Moving Stories has been a two year project working with all of the primary SEND schools and two resource bases in mainstream schools in Lewisham and culminating in a symposium at Trinity Laban in October 2025. Artists from Peoplescape Theatre and TL worked together to explore how dance and drama for learning can be combined in SEND settings. They worked alongside teachers and their classes to develop new ways of exploring a variety of curriculum themes.

 

This new experimental practice was planned by the teacher and artists together and trialed with the children. Children taking part in the project developed their confidence and communication skills through dance and drama.

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Practice was shared at regular CPDL sessions where all artists and teachers working on the project came together to reflect on the work. A resource pack with example activities and schemes of work was created. Teachers developed skills and confidence to deliver learning through dance and drama. This has lead to the development of new whole school approaches and planning and arts based curriculum - the work continues.......

 

 You can see a short film about the Moving Stories project below.

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'MS enriches the expertise of teachers and artists. It enables children with diverse and complex learning needs to develop their levels of awareness and engagement, communication skills and their ability to have creative ideas and make creative choices.

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The pupils have gained a lot from the sessions – confidence and creativity. It reignited ‘joy and fun in the classroom’ teachers found it  ‘relaxed and empowering’ . It had a ‘huge impact. 

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The immersive world of Moving Stories is sensory, discursive, physical, aural and visual. There are moments of theatre, tension and magic. It provides opportunities for learners to share their understanding and express themselves both verbally and physically. It encourages original thought. Like play, moving stories is fun, in the moment and open-ended.

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One child has severe speech sound difficulties but through dance and movement she was able to express her ideas and enjoyed being understood and part of the group’ 

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Confidence, participation and engagement have improved brilliantly

 

Students do surprising things that we weren’t expecting 

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Extracts from the Moving Stories evaluation by Sally Manser, including comments from the teachers

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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Photo's and film by Becca Hunt​