"It's not your everyday lesson, is it?"
Mantle of the Expert is a system that uses enquiry and dramatic imagination to create powerful contexts for learning. It was developed by Dorothy Heathcote and set out in her collaborative work with Gavin Bolton, ‘Drama for Learning’ in 1994.
To date, the system has been largely ignored by the learning and teaching community and given only the status of a dramatic convention by those who use drama. We believe that this is because the system is a serious challenge to the current orthodoxy and requires a radical transformation of the way we structure learning in our schools.
However, the climate has changed since the Every Child Matters agenda and the publication of Excellence and Enjoyment. There is now a wide-ranging debate, led by QCA and NCSL exploring new ways to interpret the curriculum. Also, recent school-based research across Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk has clearly indicated that the whole curriculum can be taught through the system of Mantle of the Expert and that the impact on children’s learning can be both profound and long lasting especially for children and young people at either end of the achievement scale.
Site designed and built by Andy Grey.
Content: Luke Abbott, except where stated.
All photos (except where stated) were taken during Mantle of the Expert sessions in Howbridge
Church of England (Voluntary Controlled) Junior School and Silver End Primary School, both in Essex.