Young People's Puppet Theatre

Year 6 is a stressful and anxiety-inducing year for many children, largely due to two factors: SATs and the impending transition to secondary school. The pressure of SATs means that much of Year 6 is devoted to academic work within a narrow curriculum. Many of the teachers with whom we have worked have reported that children easily become stressed and demotivated in an environment which encourages them to feel that their self-worth relates so much to academic performance. This is especially true for disadvantaged children, including those with learning difficulties, those who speak English as an additional language, and those who lack confidence. In addition, Year 6 children face the upheaval of the imminent transition to secondary school, with new routines to be settled into, new subjects to be learned and new friends to be made. Children who are often already stressed and demotivated by the academic pressures of Year 6 lack the emotional resilience to deal with this transition in a healthy way, especially disadvantaged children who face extra difficulties in their lives and may lack the support at home enjoyed by their more advantaged peers. Our projects seek to address this by providing a supplementary arts-based learning environment that will re-engage the children with learning, unite them behind a group project, boost their confidence and strengthen their social and emotional wellbeing to help them cope with the pressures of SATs, secondary transition, and any disadvantages that they face.