Welcome to Engross!
Special Plays for Special Schools
Engross Theatre Group specialises in taking bespoke curriculum-based plays into Special Schools to support the education of pupils with Learning Disabilities. These pupils can find it difficult to learn and then retain educational information, but through the medium of our specially-tailored live performances, they become totally engrossed, allowing them to absorb the educational content within the plays. Our projects are financed through funding organisations, allowing us to perform our plays at no cost to the schools.
Our plays are particularly developed to be highly entertaining, incorporating plenty humour, and pupil interaction, to convey the educational information contained therein - the pupils are learning without even realising it! Taking theatre to the children means they are relaxed and in their own environment, making it the perfect atmosphere for them to enjoy the performance and absorb the educational values of the play.
We work in collaboration with external organisations, such as Archaeology Scotland, who are at present delivering excellent post-play workshops for our "Roman", "Viking" and "World War 2" plays, and who are keen to extend this collaboration further, as they have discovered the pupils are "significantly more engaged in our work-shops, after watching your plays" (Ruth Bordoli, Archaeology Scotland).
As well as our historical plays, at the request of the schools, we also have developed a trilogy of plays to tackle pupils’ Personal and Social Education. The first of these is called Gongo Visits Planet Earth and tackles subjects such as personal space, why we don’t cuddle strangers, why we shake hands, and about facial expressions. The second play covers bullying, with the third play in the series, (at present, being written) covering personal etiquette subjects, such as covering your mouth when you sneeze, not wiping your nose on your sleeve, and manners. Our second successful year’s funding from Awards For All has allowed us to initiate this "Supporting Personal And Social Education in Special Schools" project, whilst our Bank Of Scotland Foundation funding allows us to continue it.
Even if the school is not actually studying the subject matter in our plays, there are other educational and beneficial outcomes which adhere to the principals of the Curriculum for Excellence – please click here to see Statement by Head-Teacher at Pilrig Park School which verifies this. Topics are client-led and developed through much discussion with schools.
"Live theatre is an excellent teaching aid that direct teaching and videos cannot match." Pilrig Park School
"Engross Theatre obviously researched the ability of our pupils level of understanding...therefore it was pitched at the correct level" - Teacher, Pilrig Park School
"I cannot praise Engross Theatre highly enough for what they have given our pupils" - Pilrig Park School