The Schools Forum Project

Issues! Ltd has been working for the Police Service since 1992. Initially, it was set up to supply Police Training Departments with trained actors for role-play scenarios; the range of emotions the actors are able to recreate, along with their line-learning abilities and innate empathy for people and situations, added a new depth and realism to important and sensitive issues.

As training became more important to the police, simple role-play was ‘phased out’ and a new, more impactive method of training was developed by the Issues! Ltd founders and the Heads of Race and Diversity in various Police Forces: Forum Theatre.

Initially, Forum Theatre was used in conjunction with specially developed presentations, based around the needs of each Force. However, on further exploration and development of Forum Theatre, it was found to be extremely effective as a ‘stand-alone’ product, being used to investigate human issues in more detail.

The work we have done within the Police Service has been recommended by the Home Office as an example of Best Practice in training and the Home Office themselves have taken part in Forum Theatre training sessions, based around the Stop and Search Encounter Legislation of 2003.

It was suggested to us, during a debrief of a ‘Bullying in the Workplace’ session, that we take this method of training into schools, so that students can use these tools to address problems that they may encounter within the school community and once they have left full-time education.

At the time of writing, Issues! Ltd has successfully implemented anti-bullying, courtesy and Race and Diversity courses in a number of schools.

“Forum Theatre”: You have the answers.

Forum Theatre is a method of training that allows students to freely express their views and opinions on any number of issues, in a safe environment. Using actors, the students take control of the action of specially written scenes, thus assuming responsibility for the thoughts, words and deeds of the characters they “own” in the sessions. It also allows them to see the consequences of their characters’ actions, which are then investigated in a forum-style debrief.

The actors have been chosen, not simply for their acting skills, but also their talents for improvisation and empathy. These skills are then honed in Facilitators Courses that are run by the City Of London Police, so that the actors are able to respond appropriately to the input of the students – and do their best to encourage positive resolution to the scenarios and positive investigation of issues raised by the students themselves.

Unlike some traditional Theatre In Education, Forum Theatre sessions do not claim to “have the answers” to issues within a school’s or workplace’s community. It is our ethos that the answers to the problems are within the school or workplace itself; Forum Theatre is a way of providing students with a mental or emotional “toolkit” to draw on, when faced with these situations in real-life.

Based on experience of different types of interactive training, mainly within the Police Service, we feel that it would be unrealistic to assume that we can identify and solve the problems of any working community in a given timeframe. However, using Forum Theatre, students themselves are encouraged to identify issues within their environment and then, using empathy, cognitive questioning , role-play and forum-style debates find appropriate methods for positive resolution.

A Typical Forum Theatre Session

Forum Theatre is based on collaboration. As we are strangers to every community we visit – be it a school or workplace, input from that community is our first priority. Before any sessions take place, we feel it is of utmost importance to meet with the client and discuss the exact nature of the issues that are to be tackled or explored and to give us insight into the way that particular community operates, organically. The next step is for our scriptwriting team to construct scenarios to work with; based on the information we have been given. These scenarios are reviewed and re-reviewed with the client, until all parties are satisfied with the content. These scenarios will then be the basis of the work undertaken in the Forum Theatre Sessions.

As a result of previous work, we do have a back – catalogue of tried and tested scenarios that can be used if they meet the needs of the client. These scenarios are always shown to the client on the initial consultation meeting.

A typical Forum Theatre session lasts between 60 and 90 minutes. In this time, we aim to workshop 3 scenarios to an audience of between 30 and 50. The audience numbers have been decided upon to optimise the opportunities for each participant to have equal input. In this way work with a single year group in an average secondary school would take place over a day split into five separate lessons. If it is necessary to work with larger numbers due to timetable pressures - splitting the groups up into separate rooms with their own facilitators and actors has also proved effective. (Using this method with 3 separate spaces one London school was able to workshop it’s entire school populace, over 950 pupils, in a single day)

The work with large numbers of students inside schools also opens up a new and exciting variant on the Forum Theatre method. This uses students as the actors in the scenarios. Intensive workshops with those students, in most cases sixth form drama students, take place over a number of lessons. These workshops will help the students understand the particular skills required in this kind of work for instance character study, improvisation, understanding and taking of direction. Armed with these skills the students then take the pre-written scenarios and perform them to the pupils whilst a facilitator runs the work-shops. There are a number of benefits to this kind of work: The pupils will recognise and easily relate to the drama students, they are after-all members of the same school community. It is also extremely good experience for the drama students themselves giving them insight into a new way of working and the chance to take a larger role in the community aspect of the school. Schools who have chosen to employ this option have found it useful in fulfilling a number of aspects in the sixth formers’ citizenship curriculum.

Feedback

After conducting Forum Theatre sessions, we send the school a feedback questionnaire. The following feedback has been collated from various schools. While we do not like to name individuals in print, should you wish to seek references for our work, visit the feedback page

From Staff we have worked with:

“Lively and well-paced sessions that engaged the pupils from the word go.” Deputy Head, Ealing

“The scenarios were about real issues.” Head of Pastoral Care, Ealing

“All staff, who saw the session were very impressed.” Head Teacher, Chiswick

“They (the pupils) enjoyed the pace, the interaction and the control to change outcomes.” Head of Special Needs Unit, Chiswick

“It is direct, well-paced and involved the pupils.” Year Head, Berkshire

From the students we have worked with:

“I liked it because you could see the results and consequences of bullying.” John, 13, Ealing

“It was good because they worked with small groups of pupils.” Syreeta, 15, Ealing

“You really felt involved in it.” Gemma, 12, Berkshire

“We were the ones who chose how to resolve it.” Chris, 16, Ealing

“A really powerful message.” Noor, 14, Ealing

“We could control the characters. It was good.” Rachel, 12, Chiswick

“They showed real life situations; these things happen.” Asim, 12, Chiswick

The barometer of our work is the people who have taken part in it. The incident that has been most cited by our team occurred over a lunch-break in a school in Berkshire. Whilst having lunch in the school canteen, after a particularly gruelling anti-bullying session, we were approached by a boy of about 13 who came to our table, unprompted. He said :

“Thanks very much for this morning. It was the best thing we’ve had in our school; better than any of the other theatre groups because we got to be involved, instead of just being sat there, like in a lesson."

Forum Theatre Training Packages

We are able to offer three different types of training package. Of course, with the requirements of each school community being very different, these are all malleable templates. However, we feel that these templates offer the optimum impact:

1. Forum Theatre Premiere Package:

This package is made up of 3 stages:

• The Pre-Brief: this session, lasting 90 minutes is available for the staff to prepare them for the Forum Theatre session with the pupils. It involves a “hands-on” approach, allowing the staff to experience the mechanics of Forum Theatre, to understand how they are perceived in their roles of staff and to use this knowledge to optimise their input in the Forum Theatre session and in subsequent school life.

• The Forum Theatre Session: this session explores issues within the school community that have been researched and dramatised by Issues! Ltd.

• The De-Brief: this session is designed to take place some time after the Forum Theatre session has been implemented and involves the staff. In another “hands-on” session, the staff review their roles in the school in the light of the work previously conducted and use this knowledge to positively affect their roles within the school community.

2. Forum Theatre Plus Package:

This package is made up of 2 stages:

• The Pre-Brief or the De-Brief.

• The Forum Theatre Session.

3. Forum Theatre Standard Package:

This package consists of 1 stage:

• The standard Forum Theatre session conducted with the pupils.

It should be noted that all packages are available for staff training, as well as students.

We are happy to discuss permutations of each package, as we pride ourselves in the bespoke nature of our work.