The Crucible GCSE Drama Project was an exciting opportunity, led by Sheffield Theatres, in which six secondary schools took part in a GCSE Education Project which ran alongside our main house production of The Crucible.

The aim of the project was to help raise academic achievement whilst at the same time encouraging young people’s participation in, and enjoyment of, theatre.

Pupils from City School, photograph by Chris Saunders

The six secondary schools who took part were from across the Sheffield area and include City, Meadowhead, Ecclesfield and Tapton plus two of our Partner Schools, Firth Park and High Storrs.

The project was in three parts and supported the Paper 1 Unit 2 Edexcel syllabus.

Pupils from Tapton School, photograph by Chris Saunders

Firstly, in the weeks 19 January to 4 February our Education Liaison Officer, Sean Pender, visited schools and worked with the students in a practical way to investigate various aspects of the text. These lesson plans are included in our extensive website resource for The Crucible so that nationally and internationally teachers and students can share in the resources and work we provide. To locate these resources please click on the following link to be taken to the section For Teachers.

Pupils from Ecclesfield School, photograph by Chris Saunders

The second part of the Project allowed the pupils to extend the stimulus given and to continue their work within normal lessons after our visit. The aim was that the pupils then created 20/30 minutes in total of devised work around various aspects of the text, under the guidance of their teachers. Again, these tasks are included in the resource and can be located by clicking on the following link – Presentation Tasks.

The final part of the project was the sharing of work which took place on Wednesday 11 February 2004, and the students were given the exciting opportunity of performing their interpretations to each other on the Crucible stage surrounded by The Crucible set. An invited audience also shared in their achievements.

Pupils from Firth Park Community Arts School, photograph by Chris Saunders

The day was a resounding success with all pupils working to the best of their ability and sharing work which was imaginative, thoughtful and extremely well presented. All the young people involved did themselves and their schools proud.

Pupils from Meadowhead School, photograph by Chris Saunders

We hope to regularly update this page with comments from the pupils and teachers who took part.

"I want to thank you so much for the project on Feb 11th. It was amazing! Please make as many opportunities for us in the future to do stuff as amazing as that was!"
Gina Walters, High Storrs pupil.

Pupils from High Storrs, photograph by Chris Saunders

"We really thought the performance day was a valuable experience which the students will remember for a very long time."
Paul Warhurst and Rachel Bowring, teachers at Ecclesfield School.

"I thought the whole project was great. I enjoyed the acting and liked all the schools sharing their ideas."
Natalie Taylor, Firth Park pupil.

"An excellent project. The students were inspired and enthused by the project which was clearly shown by the work that they produced and the commitment shown."
Claire Pender, Head of Drama at High Storrs School.

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