Boys Project

Enthusing boys to learn; working with children at risk of switching off from education

Description of Project

Downham and Bellingham EAZ invited MakeBelieve Arts to develop a programme specifically for boys at risk of turning their backs on Education. We wanted the project to involve the Helicopter Technique of Storytelling and Story Acting, and we also wanted to incorporate high discipline art forms like Stage Fighting and Graphic Design. The meeting of these diverse art forms was to become a winning formula.

The Helicopter Technique gave the boys an active entry point into literacy by physicalising their stories. The class teachers were amazed at the difference in the boys' creativity when stories were told orally.

The Stage fighting element of the project, provided by Isaac Ngugi, gave the boys an activity they enjoyed but also something that required a lot of self control and discipline. This was echoed in our ethos during all workshops; the boys were given a lot of freedom, or more specifically, a different kind of discipline based around them taking responsibility for their own actions. Initially, some of the boys found this difficult to cope with, however at the end of the project the class teachers felt that all boys had really grasped this opportunity to be more conscientious.

Alongside these activities, the boys were asked to produce a magazine with support from Graphics Designer Rupert Cresswell. Rupert encouraged their creativity in a 'boy friendly' manner through the use of terms like graphics and design. The magazine was distributed throughout the school and the boys got the chance to perform their newly acquired Stage Fighting skills to the whole of Stage Two.