Heather Murdoch describes how drama has given the children at the Victoria (Multi-Sensory Impaired) MSI Unit in Birmingham the chance to learn, experiment and have fun.

Drama has been part of the Victoria MSI Unit programme for many years. Our current approach began when Mary Booker, a teacher and drama therapist, spent several weeks with us on placement some years ago. Her input made us see the potential of drama differently.

We don’t work towards final, polished performances; instead, drama sessions mix routines with improvisation. This combination works well for students with MSI, giving them the chance to explore potentially threatening unknowns from a secure basis.

Harry, for example, is fifteen, and working mainly at phase 4. He is profoundly deaf and his sight is progressively narrowing. Understandably, he relies heavily on routines in managing his world.

For a couple of years, he was part of a group going on weekly Bus Journeys. Each session had the same structural ‘shell’ (journeying out on the bus, then back), but each week the bus’s destination and the adventure varied. Over time, further unexpected changes were introduced - perhaps the bus broke down, or a planned bowling trip was foiled by a closed leisure centre. Harry was initially puzzled by these changes, but his confidence and initiative grew over time. Drama has helped him to see that the unexpected is not always disastrous.

Other students need different structures. A second drama group, of Phase 2 and 3 students, developed plot sequences running for about a term each.

Indiana Jones and the MSI Unit for example, recreated the opening sequence of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ and made it peculiarly our own, with a rolling physio ball, a lifesize skeleton with detachable limbs, snakes and a parachute. The first few bars of the Indiana Jones theme tune were recorded on a Big Mac switch; every time a student sang the tune or pressed the switch, the staff sang the next few bars in chorus. Some students delighted in this effective way to control staff, pressing the switch until we were hoarse!

Waheed, working at Phase 2, relies on hearing and touch for information and has limited mobility. He loved the theme tune and the repeated cries of “‘Oh no! What’s this?” He rapidly developed favourite events and sang the theme tune to hurry us through the others.

Most of our themes are about journeys. Currently, students from Phases 2 to 4 work together in sessions loosely based on Nicola Grove and Keith Park’s Odyssey Now. As with Bus Journeys, the ‘shell’ of the drama remains the same each week, while the central part varies.

Although the MSI Unit is divided into several classes around curriculum phases, group sessions mix students from different classes to achieve specific objectives – to make Harry, for example, the most competent member and natural leader of his current drama group. His current objectives concern participating confidently in new plotlines and (with support) leading his peers through sections of more familiar plots. Waheed and Kieran, another Phase 2 student, are thus supported by students as well as staff in responding to their experiences.

Timetabled drama sessions are just one end of a spectrum that includes story-telling and conversation and shades into less obvious areas such as joint attention. All educators use dramatic elements such as rhythm, contrast and suspense to help them hold their pupils’ attention, and for students with MSI these elements often help to bridge the rifts in perception between learner and educator.

We are lucky in having the chance to learn from professional storytellers and theatre groups. Victoria School is a Specialist Arts College, and students with MSI benefit hugely from visiting artists and from specialist resources like the versatile, responsive sensory drama equipment.

For us, drama and storytelling are about developing a voice – helping students to become more confident in communicating, making choices, dealing with threats. Shahida, working at Phase 3-4, used to be very hesitant about trying new activities in case she didn’t succeed. We recorded stories about her activities (her birthday party, for instance), with lots of dramatic pauses, exclamations and crescendos and - of course - always with Shahida as the heroine. She loved helping to record these and play them back repeatedly, joining in at key points.

Drama and storytelling are also about developing narratives - around a day’s timetable, for example. Amanda is working at Phase 3; her morning conversation about the day uses a touch screen timetable with symbols and sequences of photos, together with different objects, snatches of songs and mimes of activities. We tell the day ahead as a story, noting Amanda’s responses and interpreting her preferences for the day, then checking and reinforcing these as part of a highly animated dialogue.

One-to-one storytelling allows us to choose a focus for an individual student, such as recognising and expressing emotions. Group storytelling sessions bridge the gap from students’ early experiences of groups (when being-in-a-group is the content of the session and activities are purely social) to actively participating and learning with one or more other students. Keith Park, among others, has influenced our approach, especially in building up rhythmic chants.

Drama helps our students to explore their emotions, learn about other people and practise managing routines rather than being driven by them. And it’s fun!

1. A Curriculum for Multi-Sensory Impaired (MSI) Children

Since last February, over a thousand copies of this publication have been downloaded from the Sense website. The curriculum, developed at the Victoria School MSI Unit, focuses on how students learn, rather than what they learn - detailing, for example, different learning environments.

Students move through some or all of four phases, from reflexive, pre-intentional action (Phase 1) to skilled interaction with the world if given appropriate support (Phase 4).

To download the curriculum visit the curriculum page.

2. Bus Journeys: Phases 3-4 (emphasis on Phase 4)

3. Termly drama sequences: Phases 2-3 (emphasis on Phase 2)