"Dramatic Licence"
DAILY TELEGRAPH
14 December 2002
"Competent supply teachers are hard to find, so actors are taking on their roles - and they're good" says Susan Elkin
The Victorian red bricks and solid frame window frames are vibrating at Heathbrook Primary School, in Wandsworth, south-west London, as a class of 10 and 11 year olds shout and stamp loudly. A riot? Hardly. Jim Pope is teaching literacy, numeracy and developing social and listening skills through drama - and it's one of the best managed, most immaculately planned and informative lessons I've seen.
First, the children stand in a ring chanting an action song so rhythmic that it's still echoing in my head several days later.
Then comes the gloriously simple but patently effective mental arithmetic game in which each wall represents two, four, six or eight and the children are in teams. Someone invents a sum, such as 27 divided by three minus one. As soon as they've worked out the answer, they run to the appropriate wall. The last one is out. It sounds hectic, but Pope is scrupulous about safety, constantly reminding children of the rules.
