We’ve all had it. That sinking feeling as the summer holidays draw to a close and the thought of going back to school edges its way into your mind, taking up more space each day until the morning finally comes and you traipse off, wondering where the time has gone and willing half term to arrive quickly. And that’s just the teachers.

Teachers are constantly on the look out for new approaches to engage children with their learning, to put across information in an original way or to tackle challenging topics. We all know that pupils learn well when they are enjoying what they are doing, when they are stimulated and active, when they can get out from behind their desks! Used well, drama, singing and music have the potential to revolutionise learning, not to mention adding interest and (potentially) respite for the busy, multi-tasking teacher.

Schools really are astonishing places, and teachers, teaching assistants and school leaders really are the most remarkable of people. These plate-spinning professionals multitask every moment of the day out of sheer necessity, serving as educators, performers, researchers, mentors, counsellors, administrators, writers, artists, designers, at times even as police officers. The days are frenetic and relentless; time is not their own, it belongs to the children, their parents, their colleagues. And yet, somehow, some of these people manage – and are willing - to introduce a whole new level of busyness into their lives when they agree to take on the...

This is my first published nativity for two years and one I’ve been trying to write for some time. It captures the magic of the nativity story nicely, has a wonderful array of characters in an ever-growing caravan of followers. I also think that the songs are some of my very best which hopefully the children and the audience will love. Listen to song clips, read the synopsis and peruse script samples from Follow The Star.

Sometimes it can be tricky to come up with fresh drama workshop ideas. Anyone who has ever developed a school musical or a youth production for a drama club will know that rehearsals tend to follow a rather standard format: warm-up, practise songs, work on staging/movement of songs, block a scene, finish with another song. We feel compelled to struggle our way through the script, generally in chronological order, usually before children have learned their lines or have much awareness of the overall structure and storyline of the play. However, with a little inventiveness, there are numerous alternative approaches which...

When you decide to stage a school musical, the entire enterprise can generate so much interest and enthusiasm from pupils that it would feel rather a missed opportunity not to harness this energy for other areas of learning. Subjects such as English, History, Art, Music, Drama and PSHE all lend themselves to such an approach, but with a bit of inventiveness, even Science, Mathematics and Geography lessons offer relevant learning opportunities and oodles of fun.

When it comes to roles in school musicals, children aren’t fools; they know there can only be one Matilda, one Peter Pan, one Tinkerbell, one Doctor Dolittle. They desperately try for these parts, but they accept that they are unlikely to get them. But that doesn’t mean that children not cast as main roles should instantly become anonymous, characterless members of the ensemble, to be positioned somewhere near the back of the stage whenever a song kicks in. Or third nameless pirate from the right, whose sole contribution is to wear an amusing headscarf.