Eco Drama’s award-winning outdoor learning project Out to Play will leap into action again during autumn 2019, working with a further 650 children and young people and their teachers across 6 primary schools in Glasgow.
Now in its third year, and building on the developments of year 2 where we expanded the project to include Early Years Out to Play residencies, Eco Drama are now excited to include ASN Schools, developing the Out to Play approach to be inclusive and responsive to children with additional support needs and their staff. We are also continuing to work with mainstream primary schools across the city, with a specific focus on schools that sit within the most disadvantaged areas of the city.
We are delighted to be working with the following schools:
- Hampden School
- Langlands School
- St Vincent’s Primary School
- Royston Primary School
- Riverbank Primary School
- St Joseph’s Primary School
This year’s residencies will be delivered by Ben Macfadyen, Sophie McCabe and Sarah Rankin, previous Drama Artists with the project and authors of the 3 associated resource packs. You can buy your own copy of the packs here. Each school will work with a Drama Artist for a 5 week outdoor learning residency, bringing to life urban school playgrounds and connecting children and young people with the natural world through the mediums of drama, storytelling and imaginative play.
Teacher Continued Professional Development (CPD)
Out to Play has a strong CPD element for teachers, with practical planning sessions, a teacher led week, an end of project CPD and Out to Play resource packs included in the experience. The project is designed to ensure a lasting legacy with the advancement of staff knowledge, confidence and skills, empowering teachers to deliver arts-based outdoor learning for many years to come and have ‘Out to Play’ sessions become part of the school’s weekly timetable.
To date, Eco Drama has worked with 16 primary schools and nurseries across Glasgow, so far reaching 2,832 children and inspiring 400 teachers to deliver arts-based outdoor learning in their everyday teaching practice. Following on from the successful pilot in 2015, the project won the Glasgow City Council Environmental Initiative Award 2016, and Eco Drama are now delivering a full scale project spanning 4 project years 2017-2021, collaborating with approximately 28 primary schools and nurseries, with priority given to schools within the more disadvantaged areas across Greater Glasgow. The project is estimated to reach more than 5,000 children and 600 teachers with tailored arts-based outdoor learning experiences and teacher CPD workshops and resources.
Watch our 2018 Out to Play documentary which includes first hand testimonials from teachers.
Read the 2018 Out to Play Report.
Follow the Drama Artists journey in their inspiring blog posts.
2019-2020 School Opportunities
We are currently looking for partner primary schools across Greater Glasgow to participate in the Out to Play project during August – November 2020. If your school are interested, please get in touch.
We are also holding a twilight Out to Play CPD session on Tuesday 22nd October in Paisley, open to teachers and nursery staff from across Glasgow and the central belt. For more information and to book a place, please email nina@ecodrama.co.uk.
Eco Drama are grateful to the following funders for their generous support in helping us to deliver Out to Play:
- Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
- Postcode Local Trust
- National Lottery Awards For All
- Glasgow Connected Arts Network
- Nineveh Trust
