An update on our work with children in Direct Provision

In December 2018, participants were invited to The Ark to attend our Christmas performance of Tracks in the Snow by the Henry Girls. This was a fun filled and action packed day. We welcomed the participants to the Ark and we spoke about the kind of work we do for children at our centre. We then met with the Henry Girls who were delighted to talk to our group about their work and the show itself. We had a Christmas lunch and then it was on to watch Tracks in the Snow, which was enjoyed as much by the parents as it was by the children!

Later in January, Shaun Dunne led a drama workshop for the participants. This session involved a general introduction to drama and the performing arts as well as ice-breakers and teambuilding exercises. The focus of the day was on improvisation and introducing the children to the idea of acting. Our aim was to teach the children a series of drama games and exercises that would enable them to lead their own creative sessions independently. By the end of each workshop session the children had learned a lot of new games that they could play themselves at their own centre.

We continued our workshops with Shaun Dunne over three more workshop days throughout January and February. Again, we were focusing on teambuilding, inter-communication and confidence building. As well as having a lot of fun with drama games, we composed a set of guideless based on the children’s suggestions of how we can work together creatively and effectively.

We continued a general introduction to drama, acting and performance over our four workshop sessions. As the workshops progressed we put more of an emphasis on story making and creative writing. The children wrote their own original story. By our final workshop session, the children had developed a completed story and were performing this story in groups in extract form.