In January 2021, The John Warner School was approached as an Artsmark school, to embark on an exciting creative project which would be funded by the DfE expansion fund with support and funding from the Royal Opera House Bridge. We decided to look at the theme of Identity to reflect aspects of society and to mirror projects which were being undertaken as a school, as an entirely inclusive community, which focussed on diversity, equality and equity.

We were delighted that Trestle Theatre Company agreed to work with us and, as they are known for their work with masks, we looked at ways in which we could draw on their expertise in mask performance, whilst looking at ways to develop our student voice creatively. After initial research with our students in Year 7, where form times were used to explore what the year group understood by the word ‘identity’, we delivered a series of workshops across the whole of Year 7 starting in the summer of 2021, where our students used masks to explore and expose many stereotypes, issues and the way in which language is used to highlight a person’s identity through the eyes of younger people. These workshops continued as a programme for 18 months, as our students moved up into Year 9, and were delivered as whole and half day sessions.

It was important to us that the students directed each workshop, based on their experience, so we planned the delivery after each session, enabling student voice to be listened to and acted upon very swiftly. In addition, we also implemented a programme of staff training to look at the ways in which staff could explore, implement and challenge the theme of identity in their own practice as creative educators.

Throughout the Identity programme, our students looked at the ways our identity shapes us, and explored how taking ownership of your own identity nurtures the ability to understand how we all differ, and how appreciating everyone’s experiences and background, makes us accepting of others.

Mrs Aylott, alongside Helen Barnet, Director of Trestle Theatre Company, was asked to present the project, as part of an online series run by the Royal Opera House Bridge, exploring equity and student voice, to leaders and creative professionals across the country. The purpose of this was, as a result of the workshops, to highlight how student voice could be used to generate the focus of each part of the programme, rather than to pre-plan the delivery beforehand and to avoid, therefore, not taking students’ experiences into consideration.

We formed a small working group of students from the year group, joining with the English Faculty to allow all students in the year to create poems about their own identity. The final film which we received at the end of the last academic year showcases all the work this year group completed.

We hope that the film may be used as a resource to highlight the importance of understanding your own identity in order to appreciate the identities of others, and as a part of the form time programme studied during Key Stage 3.

This was a great opportunity for all the students involved. It was a privilege to work with such receptive and empathetic young people and to see so many of them responding to the workshops and performances held throughout the 2 years. They should be so proud of what they achieved throughout this programme.