Because children tend to understand acting and storytelling intuitively, it is easy to assume that they actually understand what pantomime is and why it is there. But, in fact, what generally happens is that they just accept it.

Now that is ok as far as it goes, but there is a benefit from working with children not only for the sake of performing in a panto, but also to understand the context of what they are doing.

Which is why sometimes it is rather good to put on a panto in which the panto becomes not just a performance, but also a learning experience in relation to a significant element in our cultural history.

If we are going down this route, one of the most obvious places to start is with Dick Whittington which as a story has the benefit of being based on a real person, although not necessarily a real cat.

Thus we have a historical plot and the possibility of examining everything that is inherent within the panto. The tradition, the staging, the scenery, the props, the lighting, the use of the provided music against new songs, or new lyrics, dance, movement, acting… all can then become topics for study.

Of course, each topic is an option – it is possible to present Dick Whittington as a pantomime with the normal rehearsals and production to the parents and no further explanation. Or you can take one or more of the issues inherent within the panto and look more deeply at that.

This then is the way that we have approached the publication of Dick Ottington and his famous cat Tommy, by David Stoll and Michael Hinton.

The package includes:

• a Director’s Script, with detailed page-by-page production notes
• a Pupils’ Script
• a Vocal Score containing thirteen new songs with piano accompaniment, as well as an overture and incidental music
• a complete set of high-quality fully orchestrated backing tracks and sound effects.

The Director’s Script also has an extensive introduction to pantomime itself as a topic for study, including the traditions and conventions of this type of theatre.

There are also helpful notes on all aspects of putting on a school production from casting, organising rehearsals, writing new lyrics, making props and sound effects through to involving the audience. The material, therefore, can be used for a term’s study as well as forming the basis of the end of term production.

David Stoll is a well-known composer and songwriter who has also worked extensively with primary school teachers and pupils on creative projects. His SEALSONGS are favourite assembly material, and his book on how to teach composing at KS2 is acknowledged for its helpful notes and suggestions. To go to his website please click here.

Michael Hinton is a teacher, writer and musician with many years’ experience of writing educational materials for schools abroad and in the UK. He works as Music Director with amateur dramatic societies and children’s theatre groups, helping them to stage musicals and pantomimes, and is the composer of hundreds of educational songs.

There are sample pages at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/authordownloadsamples/Dick Ottington samples.rar

Dick Ottington and his famous cat Tommy is published as a download so that you can receive immediately a copy onto your computer which you can share with colleagues as often as you want. You can also put it on your school learning platform so all staff can access it.

You can obtain Dick Ottington and his famous cat Tommy by going to http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=804

The price for the full package is £24.95 plus VAT (the VAT can be reclaimed in most cases by the school).

Dick Ottington and his famous cat Tommy is published by Novello & Co Ltd and distributed by First and Best, part of the Hamilton House group. If you have any enquiries you can call 01536 399 011 or email sales@firstandbest.co.uk or write to us at First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct, Earlstrees Rd, Corby, Northants NN17 4HH.

The full range of First and Best books can be seen at www.shop.firstandbest.co.uk

Teaching good handwriting is about much more than just helping students to write

Of course, it is a fact that most test and exam papers require handwritten answers, and so good handwriting continues to make an impact and helps to deliver extra marks.

But there is more. For learning to write by hand improves literacy, understanding and comprehension. Indeed those who have been taught and encouraged to write by hand have been shown to find deciphering hard-to-read messages easier than those who have not.

Other studies show a positive link between hand-eye coordination and whether a child has been taught to write with a form of cursive handwriting.

Most surprisingly, it is now being suggested in academic studies that whether the individual uses the pen or the keyboard to write even affects the way the individual thinks.

One research paper suggests that university students who use pen and paper to make notes during lectures do better than those who make notes on a laptop.

In some ways we should not be too surprised by some of these findings, for handwriting requires a greater level of hand-eye coordination than typing on a keyboard, and thus, as well as helping with exam scores, good handwriting gives students the chance to develop their essential fine motor skills.

But many young people today are brought up in homes where handwriting is limited to little more than the production of shopping lists – and indeed many people now type these into their mobile phones.

It is for all of these reasons that Multi-Sensory Learning produced the Handwriting Rescue Scheme for fully cursive handwriting.

The scheme, which is available as a photocopiable program supplied on CD or as printed sheets, contains over 300 structured exercises designed to establish complete cursive letter formation.

And there is a particular bonus here, for tests have shown that the use of such material encourages the development of an automatic response to frequently used spelling choices. In other words, by practising their handwriting pupils also learn their spellings.

You can order The Handwriting Rescue Scheme in any of these ways:

• On our website
• By phone on 01536 399017
• By fax to 01536 399012
• By email to msl@schools.co.uk
• By post to Multi-Sensory Learning, Earlstrees Court, Earlstrees Road, Corby, NN17 4HH