Theatre of Learning Workshop for Religious Studies PGCE

On the (Secondary) Religious Studies PGCE, we consider a range of creative teaching and learning strategies that seek to engage pupils and support them in making progress. 

During the course trainees attend a one day workshop with Sue Phillips, founder of an innovative experiential approach to RE known as the ‘Theatre of Learning’.

The Theatre of Learning is an active, experiential method of teaching that Sue has developed over a number of years in response to pupil disaffection and poor examination results. She has seen it transform teaching and learning – as well as exam results!

Her approach has been adapted by many schools and the workshop not only provide trainees an opportunity to explore ways of making lessons more engaging, but also to acquire the necessary skills to use this transformative approach in their own classroom once a Newly Qualified Teacher.

Throughout the day trainees are introduced to and take part in a number of very powerful and thought-provoking activities, including hot-seating, religion-neutral exercises, re-enactment, simulations, story-telling, traffic-light discussions and visualisations.