s who themselves are under pressure from their local authority or academy chain. Teachers have no time for planning and understandably resort to teaching from power points and standardised ‘off the shelf’ schemes with sometimes only a nod to adapting them or making them bespoke to their particular set of children.

Being part of Freshwater

So, what I really want to say is, what an honour and privilege it is to be part of something (ie the Freshwater ‘show team’), that still brings, fun, engagement and excitement to the lives of our children. What a joy it is, when a year group, who have entered a hall walking in silence, heads bowed, shoulders hunched…disinterested in whatever spectacle is about to unfold around them, leave that hall 90 minutes later animatedly chatting about what they have learnt, the characters they have met, the fun they have had.

What a buzz it is to see a group of children, who shrugged their shoulders in total non-commitment when they were first asked if they would like to time travel to ancient Greece, then laugh and cheer, join in chants, gasp in surprise, be overjoyed that they have now been appointed Trainee Time Travellers, have been bewitched whilst ‘visiting’ an ancient Egyptian tomb…and have helped a TV show host to keep their job!

Viva la fun, excitement, and engagement!

About the author: Carol Tagg

Co-founder and Director of Freshwater.