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M6 Theatre Company in collaboration with Shawclough Community School in Rochdale explored the impact of working with child-sized puppets on children?s emotional intelligence. A group of 14 children in a reception class took part in activities in the first part of last summer term.

Inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach to early-years education and by the work of the Belgian educationalist Ferre Laevers, the class teacher was eager to investigate the link between children?s emotional wellbeing and their educational progress. With her creative partners from M6 Theatre Company, she decided to use a performance of a play entitled ?Sonya?s Garden? as the stimulus for the project. The target children were first of all screened in order to assess their wellbeing in four domains (relationship with the teacher; with other children; with play, class and school; and with family and close friends), using a methodology developed by Ferre Laevers. This provided a baseline which enabled the adults to chart subsequent change.

There were six sessions altogether, the first of which began with the adults using the children?s thoughts and feelings to develop a ?concept? map about friendship. They then invited them to respond to a performance of Sonya?s Garden, the story of a friendship between two characters called Sonya and Max. In the sessions that followed, the children created ?body sculptures? to express emotions, interpreted ?frozen? moments from the play through movement, co-operated with one another to create tableaux, examined key moments of decision-making in the play and played games to explore different groupings and relationships within their own class.

The impact on the children was clear to see. By the end of the project they showed a greater appreciation of similarities and differences within the group and a deeper understanding of their own contribution to its dynamic. The status of one child with particularly low self-esteem rose dramatically, with lasting benefits for his confidence and wellbeing. When the adults re-visited the ?concept? map about friendship at the end of the project, they were struck by the subtlety of children?s responses. ?Friends forgive?, ?Never give up being friends?, ?If someone feels ill, you are quiet and give them a drink?, ?If they were stuck on a mountain, I would rescue them? were just some of the things they said.

The impact of this experience on the adults was equally profound. Having the time and (as it were) the licence to reflect on what was happening, resulted in a fluid project structure that genuinely responded to the children?s needs. The class teacher feels she has gained new insight into the children?s social and emotional dispositions. All agree that CARA has proved a more useful vehicle for professional development than the average training course, because it involved a ?real-life? testing and challenging of assumptions. ?We must learn from what we experience, and what we experience must inform what we plan to do next?, says the teacher.