Hundreds of children have been demonstrating their newly-developed maths skills to their families, teachers and one another in London’s East End.
They have been taking part in sessions in the ‘Dramatic Maths’ programme at the Half Moon children’s theatre, involving 350 youngsters from primary schools in Tower Hamlets and Southwark.
The programme run by the theatre at Limehouse has brought to life a subject which pupils often find difficult to grasp, putting them in the role of the maths experts.
It is led by experienced drama facilitators who use physicality as much as possible, so children develop and practise their understanding of numbers, shapes, calculations and equations.
A teacher at one East End primary said the project has helped his class who nearly all lacked confidence in maths.
Half Moon’s director Chris Elwell said: “Dramatic Maths plays a crucial role with youngsters. We’ve been able to run this programme for another year, thanks to funding we’ve received.”
The theatre has been given grants by the Mercers’ Charitable Foundation, Peter Minet Trust and Newcomen Collett Foundation for the spring 2014 programme.
It involves 13 classes from Year-3 to Year-5 in six schools in which the kids help characters from famous fairy tales solve the maths problems that are plaguing Storyland.
Tower Hamlets schools taking part this term were John Scurr, Arnhem Wharf, St Paul’s CE Whitechapel and St Matthias, with two Southwark schools taking part, Snowsfields and Grange.
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