With the implementation of the project, we wanted to get acquainted with theatrical methods that would provide our pupils with speech problems additional help in their elimination and train them in loud and clear expression (including performing in front of peers). We wanted to raise pupils’ reading skills, boost their self-esteem and simultaneously achieve their more active involvement in lessons. We also wanted to learn about examples of good practice by involving foreigners in theatre groups to learn the language. We wanted to include pupils with the difficulties mentioned above in our theatre group and create a establish connection between the school and the local environment with modern theatrical methods. By increasing the number of members of school theatre groups, local communities could be provided with additional performances at events while at the same time relieving some performers. A more significant number of pupils would be more actively involved in the environment in which they live, thus developing a sense of belonging to their hometown. With the implementation of the project, we wanted to train other pedagogical workers at the school to work with pupils with the deficits mentioned above, with an emphasis on workers whose pedagogical work takes place at the grade level, workers who additionally work with pupils with reading and speaking difficulties, teachers of Slovene and foreign languages, mentors of both theatre groups and after-school class teachers. With the publication of a collection of new methods and the organisation of observation lessons and workshops for professionals from other schools, we wanted to offer teachers new, modern methods and approaches to working with students with these problems, which are still relatively unknown in Slovenia, and thus facilitate problem solution in the broader area.
A few years before the application for the project, we noticed a decline in pupils’ reading and speaking skills at our school at both grade and subject levels. For this purpose, we also conducted a survey at the school in the school year 2012/13, which showed that pupils’ reading is perfunctory, that they struggle reading graphs and thought diagrams, read sentences only partially, etc. Such deficits were also indicated by the annual analyses of national tests of knowledge of Slovene and the annual reports of first-grade teachers, counsellors, specialist teachers and kindergarten teachers. We also found that the number of pupils treated by a speech therapist increases every year. However, the guidelines of recent years show that an increasing number of foreign children who do not speak Slovene are enrolled in schools, which makes their integration more challenging. We have also encountered such problems at our school, and the number of such pupils is likely to increase in the future. We also observed pupils at the grade level who were not actively involved in the school process because they suffered from poor self-esteem, low self-confidence and shyness. While looking for methods to improve pupils’ deficits, we found the answer in theatrical methods used by many schools abroad, which face similar problems or these methods are even part of their respective curricula. Simultaneously, with the introduction of the project or in its effects, we also noticed a good opportunity for even greater connection of educational work with the surroundings and the local cultural milieu, as one of our goals was to increase the number of members of the theatre group, which could perform at even more local events. The project enabled us to visit schools and participate in courses abroad, where such theatrical methods are well developed and current, which helped improve the deficits at school mentioned above.