A key aim of our current Paul Hamlyn programme, is to demonstrate to schools how our forum theatre approach can be used to actively engage parents in the learning of their children in a way that can improve communication between all three groups; children, parents and schools.
On Tuesday 10th December, Ariel Trust facilitated a Parental Engagement Workshop at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Primary School. We invited parents to participate in a workshop alongside the Year 6 pupils, to get an insight into what their children have been learning throughout this term whilst taking part in the ‘Skills for Healthy Relationships’ programme.
The Year 6 pupils brilliantly demonstrated their knowledge, confidently discussing and role-playing different scenarios based around the resource; highlighting key points around consent, boundaries, online safety and how to ask a trusted adult for help.
Particularly successful, was the engagement of the parents / carers who participated in the workshop. With the help and guidance from the pupils, they took part in the games and were encouraged to become involved in the still image activity, where they were in different groups and could become one of the characters from our ‘Send Me A Selfie’ story.
We even managed to get one of the parents involved in our Forum Theatre demonstration, acting in the role of a parent, with a pupil playing the role of ‘Megan’. This was a powerful moment to observe, and allowed for both the adult and young person, to practice how to deal with challenging situations and to offer a mature communication on how to ask for help, or equally offer help. The aim is that they will then be better prepared to apply this to real life future scenarios.
