A new audio drama and creative resource for Primary Schools focusing on themes of anxiety, wellbeing and resilience.
Our audio drama The Impossible follows a young girl, Amelia, who experiences profound social anxiety. Amelia spends a lot of her time in her bedroom, nervous of the social encounters and the lack of control she feels when she goes into the outside world. One night she hears a loud crash and summons every ounce of courage she can muster to investigate. Amelia is astounded to come face to face with a woman, dressed in aviation clothing from the 1930’s, alongside a rather worse-for-wear looking airplane!
The mysterious pilot is full of determination and passion for life and reveals herself to be Amelia Earhart, who has somehow, somewhere, been lost in time and space, only to reappear at this very moment… with a bump, in young Amelia’s back garden. The two Amelia’s, with nothing in common but their name, strike up an unlikely friendship, and emboldened but this wonderful woman with a huge sense of adventure and unerring support, young Amelia embarks on an adventure and a wonderful journey of self-discovery, healing, and bravery.
This fantastical story creates opportunities to reflect on what bravery is, and how to overcome the intrusive and paralysing thoughts that can come with social anxiety. The narrative is cleverly interwoven with practical guided relaxation, mindfulness, and visualisation exercises that the young listeners can take part in during the story. These are skills that the young listeners can adopt and use throughout their lives, to help them cope with stressful situations.
Created for those aged 8 and up, The Impossible has been designed to be enjoyed through headphones in a school classroom and is supported by a creative learning resource to further explore the themes in the story.
The Impossible
Written by Oliver Emanuel
Directed by Douglas Irvine
For P5, P6 and P7 classes this Spring, delivered in your classroom
As part of this project students will:
- make their own listening station
- experience The Impossible audio drama
- connect with a Visible Fictions presenter
- learn techniques to help with anxiety
Teachers will:
- receive several lesson plans, activity documents and PowerPoints that they will be able to edit to suit the needs of their individual learners
- have access to tailored CPD sessions
- fulfil many links in the Curriculum for Excellence
All this for under £3 per student.
The Creative Learning Resource
The resource will be a mix of teacher led activities in the form of editable PowerPoints with supporting CPD sessions via zoom. Part of the resource is a cockpit making toolkit, a creative exercise where students will design and make their own desk top cockpit in which they will use to listen to the audio drama.
Finally, a presenter will enter the classroom and will work with your class to delve deeper into Amelia Earhart’s history and then share with them the audio drama of The Impossible.
Curriculum for Excellence Links Examples
The Primary School Teachers in P5, P6 and P7 will receive a pack. The first section of the pack will be teacher led resources on the science of flight (and will briefly touch on the history of aviation).
The pack will also explain how to build various aircrafts connecting in with expressive arts as a tool to explain the science behind flight. Students will also conduct their own experiments and connect in with numeracy & mathematics. During this section the students will create their own cockpit / listening station which will be used when the Visible Fictions presenter brings in the audio drama.
A Visible Fictions presenter will enter your classroom with a box of objects. Students will be invited to come up and take objects out the box. The presenter will discuss each object and ask the class who they believe the objects tell the story of. While exploring elements of social science, the class will deduce that the character they’re trying to uncover is Amelia Earhart
As a whole class, you will listen to the audio drama of The Impossible.
The project will finish with health & wellbeing and literacy & English activities led by the teacher.
Pricing
Experiencing the creative arts is beneficial for all pupils, and it should be accessible to all regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic position.
We understand how difficult funding is as we are all feeling the cuts, but to help we are offering three price options.
Simply chose the price your school can afford.
- £500 (up to 6 classes per day)
- This bracket pays the creative team for their time, skill and travel while also providing Visible Fictions with a budget to offer reduced performances to other schools.
- This bracket pays the creative team for their time, skill and travel while also providing Visible Fictions with a budget to offer reduced performances to other schools.
- £450 (up to 6 classes per day)
- This bracket pays the creative team for their time, skill and travel. Visible Fictions only cover costs at this rate.
- This bracket pays the creative team for their time, skill and travel. Visible Fictions only cover costs at this rate.
- £400 (up to 6 classes per day)
- This bracket pays for the majority of the creative team for their time, skill and travel and the remainder is subsidised by Visible Fictions.
PEF funding could be used to help a school pay for this experience as it will also develop teachers’ confidence in delivering creative arts projects.
Project Timeline
We can connect with 6 classes per day, and you’ll be able to book this experience from the 22nd January.
You will receive the learning materials by the 11th of March and we ask that the teachers look at this and begin to plan sessions as we’d be looking for our team members to go into schools week beginning 15th April, however the cockpits MUST be created prior to us coming in.
To book or to receive more information please email suzie@visiblefictions.co.uk with your schools name in the subject heading.
