Welcome Judges

English Drama Microschool Excellence

Nomination Description

Our schools’ philosophy is rooted in intercultural understanding, animal and environmental respect, diversity, equity and inclusion of students based on Freinet pedagogy in which student work should be oriented towards critical reflection, community, school newspaper and study visits. Our lending library with more than 350 books is daily visited by our students while our Wall News, a student newspaper on the wall of each classroom and the School Newspaper showcase our students’ work from nursery classes to C2 levels. Interschool Correspondence has also been initiated and Class Assembly is implemented at the beginning of each lesson where students share their news and concerns.

As in Freinet pedagogy students undertake community projects, our students have created their own community compact gardens and have cleaned our neighbourhoods. They have created their literature books and their school leaflets regarding environmental problems and during our project “By Teaching We learn” older kids, teach younger ones through special storytelling sessions.

Parrots, rabbits, dogs and cats (our students’ companion animals) frequently visit us teaching us responsibility and respect, while students engage in specially tailored language activities inspired by our guests. We participated in animal rights conference with our project “Adopt a Cat, Adopt a piece of Art” , our photo exhibition with photos of stray cats of our neighbourhood. Moreover, this year our students took part in Puppetry Contest with our own anti-bullying plays and participated in the global Space Week in which we represented Greece showcasing our work regarding space exploration and climate change.

Our social impact was amplified through our big Christmas charity event. Our students created art out of clay and all the profits were donated to Melissa Girls Orphanage. Regarding our community’s growth, this year we offered  seminars on dyslexia and students’ psychology to our students’ parents as our schools have our own Educational psychologists specialized in children’s learning, family therapy and systemic practice. Moreover, our Drama therapist conducted English Dramatherapy sessions for kids, while our music teacher is responsible for our music club. Furthermore, CPD sessions for our teachers have taken place, such as training sessions on educational drama, messy play, sensory play, dyslexia, learning difficulties and exams. Students-Teachers Pyjama week, Teachers dinners, Christmas Movie Week and Visiting Theatre day ( we watched a theatical play together as a school) are some of the initiatives that strengten us as a community.

As for our Museum based learning approach, we have worked with educational suitcases from Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology, Goulandris Natural History Museum, Momus Museum of Modern Art, Actionaid Global Citizen Project through which we completed intercultural activities and projects regarding refugees, racism, environmental issues and human rights.

At English Drama MicroSchool we believe thoughtfully curated classroom is a silent teacher. From flexible seating options to dyslexia friendly learning environments, from specially designed school libraries and reading nooks to moody lightables and bubble wall, from wheelchair accessible areas (community areas, halls, classrooms, toilets) to convertible furniture, from two theatrical stages to amphitheater stairs, from areas for pretend play to organised areas for robotics, Stem, theatre and montessori play houses, our school offers equally accessible areas that spark curiosity for learning.

Finally, the undeniable feature that distinguishes our schools is our drama based curriculum. Drama is not just a Drama Club for us. Drama and theatre, Radio Theatre, Image Theatre, forum Theatre, puppetry, Mantle of the Expert, Drama Games, Kamishibai Theatre, Sensory Drama are tools in every day lessons allowing us to provide a well rounded education to our Microschoolians.