WebPlayUK

WebPlayUK is an internet-based project that enables primary schoolchildren from rural and urban areas to work with a professional theatre company to create, produce and perform short plays. The plays are then uploaded onto a specially created website.

WebPlayUK aims to encourage communication and increase understanding between children who live in contrasting areas of the same country. The project will launch with schools in Birmingham and Shropshire. For many of these schoolchildren, WebPlay is their first introduction to the Internet and the project develops their awareness of, and skills in, using the Internet as a means of communication. The children learn to build their own webpages, write about their lives and describe where they live, all within the safety of a secure, educational platform.

The project is aimed at Key Stage 2 pupils and focuses on the English, literacy, ICT and drama aspects of the National Curriculum. It is divided into four phases, each with clear objectives.

The first phase is an introduction to the online platform that the project sits on and ensures that children know how to use it safely and appropriately.

During the second phase, the children start to communicate online with their partner school. They question their counterparts about their lives, their school and the area in which they live. They also select the setting for their play and gather background information that will be useful in developing the scripts.

In Phase Three, the classes meet the theatre company online and start to learn about different aspects of the play they are currently rehearsing. Phase Four begins with a field trip to the theatre, where the children meet up with their partner school and watch a live production of the play they have been involved with online. Workshops follow the production, in which the children learn how to construct a play and write a script.

In Phase Five, all the strands of the project come together as the children write their own plays about the area in which their partner school is based. The plays are digitally videoed as the children perform them and then uploaded onto the website for the partner schools to view.

The project ends with a celebration in which the pupils, their families, the theatre production team and the actors meet to share their experiences.

The project launched in November 2003 with schools in Birmingham and Shropshire. In its second year, more schools in Birmingham and Shropshire are taking part and the project has been extended to Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.