"Frozen fever"

Audrey (as Anna), with the Rainbows
and their leader Ruth (as Elsa)

...no, not the latest Frozen short, but Lifestyle MK's Audrey was out with the Rainbows this week in a

Frozen-themed drama workshop.

As the Lifestyle team discussed on their show on Saturday, drama is one of the best ways to build confidence,  encourage teamwork, and develop creativity (catch it here  if you missed it).  So often creativity is squeezed out of schools, even at a young age, with great emphasis being placed on the "core" subjects.  Of course grammar, mathematics and science are important - they are the backbone of what we do in the world - but so is invention.  It is all very well having being able to construct the "self driving car", or the "homing shoes" - but you have had to have come up with the idea in the first place.

Dominic Wilcox

Audrey had the opportunity to speak with inventor Dominic Wilcox at the Times Educational Festival earlier this year, and he spoke of how important creativity is for children.  "It is a form of self expression," he said "I believe that there should be a creativity curriculum, or at least a way of building creativity into the curriculum."  

Steam Co who organised the event at the Festival also added "Don't just ask children what they want to be, ask them what problems they want to solve..." this is the way to teach young people that they are capable of great things, but also impress upon them that they need the "basics" (English, Maths, Science etc) to help them achieve their goals.

Drama and the core subjects sit well together.  The workshop included dancing - counting, symmetry, terminology; the children helped tell their favourite story - speaking and listening, memory, presentation skills, literacy; and of course little can be achieved without teamwork - a skill that permeates through all walks of life - and as a group each child played their part and understood the significance of what they were doing alongside their peers.

Catch Lifestyle MK talking about the benefits of drama on SPREAKER

LifestyleMK: Saturdays 12 - 2pm on Secklow Sounds, Community Radio for Milton Keynes.