Theatre of Debate Programme: Clinical Trials evaluation report

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Theatre of Debate Programme: Clinical Trials Evaluation

1st March 2008 – 31st December 2010

‘I think to be taught… in such an effective and more enjoyable way is brilliant’ (Meghan Linscott, Student)

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Contents 1. Executive Summary 2. Introduction

2.a 2.b 2.c 2.d

Background Objectives Method of Impact Measurement This Report

3. Method

3.a Development

3.b The First Tour

3.c Audio Recording

3.d Development of Steamfish

3.e The Second Tour

4. Evaluation

4.a Inform target audiences of the range of scientific, social, moral and

political views surrounding clinical trials

4.b Explore the misconceptions that surround clinical trials

4.c Encourage and stimulate informed debate

4.d Deepen the educational impact of the play and debate through the

use of digital technology and online simulation

5. Conclusions 6. Recommendations 7. Appendices

7.1 Breakdown of Schools

7.2 Example Teacher Evaluation Form Y Touring Theatre Company, an 驶activity for health始 operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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7.3 Teacher Responses in Full 7.4 Qwizdom Results in Full 7.5 Facebook Comments in Full 7.6 Reviews in Full 7.7 Advisory Board Biographies

Front page photos (R - L); Steven Helliwell as Michael and Andrew Hobday as Adrian; Hanna Kass as Saira and Max Saunders-Singer as Michael; Susannah Freeman as Shannon; Krupa Pattani as Saira and Steven Helliwell as Michael. All photographs copyright Robert Workman

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1. Executive Summary ‘Starfish is an engaging piece of drama which raises interesting and thought provoking issues’ (Nick Pepper, Student)

Theatre of Debate Programme: Clinical Trials was developed in partnership with the AMRC and was supported by the Wellcome Trust. The programme consisted of four parts: play, debate, online resource including a virtual world and a downloadable audio recording.

After an initial workshop day the play, Starfish, was written by Judith Johnson. The programme toured to schools in London and Hampshire in Spring 2009, and to schools in eight areas nationwide in the late Autumn 2009. A total of 7530 young people saw the production. Alongside the second tour, Y Touring ran Steamfish, an online virtual world, where students could complete a quest and take part in a virtual clinical trial, based on James Lind’s controlled trial for a cure for scurvy.

Judith Johnson also adapted the play for audio, and this was recorded with the first cast in May 2009.

The first objective within this programme was to inform target audiences of the range of scientific, social, moral and political views surrounding clinical trials. This objective seems to be met, with generally high levels of engagement, and audiences feeling that the high quality of play helped strengthen their interest in the subject matter. Y Touring also succeeded in targeting a diverse audience, both in terms of ethnicity and geographical spread. However, numbers for this tour were far below capacity, and this is something that Y Touring needs to address in the future.

Secondly, this programme sought to explore the misconceptions that surround clinical trials. Resources provided by Y Touring for use before and after the production aimed to deepen understanding. Where these were used, the response was good, but time restrictions mean that not all teachers are able to use them. Y Touring also used the debate to explore misconceptions about clinical trials. While students seem to accept the importance of clinical trials, there is marked preference for taking part in talking treatments over drug trials.

The third objective of this programme was to encourage and stimulate informed debate. Evidence collected suggests that this objective was with students generally being engaged in the debate. The electronic voting handsets, Qwizdom, proved a popular way of engaging students in the issues, as well as capturing their opinions. However there were technical problems with Qwizdom on both tours. The evidence collected from Qwizdom also shows that audiences have a range of opinions, suggesting that the programme does not steer audiences to a ‘right’ answers, but enables them to form their own opinions.

The fourth objective was to deepen the educational impact of the play and debate through the use of digital technology and online stimulation. Generally there was good feedback on the virtual world as a good resource, but this did not translate into many active participants.

Finally, the findings from this evaluation reinforce findings from previous Y Touring evaluations that the evidence gatrhered from previous projects is a very effective methodology for engaging audiences.

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Generally, Theatre of Debate Programme: Clinical Trials, met its objectives, although some recommendations have been made for future projects, particularly in regards to audience numbers, and engagement of audiences online. Overall, however, this does seems to be a successful model for engaging audiences.

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2. Introduction ‘This is a very difficult topic, but the company handled it very well’ (Anne Marie Davies, Teacher, Ogmore School)

2.a Background Y Touring Theatre Company received funding from the Wellcome Trust to research, produce and tour a four-part Theatre of Debate® programme exploring the use of clinical trials. The programme consisted of a play, post-performance debate, online resources including a virtual world and a downloadable audio recording, targeting Key Stage 4 and above (14+).

The project was a response to the fact that over 85% 1 of the young people’s audiences who watched Every Breath, Y Touring’s previous project looking at issues surrounding the use of animals in medical research, were keen to explore the issue of clinical trials through a Theatre of Debate project.

This project has formed the third of a trilogy of projects, developed in partnership with the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) and written by Judith Johnson, looking at different aspects of medical research.

2.b Objectives Y Touring’s application to the Wellcome Trust sets five objectives for Theatre of Debate Programme: Clinical Trials. These were to: •

Inform target audiences of the range of scientific, social, moral and political views surrounding clinical trials;

•

Explore the misconceptions that surround clinical trials;

•

Encourage and stimulate informed debate;

•

Deepen the educational impact of the play and debate through the use of digital technology and online simulation;

•

Maintain an online resource, including a downloadable audio recording (or podcast), in perpetuity.

This evaluation addresses the first four objectives, but not the fifth. The fifth is a long term objective and beyond the scope of this evaluation.

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Figure from an internal Y Touring evaluation of Every Breath

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2.c Method of Impact Measurement Impact measurement was carried out in the following ways: Quantitative data was collected from audiences using the electronic voting system, Qwizdom, prior to each performance. In addition Qwizdom was used during the debate to capture student views and options on questions put to them by the facilitator.

Questionnaires were distributed to teachers at every school both in a hard copy on the day and afterwards by email. The questionnaire was drawn up by Y Touring based around a model developed over the company’s existence and in association with independent evaluators and project partners. Schools were able to post, fax or email questionnaires back to the Y Touring office. An example questionnaire is included in the appendix.2 Finally, Company Manager Reports were sent in daily from the Company Manager on tour. The reports have provided Y Touring with an evaluation of the quality and progress of the tour. It has also allowed Y Touring to monitor audience diversity in terms of gender and ethnicity.

Y Touring also undertook informal evaluation through Facebook, and through running a review writing competition to capture the views of the students. Students were invited to join the Facebook group and students on the first tour were invited to write and submit reviews of Starfish. The review writing competition was not run on the second tour, as students were instead invited to take part in the online virtual world, Steamfish.

As with any evaluation, these findings are not conclusive and alternative interpretations of the qualitative answers can be found. For each section the main points have been drawn from the responses and highlighted to give points for discussion and consideration for the future. Reading the full responses in the appendix is encouraged.

2.d This Report Using the measurement methods outlined above (section 2c) this report seeks to evaluate the project against the objectives outlined in section 2b.

Overall the company had a return rate of 73% teacher evaluation forms returned. Every attempt has been made to chase unreturned forms by emails, fax and telephone.

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An example of the teacher evaluation can be found in the appendix on p.25

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3. Method ‘Very professional, very focused, highly organised and very well prepared’ (Steve Taylor, Assistant Head Teacher, Selston Arts and Community College)

3.a Development The initial step in the development of this project was the setting up of an Advisory Group. Working closely with the AMRC, Y Touring drew together a group of experts in the field of clinical trials and online virtual worlds. The group3 consisted of: •

Sir Iain Chalmers, Editor, James Lind Library;

•

Professor Janet Darbyshire, Joint Director of the UK Clinical Research Network;

•

Lester Firkins, employed by the Department of Health and the Medical Research Council as a lay representative for

various areas of concern;

•

David Kaskel, CEO and MD of languagelab.com;

•

Professor Max Parmar, Joint Director of the UK Clinical Research Network;

•

Dr Sophie Petit-Zeman, Head of External Relations, Association of Medical Research Charities;

•

Dr David Tovey, Editor-in-Chief, Cochrane Library;

•

Professor Simon Wessely MD FMedSci, Professor of Epidemiological and Liaison Psychiatry at the Institute of

Psychiatry, King’s College London and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at King’s and Maudsley Hospitals.

A workshop, attended by the advisory group, young people, interested stakeholders and writer Judith Johnson was held.

Judith then submitted a synopsis, which the advisory group and Y Touring staff fed back on. A first draft of the script, Starfish, was then submitted, and this was also assessed by the advisory board and Y Touring staff.

Y Touring’s Associate Director, Creative Learning, worked on creating preparatory lessons for schools. The lessons provide an introduction to the vocabulary and topic of the project, as well as encouraging students to think about questions they would like to ask. Post-production lessons for the project were provided by Centre of the Cell, via a link from Y Touring’s website. They covered: Clinical Research, Disease Detection and Diagnosis, New Vaccines, Double Blind Trials and Risk Factors of Disease.

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For full biographies of the advisory group see appendix p. 65

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3.b The First Tour During the pre-production period the Artistic Director worked with our regular designer, Jamie Todd, who created the set for the production. Jamie Todd, who is extremely experienced in creating touring sets for schools, was contracted and the play was cast. The production was marketed to schools across London and Hampshire through direct mail contact from Y Touring. Starfish was rehearsed in January 2009 and the first tour ran from Monday 26th January – Friday 13th March 2009.

The production toured for 6 weeks, with a week break for half term. It visited 22 schools, did 37 performances and was seen by 3517 young people in schools. 4 An average audience size was 95. While the tour was fully booked, there were a high number of cancellations (six) on this tour, due in part to heavy snow fall in February 2009. There was a special performance held at the Wellcome Trust for an invited audience and a performance of extracts of the play at the Science Media Centre (SMC) for press and SMC staff.

Starfish Spring 2009, Krupa Pattani as Saira and Steven

Links to the preparatory and post-performance lessons were sent to all schools. A group

Helliwell as Michael.

was set up for students to make general comments on the play, as well as responding to

© Robert Work-

discussion threads. Students were also encouraged to respond to the performance through a review writing competition. Business cards with the details of the competition

were handed out to all students. 25 reviews were received.

3.c Audio Recording In May 2009 the cast from the first tour rehearsed and recorded the adapted script for an audio version. Input Media recorded and produced the audio recording, which was directed by Nigel Townsend.

The audio recording was delivered by September and uploaded onto Y Touring’s Theatre of Debate® website: www.theatereofdebate.com The preparatory and post-performances resources available to schools hosting the tour were also made available on this site. Additionally, footage of all the speakers from the workshop day were uploaded to expand the resources available for this project.

The audio recording was marketed to all secondary schools in the UK through direct mail. Information about the audio recording was also sent to all members of the Y Touring Facebook groups. Links to the website were posted on science communication websites and education websites.

3.d Development of Steamfish

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See appendix p. 23 for a full break down of the schools.

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From May 2009 Y Touring worked with Rezzable Productions Ltd to develop Steamfish, a virtual online world. Steamfish was piloted alongside the second tour of Starfish. The world was designed in a Steampunk 5 style. In world, the Stella Maris, an airship, has crashed just off a desert island after 318 days at sea. Students joined the world as a sailor beginning to suffer from the dangerous disease, scurvy. Students then had to complete a quest to find a way off the Island, while at the same time undergoing a clinical trial, based on the James Lind’s controlled trial, to find a cure for scurvy. The world was developed to be a secure, private environment where students would only meet with other students, Rezzable and Y Touring staff.

Image from Steamfish

Steamfish was piloted with two schools (Sutton Grammar School and Queen’s College) in Autumn 2009 before the start of the second tour. Schools from the

second tour were invited to sign up whole groups of students. Alternatively individual students could sign up, and details on how to do this were supplied to each student on a business card at the time of the performance.

The website for Steamfish can be viewed at: http://steamfish.heritage-key.net/

3.e The Second Tour The second tour of Starfish was marketed to London, Hertfordshire, Liverpool, Nottingham, Warwickshire, South Wales, Dorset and Kent. This production was directed by Thomas Hescott, as a revival of the first tour, with a new cast.

Performances took place between Monday 2nd November and Friday 18th December 2009.

The production toured for 7 weeks, starting immediately after the Autumn half term holiday. Steamfish was made available to schools for three weeks immediately after the visit to the school. The production visited 28 schools, did 40 performances and

Starfish Autumn 2009, Hanna Kass as

was seen by 4013 young people in schools 6. The average audience size was 100.

Saira, and Andrew Hobday as Adrian.

There was a similar number of cancellations on this tour (6 schools), although they

© Robert Workman

were spread over 7 weeks, rather than 6. A large number of schools took only one performance due to time table restrictions. There were two special performances for invited audiences at One KX. As with the first tour, links to the preparatory and post-performance lessons were sent to all schools. The Facebook group was continued. However the competition that was piloted was linked to the Steamfish part of the project. Only 2 reviews were received.

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Steampunk is a genre which mixes ‘an era or world where steam power is still widely used - usually the 19th century, and

often Victorian era England - with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy’. (http://en.wikipedia.org.uk/wiki/Steampunk, 26th March 2010) 6

See appendix p. 24 for a full break down on the schools

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4. Evaluations

‘A very positive experience and useful in the sense that it seeks to break down the necessary pragmatisim of the false demarcations between discreet subject areas such as science and morality and hence philiosphy and ethics – an interesting approach to holistic education’ (John Flint, Post 16 Learning Manager, Harry Carlton School)

4.a Inform target audiences of the range of scientific, social, moral and political views surrounding clinical trials The first objective of Theatre of Debate: Clinical Trials was to inform target audiences of the range of scientific, social, moral and political views surrounding clinical trials.

The play appears to have met this objective. During the first tour teachers felt that 75% of students were extremely attentive during the play, while the remaining 25% of students were attentive. Students seem to have been slightly less engaged on the second tour, with 68% being very engaged, 27% being quite engaged and 5% being partly engaged. Overall, however, this is a pleasing result, indicating that Y Touring continues to engage audiences in the subject matter through drama.

Furthermore, when asked to give views and comments on the play 12 teachers used the words ‘engaged’ or ‘engaging’ and several others made similar comments. Students also felt that they had learned from the experience, with one student, Emily, commenting that ‘I wish we had more things like that because I learned way more from that than I would have done in any science lesson’, while another student, Ope Ogun, commented that ‘you made learning fun’.

Within this objective Y Touring covered a diverse audience makeup. The ethnic make up of the audience is show below:

White (68%)

Asian (13%)

18%

Afro-Caribbean (18%)

Other (1%)

1%

13% 68%

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In comparison to the UK 2001 Census data this tour reached a much larger ethnic mix than is a representation of the UK (white 92.1%, all minority ethnic groups 7.9%). 7 This is likely to be because the tour was in London for 6 weeks out of 13 weeks, and according to the Census 45% of non-ethnic groups live in London. 8 The tour also targeted a mixture of urban (London, Liverpool and Nottingham) and rural (Hertfordshire, Warwickshire, South Wales, Dorset and Kent) areas to ensure that a broad geographical and social mix was covered.

Touring had hoped to reach 19,500 young people over two tours of this production. However, the actual number reached was 7530. This is substantially lower than the target. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly average audience sizes are down from 126.5 in 20049 to 97.5. Secondly, there were a large number of cancellations over both tours (12 schools in total, meaning that a possible 24 performance were missed, with an audience total10 of 2340). Reasons for cancellations ranged from unavoidable things, like heavy snow, to teachers forgetting to book the hall or forgetting to clear it with other teachers, to rescheduling of exams (leading from the heavy snow). Finally, 50% of Starfish Autumn 2009, Hanna Kass as Saira and Max

schools only took one performance of the play, due to timetable

Saunders-Singer as Michael.

restrictions. Anecdotal evidence collected during the booking period

© Robert Workman

suggests that while teachers are very keen to book Y Touring’s production, the timetable is increasingly under greater pressure, which

makes it harder for them to accommodate two performances. In some cases it is possible for Y Touring to perform in two different schools in a day, but logistically this is difficult. 11 Y Touring seeks to encourage a wide range of views to be discussed, linking not just to the science curriculum, but to other subject areas. This allows the subject to be embedded more deeply and encourages a wider range of view points. Claire Webb, MCC Coordinator at Archbishop Tenision’s School, commented: ‘I felt it covered a lot of areas of the curriculum such as science, maths, RE, PSHE and drama.’

87% teachers rated the quality of the play as excellent. 20 teachers also commented specifically on the high quality of the acting. Y Touring feels that this is a key way of engaging audience and introducing to them the range of scientific, social, moral and political views surrounding clinical trials. Mr J Costello, Head of Department at Sutton Grammar enlarged on this point:

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/apr/06/Immigration.britishidentity1 British Census 2001, 10th May 2010

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http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=457, 10th May 2010

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Data from Y Touring’s evaluation of the tour of Wasted, 2004

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Working on the average for this tour of 97.5

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This is for a number of reasons, including timing (the first school needs to have a very early performance, and the second

school needs to have an afternoon performance) and the fact that the schools need to be located reasonably near to each other.

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‘I found the acting in the play superb. The development of the characters throughout helped the pupils empathise with the differing perspectives of the parties involved’ This was echoed by several student reviews, including one from Matthew Blow: ‘I would recommend ‘Starfish’ by the Y Touring Theatre Company to all students who are willing to learn something new and have an open mind towards the suggestions of others within moral debate. The performance was moving and informative, through-provoking and entertaining. I was enthralled. It certainly beats a physics lesson’ The combination of good quality acting and good links to the curriculum is central to Y Touring’s work. To ensure the project is effective, both good science and good drama must be evident. It is apparent from the feedback that both have been achieved on this project. Additionally, Y Touring seeks to engage through both heart and mind. It would appear that, through the high quality of the performance students engage with piece emotionally. This is key to making them want to find out more about the underlying science and the wide range of scientific, social, moral and political views surrounding clinical trials.

4.b Explore the misconceptions that surround clinical trials There are two main areas that Y Touring focused on to achieve this objective.

The first is in the supply to schools of preparatory materials, and post-production follow-on work, which was available to download from the Y Touring website (www.ytouring.org.uk). The lessons provided teachers with a chance to explore the issues around clinical trials and the misconceptions linked to them. They also provide a glossary and links to further information.

From the teacher evaluations Y Touring can monitor how many schools used the resources provided:

Tour 1

Yes

Tour 2

No

29% 47%

53%

71%

Only a small percentage of schools on the first tour undertook Y Touring’s preparatory work before the production. Several teachers indicated that they were not aware of the lessons. When completing an Interim Evaluation, it was recommended that Y Touring should continue to signpost the lessons in correspondence with schools, but also send them a copy as an email attachment nearer their visit. Looking at the increase of use during the second tour (an increase of 24%), this seems to have been successful.

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Teacher comments on the lessons were generally positive, one teacher referring to the value of the lessons as a way of deepening learning: ‘Excellent to have synopsis of play and some suggested lessons for preparation. Detail provided very good. Too often visiting schools give a one-off good production but this education preparation is not done.' (Gordon Ironside, Headteacher, Sutton Grammar) Two teachers commented that the preparatory lessons, which were aimed at teachers of all disciplines where a bit too ‘drama’. While Y Touring’s follow up lessons are more subject specific, the preparatory lessons take a more overview approach. However these were balanced by other comments on how useful they were.

Secondly, Y Touring sought to explore misconceptions around clinical trials in the play and debate. Cavan Syrad, Teacher Access at Treloar College commented: ‘The subject matter was interesting and relevant to our students, and the play presented the issues in a very accessible way.

It made the students think, form opinions and allowed them scope to contribute their thoughts and feelings in the debate.’

Through the use of the Qwizdom electronic voting handsets Y Touring is able to measure the range of audience opinion and knowledge. Four key questions were asked during this project. Two of these related directly to misconceptions around clinical trials.

What is the best way to know if a treatment or medicine works?

% Audience

80 60 40 20

no ’t k Do n

Be

ca u

se

w

e

kn

ow

it’s

Be

be

ca u

en

se

a

tri all

do

ed

ct

an

or

d

te

te lls

st

us

ed

w

0

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78% of the audience agree that the best way to know if a treatment or medicine works is because we know that it has been tested. This is an encouraging result in terms of exploding misconceptions around clinical trials, and suggests that most of the audience are aware of the importance of testing treatments.

If you did participate in a clinical trial would you rather participate in a talking treatment trial or a medication trial?

70.0

% Audience

52.5 35.0 17.5 0

Talking Treatment

Medication or Drug Trial

Either Type of Trial

It can be seen from this graph that a much larger percentage (65%) of the audience would rather participate in a talking treatment than would participate in a medication or drug trial. When asked in the debate by the facilitator the reason for this, the main reason given was that this is seen as the ‘safe’ option. However evidence suggests that this is not actually the case. High profile cases of drug trials going wrong do seem to have an effect and to increase a bias about taking part in drug trials.

The results from Qwizdom would seem to indicate that there are still misconceptions about the safety of clinical trials and this may need further exploration.

4.c Encourage and stimulate informed debate The third objective set out by Y Touring for this project was to encourage and stimulate informed debate.

Key to achieving this objective is the notion of informed debate. 6 teachers commented on how well the debate highlighted a range of issues. Anne James, Head of Counselling at Treloar College, commented that ‘The actors had obviously done their research.’ Student comments also reflected that they had taken on board differing view points: ‘By the time the audience must say what they think they not only strongly believe in their choice, but also fully understand the opinions of the other side.’

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(Elle Monaghan, student) ‘At first I found the question easy to answer however, after the play I realised the complexities and considered the morality of the decisions and found the questions harder to answer. We had been made to think.’

(Joel Pinder, Student) 58% of teachers, when asked, thought that the debate served to highlight issues raised in the play to a greater extent. 39% thought that it highlighted issues to a certain extent.

The debate section is crucial in allowing students to explore further into issues surrounding clinical trials.

Pie Chart showing teacher response in answer to the question: Please indicate below to what extent the format of the debate facilitated student participation

To a Greater Extent (50%) Not Much (4%)

To a Certain Extent (39%) Not at all (0%)

Partly (7%)

7%4%

39%

50%

The results above indicate that generally teachers felt the format of the debate facilitated student participation. 12 teachers commented positively on the use of the Qwizdom handsets to engage students in the debate. Linda Smith, Subject Leader for Science at Selston Arts and Community College, commented: ‘The electronic voting and visual graph made all students want to participate. It was led very well and seeing each point of view made students think about their responses.’

A Yates, Assistant Headteacher at Hendon School, commented that the ‘Workshop was genuinely interactive’. 3 teachers felt that Qwizdom was not used enough.

Electronic voting also seemed to be popular with students, with 12 students specifically mentioning the handsets in their reviews. One student, Sarah Johns, commented that ‘the hand-held voting system was something new and interactive so we felt more involved as an audience and its drew us into the show straight away’, a sentiment echoed by others. Students also seem to appreciate the role that Qwizdom played in collecting the views of the whole audience: ‘… you had a chance to see what everyone thought of the play and compare your emotions’ (Jess Lotter, Student) Qwizdom seems to have proved a good method of encouraging all students to take part, which is of particular importance when the group is large, and not all students will be able to voice their opinions. In particular, it has reduced the number of teachers suggesting that separate break out sessions are used in the debate (which carries with it many practical Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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difficulties) 12. However, a balance must be struck between the use of Qwizdom and the chance for students to voice their opinions and explore issues, as students also seem to value the discussion time: ‘The question and discussion section really got me thinking… the animated chat really made me feel that my opinions were being listened to and counted.’

(Frances James, Student) There are also technical problems with Qwizdom, which means that sometimes the system fails. On the first tour Qwizdom worked 78% of the time. Y Touring have been working closely with Qwizdom to identify reasons for failure, and this lead to a slight improvement on the second tour, when Qwizdom worked 82% of the time. Questions can still be asked to students and responded to on a ‘hands up’ basis, but this does not allow questions to be answered anonymously, and is not as engaging.

Qwizdom also provides a good way for Y Touring to evaluate the varied opinions of students. The second Qwizdom question that students were asked was based on a case study, looking at the real case of Holly, who suffers from Variant CJD. After discussing the issue with the actors in character, the audience were then asked to vote on whether Holly’s father should be allowed to giver her treatment that had not been trialled.

Should the father in our case study be allowed to use a drug that has not been subjected to a fair, controlled and unbiased trial?

70.0

% Audience

52.5 35.0 17.5 0

Yes

No

Over half the audience (61%) felt that the drug should be used, despite not being properly tested. This would indicate that despite the importance attached to clinical trials in the earlier Qwizdom question (What is the best way to know if a treatment or medicine works?) audiences still generally feel that in emotionally charged situations they are likely to try any treatment,

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These include: the number of staff available to facilitate break-out sessions; that actors would have to divide themselves

amongst the sessions, meaning that the different view points might be lost; and issues in terms of space and time lost while groups form and then come back together at the end.

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trialled or not, that would work. However, 39% audience felt differently. The split in the audience on an entirely personal choice can be seen as encouraging and an indication that a stimulated and informed debate had taken place.

The final Qwizdom question also split the audience: Do you think patients should be asked to participate in clinical trials?

60

% Audience

45 30 15 0

Yes

No

Don’t Know

This result again indicates that the audience may have taken on a range of views, and come to differing conclusions. While majority (60%) felt that patients should be asked to take part in clinical trials, there is still a substantial part of the audience who didn’t agree (22%) or didn’t know (18%). This indicates that the debate seeks to open up questions for audiences to answer themselves, rather than guiding audiences towards a ‘right’ answer. This was reinforced by several teacher comments including: ‘A lot of the girls changed their opinions over the course of the debate as they had a chance to think more deeply about the issues.’

(Nicola Goddard, Biology Teacher, Queen’s College) ‘It covered all aspects of the issues of clinical trials and was not biased – it pointed out the pros and cons backed up with evidence and examples.’

(Gail Brockway, Head of RE/PSHCE, The Kimberley School) One issue that does sometimes hinder the debate is lack of time. 14 teachers commented that it would be nice to have had more time, although several of these acknowledged that this was down to them and the constraints of timetabling and the school day, rather than Y Touring. Y Touring suggests that 45 minutes is allowed for the debate, but not all schools are able to follow this advice.

Finally, comments from the student reviews suggest that the informed debate has allowed students to draw conclusions on their own thoughts and feelings on the topic: ‘The play made me realise how important research into illness and medicine is, I think we all learned that sometimes in our Quest to preserve life, some people must be the brave ones.’

(Anna Steadman, Student)

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19

Y Touring seems to have achieved this objective and the debate that follows the play seems to be a crucial part of Y Touring’s methodology and ability to deliver an informed understanding of the issues surrounding clinical trials.

4.d Deepen the educational impact of the play and debate through the use of digital technology and online simulation Y Touring concentrated on two methods of engagement through digital technology to meet this objective.

Building on experience from previous tours, a Facebook group was set up with the intention of extending the opportunity for debate after the performance finished. A discussion thread ‘Would you participate in a clinical trial’ was set up, and the Facilitator encouraged students to join the group. Y Touring also uploaded photographs of the production as well as links to other resources and the audio recording of the play.

45 members joined the Facebook group during the first tour, and 75 joined the group during the second tour. 11 comments were left on facebook, 5 in answer to the discussion trigger and 6 general comments about the production. Neither tour achieved as many members as during the previous tour of ‘Nobody Lives Forever’ in Autumn 2008, which had 99 members and 25 comments posted.

A significant number of members are passive members (ie those who do not leave a comment or question). Currently, as only a limited number of students join Facebook and even fewer are active users, Facebook is not being used as an Image from Steamfish

effective way of deepening the educational impact of the play.

The second use of digital technology to deepen the educational impact of the play

and debate was the pilot of an online virtual world, Steamfish. Steamfish was marketed to schools for use after the performance. Teachers were asked on the evaluation form whether they were intending to use it: Pie Chart showing teacher response in answer to the question: Are you planning to make use of the virtual clinical trials, ‘Steamfish’?

Yes (65%)

No (35%)

35% 65%

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The initial reaction to Steamfish from teachers seems to be positive. Several teachers saw this as ‘a way of extending knowledge.’ (John Billington, Head of PSHE, Carter Community School). Two teachers also commented on the enthusiasm from the students. For those that were not intending to use Steamfish in school, time was the most commonly cited problem, with 8 teachers mentioning lack of time, or the pressures of the school timetable. However, some of these teachers were planning to encourage students to use the resource outside of school time. School technology was also sited as a problem by some.

In total 644 requested to register for Steamfish. This was a mixture of schools and individual students. However, out of this number of registrations, only 114 accessed the website, and only 33 actually participated in the trial.

This was a disappointing number of participants, particularly given the initial positive response from teachers. It has been hard to get evaluations from participants, but feedback from schools indicates that school IT systems, particularly in relation to firewalls, does prevent many school computers from accessing Steamfish.

However, the feedback from those that did use it was good, both in terms of the quality of the product, and its usefulness: ‘Excellent graphics. Suitable as homework for the pupils to use at home’ (Zarana Haines, Head of Science, Studley High School). Matthew Grey, the Network Manager at Queen’s College, also commented ‘I think this is the way education is going these days. It gives

Image from Steamfish

students access to experiences that they wouldn’t be able to get in the real world and I can see a real benefit in that.’

Overall, the use of both Facebook and Steamfish does move towards deepening the educational impact of the play and debate. However, at the moment, neither are attracting as many participants as they should. In particular, Steamfish seems to be acknowledged as a good resource, but this does not currently translate into actual usage.

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5. Conclusion ‘It was very impressive that you held the attention of a diverse group of year 10 students for the best part of 2 hours. The way in which new drama can introduce complicated issues and multi-layered discussion is a constant source of delight.’

(John Billington, Head of PSHE, Carter Community College) It is clear that Theatre of Debate Programme: Clinical Trials has met the majority of its objectives, which were to: •

Inform target audiences of the range of scientific, social, moral and political views surrounding clinical trials;

•

Explore the misconceptions that surround clinical trials;

•

Encourage and stimulate informed debate;

•

Deepen the educational impact of the play and debate through the use of digital technology and online simulation;

•

Maintain an online resource, including a downloadable audio recording (or podcast), in perpetuity.

The performance (play and debate) have proved to be a powerful way of both informing and simulating debate, and also exploring the misconceptions around clinical trials. The quality of the performance and the electronic voting are both cited by teachers as key elements in enabling engagement of students and this finding may be of interest to other Theatre of Science Companies.

Teachers did not always make full use of the resources available, both in terms of lesson plans and Steamfish. However, this does not seem to be a reflection on the quality of the resources, but seems often to be because of the time pressures that teachers are under. What teachers may be particularly interested in is the response of students to learning outside of the classroom – several students expressed that this was a better way to learn, and while we do not advocate all learning through this method, we would draw the attention to teachers of the importance of holistic learning.

For the wider scientific community and for the Wellcome Trust, this project highlights both the effect that good public engagement can have, but also the areas where it is still needed. While most of the data collected from Qwizdom indicates that audiences are understanding the issues surrounding clinical trials, there are still a large number of students who would not be prepared to risk taking part in a drug trial.

The audio recording of Starfish is also now complete on www.theatreofdebate.com. While it is not possible yet to draw a conclusion about its use, Y Touring has succeeded in creating a resource that will be available to schools, universities and the general public in perpetuity.

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6. Recommendations for Future Tours ‘Thank you for providing such an enriching activity for our students.’

(Claire Webb, MCC Coordiantor, Archbishop Tension’s School) Theatre of Debate Programme: Clinical Trials has been an extremely successful project for Y Touring.

Following from the increased use of teacher resources in the second tour, it is recommended that in future teacher resources are emailed directly to teachers, as well as being available on the website.

Y Touring needs to consider how to extend its reach. As schools have come under greater pressure in terms of timetabling, figures for live performances have fallen, as some schools find it hard to schedule two performances. Y Touring needs to look at the possibility of booking tours on the basis of two schools a day, although this may not be logistically possible.

Alternatively, Y Touring needs to consider how to make its work available on a different basis – possibly piloting streaming the production to some schools, as well as retaining live performances.

In future projects, Y Touring also needs to look at how to actively engage students in the use of Facebook and online virtual worlds. The use of these sites at home should be encouraged, as it appears easier for students to access both sites from their home computers. While feedback on virtual worlds has been good, Y Touring needs to look at ways to reach a greater number of students, translating those who express an interest into active participants.

Having evaluated the project the model seems to be a successful one, in terms of combining strong scientific content with good drama, allowing the project to meet its objectives. The general recommendation is that this model should continue to be used to develop good quality Theatre of Science projects.

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7. Appendices 7.1 Breakdown of Schools Schools in tour 1

Audience Size

Number of Shows

Queens College

104

1

Wallington County Grammar School

245

2

Sutton Grammar School

239

2

Winchmore School

80

1

Albany School

405

4

Walthamstow School for Girls (Cancelled show)

0

0

The Royal Liberty (Cancelled show)

0

0

Redden Court School

105

1

Lady Margaret School

95

1

Addington High School (Cancelled show)

0

0

Hendon School

198

2

Prendergast Ladywell Fields School (cancelled show)

0

0

Blackfen School for Girls

107

2

The Green School

261

2

Thomas Moore School

68

2

Virgo Fidelis School (cancelled show)

0

0

Shirley High School

190

2

Archbishop Tenison's High School

189

2

Elthorne Park High School

179

2

Sydenham School (cancelled show)

0

0

Eastbury School

0

0

St Augustine's High School

207

2

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Schools in tour 1

Audience Size

Number of Shows

The Ravensbourne School

214

2

Hitchin Girls’ School

58

1

Sacred Heart School

66

1

Bacons College

77

1

Treloar College

47

1

The Westgate School

114

1

Total

3517

37

Schools in tour 2

Audience Size

Number of Shows

Kings Langley School

160

1

Hemel Hempstead School

170

2

John F Kennedy School

180

2

Francis Combe Academy

180

1

Malton School

120

1

New Heys Community Comprehensive

27

1

The Belvedere Academy,

155

2

Medicines for Children Research Network

45

1

Croxteth CCS

50

1

Our Lady’s High

135

2

TLCRN, Monty Hind Youth Centre

16

1

Selston Arts & Community College

240

2

Harry Carlton School

140

1

Bramcote Enterprise & Business School

Cancelled show

Cancelled show

The Kimberley School

130

2

Trinity School

180

2

Ash Green School

215

2

Manor Park Community School

110

1

Studley High School

300

2

Whitchurch High School

140

2

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Schools in tour 2

Audience Size

Number of Shows

Ogmore School

220

2

Cowbridge Community School

cancelled show

cancelled show

Stanwell School

cancelled show

cancelled show

Oakmead College of Technology

220

1

Carter Community School

57

1

Porchester School

200

2

St Peter’s School

60

1

Ferndown Upper School

200

1

Helenswood School

179

1

Falmer High School

cancelled show

cancelled show

Herne Bay High School

34

1

Spires Academy

150

1

Total

4013

40

7.2 Example Teacher Evaluation Form

General Information Q1

Date of performance

Q2

Name of venue

Q3

Your name

Q4

Your position

Q5

How many students attended?

Q6

Which year groups were present? Circle all that apply 9 10 11 12 13

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Q7

Were you present for the play?

Yes (go to Q8)

No (go to Q11)

Q8

Please rate the quality of the play Circle as appropriate Poor

1 2 3 4

Excellent

5

Q9

Please rate how engaged you feel the students were Circle as appropriate Not engaged

Very engaged 1 2 3 4 5 Q10 Please give your comments on the play:

The Debate Q11 Were you present for the debate?

No (go to Q16)

Yes (go to Q12)

Q12 Please rate the quality of the debate Circle as appropriate Poor

1 2 3 4

Excellent

5

Q13 Please rate how engaged you feel the students were Circle as appropriate Not engaged

Very engaged 1 2 3 4 5 Q14 To what extent did the debate facilitate student participation? Circle as appropriate Not at all

1

2

3

To a great extent

4

5 Continued overleaf

Q15 Please give your comments on the debate:

Teacher’s Resources Q16 Have you made use of any of the resources in the teacherʼs pack?

Yes (go to Q17) No (go to Q20) Q17 Which resources have you used? Tick all that apply

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Preparatory lesson plans Post show lesson plans Discussion triggers

Q18 Please rate the quality of the resources Circle as appropriate Poor

1 2 3 4

Excellent

5

Q19 Please give your comments on the resources:

Steamfish Q20 Are you planning to make use of the virtual clinical trial, 驶Steamfish始?

Yes No Q21 Please give your reasons for this choice:

The Company Q22 Please rate how good you felt Y Touring was at planning this event Circle as appropriate Not good

1

2

3

Very good

4

5

Q23 Please share your comments regarding the preparation and planning of the event: Q24 Please rate your overall impression of the company Circle as appropriate Bad impression

Good Impression 1 2 3 4 5 Q25 Please give your impressions of the company:

Any Other Comments Q26 If you have any other comments, please write them here: Thank you for taking the time to complete this form. Your views are essential in helping us to evaluate this project and plan for others in the future.

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7.3 Teacher Responses in Full Number of Teacher Evaluations received Tour 1

Tour 2

39

41

Which Year groups were present?

Year 7

Year 8

Year 9

Year 10

Year 11

Year 12

Year 13

1

1

3

33

16

5

2

Which sections of the Play and Debate were you present for?

Play

Debate

Part of Play or Debate

69

68

5

If you saw the play, please indicate below, on a scale of 1 to 5, how attentive you think the students were during the play? (Asked to teachers from the first tour only) Extremely attentive

Not at all attentive

1 30

2

3

10

4

0

5

0

0

Please rate the quality of the play (Asked to teachers from the second tour only) Poor

1 0

2

3

0

4

0

Excellent

5

5

34

Please rate how engaged you feel the students were [in the play] (Asked to teachers from the second tour only) Not engaged

1 0

2 0

3 2

Very engaged

4 11

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5 28

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Please give your views and comments on the play: Staff present for the entire play rated it highly. Alison Salmon - (biology) commented how appropriate it was to our 21st century science course. Kieran Balfe (drama) also rated it highly. I saw the last 15 mins and was so pleased to find it of such high quality and later thought student response was superb. (Mrs Maria Dixon, Head of Biology, Hitchin Girls’ School) Very good. (Mrs Whitehead, KS4+5 Coordinator, The Ravensbourne School) Excellent! (Dione Daly, Teacher of Art, St. Augustine’s CE High; Hattie Temple, Science Teacher, St. Augustine’s CE High; Ms L Kitching, Subject Leader of Science, St. Augustine’s CE High; C Rese, Maths Department, The Westgate School) Hard to say as I only saw the end but I sensed the students were well involved. (C Dewhurst, 2nd in Charge, Science, Sacred Heart RC School) Very enjoyable and well acted. I enjoyed the theme of the play and my students really enjoyed it. It was sensitively done and very provocative. (Gerry Foley, Head of RE, Sacred Heart RC School) It was an excellent play, everyone enjoyed it very much and were attentive. (Trang Tan, RE Teacher, Sacred Heart RC School) Really poignant, very suitable for the age group and ability. (Elizabeth Carlton, Head of Science, Sacred Heart RC School) Pupils really engaged throughout. (Deb Sutch, Head of Maths, The Westgate School) The subject matter was interesting and relevant to our students, and the play presented the issues in a very accessible way.

It made the students think, form opinion and allowed them scope to contribute their thoughts and feelings in the debate.

(Cavan Syrad, Teacher Access, Treloar College) It allowed the pupils to reflect on family and community issues of illness. the difficulty of making decisions. (Mr I Ali, Head of Year, Albany School) Play and debate both excellent. (Peter Heffernan, Head of Science, Elthorne Park High School) Very impressed really good and informative. (Suzie Glasson, Admin, WRL, Bacon’s College) Thought provoking. almost current in that CJD not recognised by pupils. though they are familiar with Mad cow's. (Yasmin Ghayur, Teacher of Science, Archbishop Tenison’s School) Really enjoyed it, emotional, well performed, caught the audience's attention. surprised by lack of knowledge in the audience of CJD, excellent set and interactive stuff. (Sally Marsh, Head of Drama, The Green School) The beginning (1st half) was a little too long. (Mark Woodcraft, Teacher of Science, Archbishop Tenison’s School) I thought it was really excellent, extremely well acted, well resourced and interesting to watch. (Suzi Atkin, Deputy Head of 6th Form, Winchmore School) Well presented and performed. thought provoking performances and content. (Tim Fessler, Head of Drama, Thomas More School) What I saw was excellent - thought provoking. sad I didn't see it all! (Fran Backwell, Head of KS4 Science, The Westgate School) Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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The small amount I saw was excellent and thought provoking. (P Fray, KS3 Coordinator, The Westgate School) Very interesting. (Sarah Henderson, NGT Science Teacher, The Westgate School) Engaging, relevant but hard to comment when I didn't see the entire play. (Miriam Baker, Applied Science Coordinator, The Westgate School) Characters were sharply drawn. Story arc was clever and had students engaged. performances excellent. Workshop was Genuinely interactive. (A Yates, Assistant Head Teacher, Hendon School) The play was well acted and enthusiastically delivered. The characters were believable and the audience could identify with at least one. the subject matter was delivered effectively but subtly and the play was the right length of time. (Louise Alexis, TA Inclusion Department, Elthorne Park High School) Well-presented and informative. dealt with difficult issues in a direct, yet sensitive manner. (Minna Pesola, Teaching Access Department, Treloar College) Very well acted and covered appropriate material. If anything, slightly too long because their was not sufficient time for debate. (Marina Haywood, Head of Chemistry, Archbishop Tenison’s School) Excellent acting and interesting subject matter. Ms Hert (PSHE) said that she was looking at this in her lessons. science dept also said that they were looking at clinical experiments. (Ms Knight, Head of Drama, Albany School) The play was very good but because I wasn't able to see all of it, I'm not certain how the idea of drug testing was put over in terms of justification and severity of the dilemma that then arose. (Vinay Sharma, Head of Faculty, The Westgate School) A very moving and powerful play. very absorbing and sensitively presented. (Jane Clarke, Tutor, Treloar College) It was a brilliant performance as usual and the students were gripped and ready to say how much they enjoyed it afterwards.

(Jenny Gillatt, Teaching Assistant, Treloar College) Very good - Dealt with difficult issues sensitively whilst challenging pupil response. Main story line - v. clear - secondary story line could have been clearer. (Charlotte Bateson, Head of Year/ English, Bacon’s College) I thought it was an excellent production, very engaging and thought provoking I felt it covered a lot of areas of the curriculum such as science, maths, RE, PSHE and drama. (Claire Webb, MCC Coordinator, Archbishop Tenison’s School) I thought the play was thought provoking - introducing ideas and opinions. The actors had obviously done their research and their representation of the illness and the process of deterioration was excellent and very moving. (Anne James, Head of Counseling, Treloar College) I was extremely impressed at how professional the actors were. The students really enjoyed the play and it linked well with our work on clinical trials. (Nicola Goddard, Biology Teacher, Queen’s College London) I thought it was very good and moving too. I liked the 'Social phobia' character as a counter-balance to the much more seriously ill Michael, yet her story still relevant to the clinical trial theme. (Gordon Ironside, Headteacher, Sutton Grammar School)

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I found the acting in the play superb. the development of the characters throughout helped the pupils empathise with the differing perspectives of the parties involved in the debate. (Mr J Costello, Head of Department, Sutton Grammar School) Excellent throughout. Acting was fantastic. (Rachel Andrews, Science Teacher, Selston Arts & Community College) Very well performed (Ansar Iqbal, Head of Science, Kings Langley School) Well thought out and moving production. (M Taggart, Leader Learner Science, New Heys School) I thought the play was fantastic, very thought provoking and it was an excellent way to engage with young people and to get them talking about clinical trials. (Jenny Newman, Consumer Liaison Officer, Speke Community Centre) Some found it very emotional and some found the virtual world characters funny, but all were engaged (Jean Harris, Head of Science, The Hemel Hempstead School)

Very relevant, contemporary with great acting (Zoe Bailey, Head of Science, John F. Kennedy School) Really well presented and focussed for the appropriate age group. The students were engrossed in the play, which was really well rehearsed, organised and professionally performed. (Andrew Oliver, Head of Expressive Arts, Our Lady’s RC High School) Very good acting, very moving. (Sarah Keal, Assistant Subject Leader for Science, Selston Arts & Community College) Fabulous acting, made it very real. Many students believed it had happened to Adrian (Linda Smith, Subject Leader for Science, Selston Arts & Community College) Very well performed including good use of technologies, thought provoking, relevant to our students and engaging for the whole audience. (Steve Taylor, Assistant Head Teacher, Selston Arts & Community College) Really good theme (Nuala Buckley, Head of RE, Our Lady’s Blackley) Very clever, short, faced paced situations kept the students engaged. (Antony Dyer, Teacher, Ferndown Upper School)

Excellent acting – thought provoking & interesting (Alex Whitehead, Science Assistant, Selston Arts & Community College) The play drew the students into different lives. It would be good to have known about the swear words in advance though.

(Karen Maselino, Citizenship & PSHE Coordinator, Oakmeed College of Technology) Very relevant to Science curriculum, excellent activity. (P.Warburton, Head of Science, Malton School) Excellent, great way to get the topic across. Highly informative. (A Duncan, Science teacher, Selston Arts & Community College) Slick, professional, very informative. (R Del Buono, head of Science, The Kimberley School)

Excellent: provocative – challenging – important issues for young people to explore. (Pat Higgins, Head of Year, Trinity Catholic School) Very well written and performed. Fast-moving, easy to follow even though the underlying concepts were a challenge to many of our students. (John Billington, Head of PSHCE, Cater Community School) I really liked it – I found it made me think about the issue of clinical trials buy it also engaged me emotionally as well. I found it very moving. (Robert Palmer, Performance Leader, Spires Academy) All pupils were very engaged in the performance and also the debate. (Anne Marie Davies, Teacher, Ogmore School) Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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Engaged pupils on an emotional level. (Mr M Haynes, Head of Science, Ferndown Upper School) Was present for the first hour of the play – students were engaged and appeared to enjoy the presentation/play – Personally I felt the pace of the play was at times a little laboured. (John Flint, Post 16 Learning Manager, Harry Carlton School)

Extremely well presented and debriefed (V Pearce, Teacher, Whitchurch School)

The play was well presented, well acted and the point was relayed very well! (Lynda Bearne, Life Skill Coordinator, Kings Langley School) Very informative, quite hard hitting but necessary in making & getting the issues across to the students. (Jan Wright, IAG Coordinator, Kings Langley School) Relevant & thought provoking. A good base for GCSE coursework too. (Ben Davis, Science teacher, Ferndown Upper School) An excellent set up, very well organised. The content was accessible to the pupils and relevant to KS4 science.

(Zarana Harries, Head of Science, Studley High School) Well acted, poignant and hard hitting. (Anthea Parker, Head of Religious Education, Whitchurch High School)

Is there anything you would change about the play? (Asked to teachers from the first tour only) No ! A brilliant performance (Mrs Maria Dixon, Head of Biology, Hitchin Girls’ School) Bit shorter perhaps (Mrs Whitehead, KS4+5 Coordinator, The Ravensbourne School) Explore two or three types of illness/issues. (Mr I Ali, Head of Year, Albany School) Perhaps another point of view. (Sally Marsh, Head of Drama, The Green School) Only perhaps the main issues were mentioned earlier in the play and more explicitly . (Suzi Atkin, Deputy Head of 6th Form, Winchmore School) May have been hard for some students to see the computer screen due to seating arrangement. (Miriam Baker, Applied Science Coordinator, The Westgate School) Opportunities to vote during the performance? (A Yates, Assistant Head Teacher, Hendon School) I would have liked more focus and depth on the main character who died; his life and aspirations before he was taken ill. this would have illustrated the impact of his illness on his mind, not just the physical impact. (Louise Alexis, TA Inclusion Department, Elthorne Park High School) I think next time we will have longer for discussion. (Jenny Gillatt, Teaching Assistant, Treloar College) Perhaps integrating the secondary story line more obviously. (Charlotte Bateson, Head of Year/ English, Bacon’s College) No I think it was very balanced and well thought out and the story flowed well (Anne James, Head of Counseling, Treloar College)

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Some of the pupils didn't see the relevance of the' second life' part of the story perhaps this could have been integrated into the story better. (Nicola Goddard, Biology Teacher, Queen’s College London) The story line running about the doctor and her late father, I was not sure that this was necessary. Her concern over her own perceived failings was a little distracting from the main story. (Mr J Costello, Head of Department, Sutton Grammar School)

If you saw the debate, please indicate below, on a scale of 1 to 5, how attentive you think the students were during the debate? (Asked to teachers from the first tour only) Extremely attentive

Not at all attentive

1 16

2

3

15

4

1

5

1

0

Please rate the quality of the debate (Asked to teachers from the second tour only) Poor

1 0

2

3

1

4

6

Excellent

5

15

17

Please indicate to what extent the format of the debate student participation.

To a greater extent

1 28

2

3

22

Not at all

4

4

5

2

0

Please indicate to what extent the debate served to highlight issues raised in the play Asked to teachers from the first tour only) To a greater extent

1 18

2 12

3 1

Not at all

4 0

5 0

Please give your views and comments on the debate The hand held voting counters were a great idea - involving all in decisions. characters were approachable and charismatic.

(Mrs Maria Dixon, Head of Biology, Hitchin Girls’ School) Very good excellent chance for student participation (Mrs Whitehead, KS4+5 Coordinator, The Ravensbourne School) Good but a little short. (Dione Daly, Teacher of Art, St Augustine’s CE High) Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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Liked the handsets as all could get involved. (Hattie Temple, Science Teacher, St. Augustine’s CE High) Students generally attentive and many had questions and gave views. (Ms L Kitching, Subject Leader of Science, St. Augustine’s CE High) Probably it was something the kids had never thought of before so it was a good thing. (Nicola Hoad, Head of Science, Blackfen School for Girls) Helpful and thought - provoking (Gerry Foley, Head of RE, Sacred Heart RC School) Really useful to have the electronic votes. (Elizabeth Carlton, Head of Science, Sacred Heart RC School) Well handled, and it allowed the students ample scope to contribute. (Cavan Syrad, Teacher Access, Treloar College) Pupils more active in using remotes to vote. (Mr I Ali, Head of Year, Albany School) Debate was excellent. Steven facilitated discussion very well. The electronic voting system was a good way of illustrating differences of opinion. (Peter Heffernan, Head of Science, Elthorne Park High School) Very good student enjoyed taking part. (Suzie Glasson, Admin, WRL, Bacon’s College) Opinions argued well. (Yasmin Ghayur, Teacher of Science, Archbishop Tenison’s School) It was shortened by the constraints of the day but was very informative. (Sally Marsh, Head of Drama, The Green School) Needed much more time for the debate. (Mark Woodcraft, Teacher of Science, Archbishop Tenison’s School) Drew students in and many offered a contribution. (Tim Fessler, Head of Drama, Thomas More School) Excellent. (C Rese, Maths Department, The Westgate School) Excellent - wide range of students involved and contributing. (A Yates, Assistant Head Teacher, Hendon School) The debate was well planned and the leader was v. observant and sensitive to the students and their views. (Louise Alexis, TA Inclusion Department, Elthorne Park High School) It was good, as all students who wished to do so had the chance to voice their thoughts/opinions and to discuss their reactions to the play's themes. (Minna Pesola, Teaching Access Department, Treloar College) There was only time for a few questions to use the Qwizdom handsets, so those were hardly worth having (could have been done with a show of hands). However these would have been good if more time was available. (Marina Haywood, Head of Chemistry, Archbishop Tenison’s School) There wasn't a vast amount of time left for the debate as the school day is short. More use of remote answering of questions. (Ms Knight, Head of Drama, Albany School) I was only in the debate for 5 mins at the end and so am unable to comment. I was very impressed though with pupils level of engagement even at the end of the debating and the number of pupils that were still raising issues. (Vinay Sharma, Head of Faculty, The Westgate School) Very well presented, well managed. All students who wanted to contribute were able to. (Jane Clarke, Tutor, Treloar College) The cast were very well researched. (Jenny Gillatt, Teaching Assistant, Treloar College) Pupils - generally participated and were drawn in by facilitator and activity post play to focus them on to the second section.

Actors could have thrown Questions back at questioners. (Charlotte Bateson, Head of Year/ English, Bacon’s College) Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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Students had the opportunity to be heard and the leader was good at ensuring students didn't hog all the time getting a variety of different views and repeating each one. (Anne James, Head of Counseling, Treloar College) A lot of the girls changed their opinions over the course of the debate as they had a chance to think more deeply about the issues. v. engaging. (Nicola Goddard, Biology Teacher, Queen’s College London) Perhaps a little over directed but I liked the use of Adrian and Saira talking in role with their characters from the play. The use of key pads to show collective opinions was also good. (Gordon Ironside, Headteacher, Sutton Grammar School) The debate was well handled and controlled. Pupils' views were all welcomed and good clear informed comments were made. (Mr J Costello, Head of Department, Sutton Grammar School) The year 11 students would have benefited from a longer time to debate. (Claire Webb, MCC Coordinator, Archbishop Tenison’s School) The interactive qwizdom was great. The students enjoyed giving their opinions (Karen Maselino, Citizenship & PSHE Coordinator, Oakmeed College of Technology) Could have been more questions for the electronic voting. (Rebecca Brailsford, Teacher, Selston Arts & Community College) Its quite a long session for KS4 students, although they were very engaged. The less able students seemed to be fidgeting by the debate especially after a 1hr play. It was difficult to get a lot of verbal participation with such large groups. (Zoe Bailey, Head of Science, John F. Kennedy School) More questions could have got students more involved (Rachel Andrews, Science Teacher, Selston Arts & Community College) There was not time for the debate. (Robert Palmer, Performance Leader, Spires Academy) Useful and probing (V Pearce, Teacher, Whitchurch School) Handsets are excellent. Debate was well facilitated. Pupils probably getting tired by 1hr 40 min. i.e. much longer than a standard lesson. (Mr M Haynes, Head of Science, Ferndown Upper School) Good discussion points (Nuala Buckley, Head of RE, Our Lady’s Blackley) The presenter had a wonderful personality to engage all students with the issue (a difficult one). (Leonora Vincent, Ferndown Upper School) Good that the characters put forward their views to show all points of view. (Anthea Parker, Head of Religious Education, Whitchurch High School.)

Excellent. All pupils were engaged in the topic and lots were participating. (Anne Marie Davies, Teacher, Ogmore School) It covered all aspects of the issues of clinical trials and was not biased – it pointed out the pros and cons backed up with evidence and examples. (Gail Brockway, Head of RE/PSHCE, The Kimberley School) Required a lot of quiet listening from students, which is hard after a 90 minute play! (Ben Davis, Science teacher, Ferndown Upper School) Very well done – the students really enjoyed giving responses immediately using the hand-held devices. (Pat Higgins, Head of Year, Trinity Catholic School)

Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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Deep questions for them to think about. I’m sure it works better with smaller groups asi think they would answer more questions in a smaller setting (our fault due to cover arrangements in the school) (Mrs Kathy Freeston, Head of Science, Harry Carlton School, East Leake) Bit slow, students had handsets but they weren’t used as much as I expected. (A Duncan, Science teacher, Selston Arts & Community College) Because the debate used technology the young people were engaged right from the beginning, it can be difficult sometimes getting young people to talk in front of others but the methods used were fantastic. (Jenny Newman, Consumer Liaison Officer, Speke Community Centre) Very well managed. Searching questions and thought provoking. (P.Warburton, Head of Science, Malton School) The students sat for a v.long time & only got to press 3 buttons (L.Whittle, Head of Year, Kings Langley School) Engaged the students but would have liked more opportunity for the students to become more involved. (Lynda Bearne, Life Skill Coordinator, Kings Langley School) Excellent learning points especially for our GCSE students that raised awareness of drug research/development. (Sarah Keal, Assistant Subject Leader for Science, Selston Arts & Community College)

Format was excellent (Jan Wright, IAG Coordinator, Kings Langley School)

Really well presented. The students were spoken to on their level but they weren’t spoken down to. The use of technology was excellent and is a great way to ensure all students were involved in the debate. (Andrew Oliver, Head of Expressive, Our Lady’s RC High School) Could have been more questions. Some students did become restless. (Alex Whitehead, Science Assistant, Selston Arts & Community College) The electronic voting & visual graph made all students want to participate. It was led very well and seeing each point of view made students think about their responses. (Linda Smith, Subject Leader for Science, Selston Arts & Community College) Most students gained and in depth knowledge about clinical trials. (M Taggart, Leader Learner Science, New Heys School) Possibly too lengthy an introduction and the plenary could have been snappier/more opportunity for involvement.

Holly – an actress? Holly’s father – an actor? Putting forward some of their considerations. (John Billington, Head of PSHCE, Cater Community School) Good use of voting handsets. (Antony Dyer, Teacher, Ferndown Upper School) Well managed (Ansar Iqbal, Head of Science, Kings Langley School)

I thought the debate really got the pupils thinking about the issues (Jean Harris, Head of Science, The Hemel Hempstead School) Some of the questions were a little closed, and it would have been better if we had had a smaller audience to open up the debate. (Zarana Harries, Head of Science, Studley High School)

Is there anything that could improve the debate? (Asked to teachers from the first tour only) No. wonderful to see some of our more challenging students getting involved. (Mrs Maria Dixon, Head of Biology, Hitchin Girls’ School) Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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Larger session - more informed questioning. Re: issues (Dione Daly, Teacher of Art, St Augustine’s CE High) More questions - shorter answers. (C Dewhurst, 2nd in Charge, Science, Sacred Heart RC School) Length of workshop an issue for students/ concentration for an hour and a half difficult. (Gerry Foley, Head of RE, Sacred Heart RC School) Questions could have been harder! (Elizabeth Carlton, Head of Science, Sacred Heart RC School) After each voting to open a debate. (Mr I Ali, Head of Year, Albany School) It was difficult to hear some students - a microphone would solve this problem. (Peter Heffernan, Head of Science, Elthorne Park High School) Maybe the actors could ask questions back to the students to make them think more. (Suzie Glasson, Admin, WRL, Bacon’s College) Allowing more time for student participation. (Sally Marsh, Head of Drama, The Green School) More time. (Mark Woodcraft, Teacher of Science, Archbishop Tenison’s School) More time (our issue not yours) (Tim Fessler, Head of Drama, Thomas More School) More time allowed. The students would have enjoyed more debate and it would have been useful for them. (Marina Haywood, Head of Chemistry, Archbishop Tenison’s School) The company could be given longer for the debate next time. (Ms Knight, Head of Drama, Albany School) It would have been longer. (Jane Clarke, Tutor, Treloar College) More time for different views. (Anne James, Head of Counseling, Treloar College) The host seemed slightly unprepared for the debate (this was the first performance of the play). He was much better for the nobody lives forever play, when he got pupils more involved by getting them to stand up if they had certain views and then picking on people to justify their views. this time I felt it was the same people contributing each time. (Nicola Goddard, Biology Teacher, Queen’s College London) We had used the materials provided before the play and to some extent had rehearsed too much but there was still a sound debate and strong points made from the floor. (Gordon Ironside, Headteacher, Sutton Grammar School) Having done such a good job to reach the stage at which the vast majority of the pupils were engaged in thinking through the issues, I thought the debate was very short. in a perfect world I would like to have seen the assembly split into small groups and taken off to classrooms to discuss among themselves. perhaps chaired by a teacher, one of the actors or both.

These smaller groups could then come back to the theatre and draw together their ideas. I thought the use of the handheld devices was an excellent idea but it wasn't used very much or very effectively. Could there be more questions? Could there be more compare and contrast - pre and post debate. (Mr J Costello, Head of Department, Sutton Grammar School)

Were you able to do any preparatory work provided by Y Touring with your students in advance of the play? (Asked to teachers from the first tour only) Yes

No

6

19

Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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If yes, how would you rate these lessons? (Asked to teachers from the first tour only) Very Useful

1

2

2

3

3

Not al all useful

4

1

5

1

0

Do you plan to undertake /Have you undertaken, any of the Y Touring follow up activities with your students after this production? (Asked to teachers from the first tour only) Yes

No

6

13

If yes, which lesson(s) have you used/do you plan to use? (Asked to teachers from the first tour only) Initial

Science

Drama

PHSE

RS

English

IT

Response 0

4

2

1

2

0

0

If you have already used the follow-up activities, how would you rate them? (Asked to teachers from the first tour only) Very Useful

1 1

2 1

3 0

Not al all useful

4 1

5 0

Have you made use of any of the resources in the teacher’s pack? (Asked to teachers from the second tour only) Yes

No

15

22

Which resources have you used? (Asked to teachers from the second tour only)

13

Preparatory

Preparatory

Post Show

Discussion

Reading

Lesson Plans

Lesson Plans

Triggers

8

1

8

Please rate the quality of the resources (Asked to teachers from the second tour only) Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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Poor

1 0

2 0

3 3

Excellent

4 9

5 5

Please give your views and comments on the resources Could be more specific (Mrs Whitehead, KS4+5 Coordinator, The Ravensbourne School) We were not aware of the resources - please make this explicit in future. (Nicola Hoad, Head of Science, Blackfen School for Girls) We haven't used them yet but they look useful. (Peter Heffernan, Head of Science, Elthorne Park High School) Good (Yasmin Ghayur, Teacher of Science, Archbishop Tenison’s School) Very easy to use and students enjoyed using them. (Sally Marsh, Head of Drama, The Green School) Excellent, very thorough and well prepared. (Suzi Atkin, Deputy Head of 6th Form, Winchmore School) Clear and useful addendum to the performance. (Tim Fessler, Head of Drama, Thomas More School) Sound - keywords useful in preparing the students. (A Yates, Assistant Head Teacher, Hendon School) Excellent to have a synopsis of play and some suggested lessons for preparation. detail provided very good. To often visiting groups give a good one-off production but this educational preparation is not done. (Gordon Ironside, Headteacher, Sutton Grammar School) N/A However I do run a peer support group and we had a lively discussion on the issues and a range of views expressed by students (Anne James, Head of Counseling, Treloar College) Useful for classroom discussion. (Anthea Parker, Head of Religious Education, Whitchurch High School) Rather a lot to read through. (A McCallum, Science teacher, Porchester School) Clear & simple to use. We’re about to translate into an interesting lesson. (Jean Harris, Head of Science, The Hemel Hempstead School) Not a science teacher. I would have done so had I know about it. Would have been VERY USEFUL FOR ENGLISH GCSE (Gail Harris, English Teacher) It was difficult to make a lesson last a full lesson. I ended up taking 3 plans and using them in 1 lesson. (Linda Smith, Subject Leader for Science, Selston Arts & Community College) Sorry, I have not had time to use them yet as we only have one lesson a fortnight. (Gail Brockway, Head of RE/PSHCE, The Kimberley School) As science teachers we found the ‘drama’ lessons unnerving. Some of us struggle with PSHE style lessons. (Mr M Haynes, Head of Science, Ferndown Upper School) Good. They could have suggestions on how to make some of the drama more accessible to students with learning difficulties. (John Billington, Head of PSHCE, Cater Community School) I understand the Head of Science is using the resources. (Jan Wright, IAG Coordinator, Kings Langley School)

Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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Very good for higher ability classes. Lower ability classes struggle with the (clay) modelling (and I’m not a drama teacher).

(Antony Dyer, Teacher, Ferndown Upper School Plenty to use, pupils to take part in the virtual clinical trial and will try to use the radio plays. (Zarana Harries, Head of Science, Studley High School)

Are you planning to make use of the virtual clinical trials, ‘Steamfish’? (Asked to teachers from the second tour only) Yes

No

22

12

Please give your reasons for this choice (Asked to teachers from the second tour only) Lack of time (Robert Palmer, Performance Leader, Spires Academy) As part of GCSE science (Ansar Iqbal, Head of Science, Kings Langley School)

Unfortunately the pressure of time on the curriculum is huge. Because of the curriculum we don’t really have the flexibility.

(Pat Higgins, Head of Year, Trinity Catholic School) Pupils seem very enthusiastic. (Jean Harris, Head of Science, The Hemel Hempstead School) It will aid GCSE students (Rachel Andrews, Science Teacher, Selston Arts & Community College) Exam preparation is next, some science teachers will [use it]. (Karen Maselino, Citizenship & PSHE Co-ordinator, Oakmeed College of Technology) Students will be encouraged to look at it outside of school time. (M Taggart, Leader Learner Science, New Heys School) Not enough curriculum time. I will encourage the students to do it at home. (Gail Brockway, Head of RE/PSHCE, The Kimberley School) Interested in follow-up learning following the performance (Steve Taylor, Assistant Head Teacher, Selston Arts & Community College) I think it will further extend students’ understanding of the process. (Linda Smith, Subject Leader for Science, Selston Arts & Community College) Lack of time – not a 10/11 form tutor. (V Pearce, Teacher, Whitchurch School) Individually the pupils access it to understand the implications of clinical trials. (Anthea Parker, Head of Religious Education, Whitchurch High School.)

The young people seemed really interested. (Jenny Newman, Consumer Liaison Officer, Speke Community Centre) Not sure at this stage – pressure of exams in January to finish modules. (P.Warburton, Head of Science, Malton School) I understand the Head of Science is using the resources. (Jan Wright, IAG Coordinator, Kings Langley School) I am under the impression that our head of science is going to get involved! (Lynda Bearne, Life Skills Coordinator, Kings Langley School) Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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My class has already sat the exam concerning clinical trials & lack of time. (A McCallum, Science teacher, Porchester School)

Will give students a better understanding of how a clinical trial works. (Antony Dyer, Teacher, Ferndown Upper School) [Yes we will be using Steamfish] Decision based on the quality of the presentations. We plan to use the resources during the next active learning day for the Y11’s. (Andrew Oliver, Head of Expressive, Our Lady’s RC High School) Different, a way of extending knowledge. (John Billington, Head of PSHE, Cater Community School)

To make the most of the student interest in the topics. (Sarah Keal, Assistant Subject Leader for Science, Selston Arts & Community College) Looks well designed (Alex Whitehead, Science Assistant, Selston Arts & Community College) May have a closer look but unsure of the relevance. (A Duncan, Science teacher, Selston Arts & Community College) Currently not aware of how to use it. (Ben Davis, Science teacher, Ferndown Upper School) It will help engage more students in the science – part of which we teach in KS4 (Zoe Bailey, Head of Science, John F. Kennedy School) Excellent graphics. Suitable as homework for the pupils to use at home. Have liaised with ITC dept who will use in ITC lessons. However we are having problems getting it to work. (Zarana Harries, Head of Science, Studley High School)

Was the information provided Y Touring sufficient for your needs? (Asked to teachers from the first tour only?)

Yes

No

21

1

If no, how could it be addressed? (Asked to teachers from the first tour only) Areas of science that will be addressed (Yasmin Ghayur, Teacher of Science, Archbishop Tenison’s School) A little more detail of background and those organising (Ms L Kitching, Subject Leader of Science, St. Augustine’s CE High)

Please rate how good you felt Y Touring was at planning this event (Asked to teachers from the second tour only) Not good

1 0

2 0

3 1

Very Good

4 5

5 27

Please share your comments regarding the preparation and planning of the event (Asked to teachers from the second tour only) Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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Very good, worthwhile. (Rachel Andrews, Science Teacher, Selston Arts & Community College) Excellent. There was always someone at the end of the phone. (Pat Higgins, Head of Year, Trinity Catholic School) Very well organised. (Anne Marie Davies, Teacher, Ogmore School) Perfect! There weren’t any unanswered questions! (Zoe Bailey, Head of Science, John F. Kennedy School) Excellent in all aspects (Steve Taylor, Assistant Head Teacher, Selston Arts & Community College) The group arrived and set up without any worries it all ran very smoothly. (Linda Smith, Subject Leader for Science, Selston Arts & Community College) Very worthwhile thoroughly recommend (Rebecca Brailsford, Teacher, Selston Arts & Community College) The sheets given for guidance & expectations are excellent. Made the whole process smooth even though it was processed at short notice. (Karen Maselino, Citizenship & PSHE Coordinator, Oakmeed College of Technology) Excellent – it was great that we received the risk assessment and arrangements well in advance. (Gail Brockway, Head of RE/PSHCE, The Kimberley School) Couldn’t fault it. (Andrew Oliver, Head of Expressive, Our Lady’s RC High School) Good clear concise information sent out. (Anthea Parker, Head of Religious Education, Whitchurch High School.)

A well planned, well informed and professionally run company – a pleasure to work with. Easy to contact, prompt & flexible (Mrs Kathy Freeston, Head of Science, harry Carlton School, East Leake) Some miscommunication – performers were not informed of our hall layout despite us sending plans. Otherwise excellent.

(Alex Whitehead, Science Assistant, Selston Arts & Community College) Very efficient (M Taggart, Leader Learner Science, New Heys School) Everything was perfect, everyone knew what was required in regards to space and facilities, I knew who to contact if there was a problem etc. (Jenny Newman, Consumer Liaison Officer, Speke Community Centre) Last minute cancellation – all sorted out very quickly and efficiently (P.Warburton, Head of Science, Malton School) Very supportive & efficient (John Billington, Head of PSHCE, Cater Community School)

Clear instructions and easy contactable. (Jean Harris, Head of Science, The Hemel Hempstead School) Everything I needed was supplied in good time prior to the event, every issue regarding the planning was covered in detail.

(Jan Wright, IAG Coordinator, Kings Langley School) Email to plan the event was excellent (Zarana Harries, Head of Science, Studley High School)

Please rate your overall impression of the company (Asked to teachers from the second tour only) Bad Impression

1 0

2 0

3 1

Good Impression

4 4

Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

5 32

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Please give your impression of the company Professional and extremely accommodating. We had a small drama space and they did a great job in adapting the stage. All were sensitive and impressed the staff and students alike. (Mrs Maria Dixon, Head of Biology, Hitchin Girls’ School) Very professional, excellent. (Mrs Whitehead, KS4+5 Coordinator, The Ravensbourne School) Really good - know the audience. Well presented. (Hattie Temple, Science Teacher, St. Augustine’s CE High) Very good - impressed that they challenged unacceptable behaviour about wheelchair themselves. (Nicola Hoad, Head of Science, Blackfen School for Girls) Friendly, approachable. talked to students as people. (Minna Pesola, Teaching Access Department, Treloar College) Professional, well organised. (Trang Tan, RE Teacher, Sacred Heart RC School) Outstanding - really impressed with your organisation and your manners with the pupils. hope we can organise another play in the future. (Elizabeth Carlton, Head of Science, Sacred Heart RC School) Very good, kept a professional attitude. (Mr I Ali, Head of Year, Albany School) Very efficient and organised. Activity was of high quality all the members of the company were friendly. (Peter Heffernan, Head of Science, Elthorne Park High School) Very good would use again as much as possible. (Suzie Glasson, Admin, WRL, Bacon’s College) Excellent. (Yasmin Ghayur, Teacher of Science, Archbishop Tenison’s School) Very professional, well informed, extremely capable. (Sally Marsh, Head of Drama, The Green School) Extremely professional, a pleasure to work with. (Suzi Atkin, Deputy Head of 6th Form, Winchmore School) Very positive - cast were friendly and professional. (Tim Fessler, Head of Drama, Thomas More School) Organised, professional and friendly. Excellent. (A Yates, Assistant Head Teacher, Hendon School) Very prepared, organised and professional. The company arrived early to set up and were friendly to students and staff. (Ms Knight, Head of Drama, Albany School) Superb - putting over dilemma in the way they do is very impressive and to remain in role throughout the debate shows a high level of professionalism. (Vinay Sharma, Head of Faculty, The Westgate School) A professional and organised company. I thoroughly enjoy and value the contacts made with the company. (Jane Clarke, Tutor, Treloar College) All excellent team members. (Jenny Gillatt, Teaching Assistant, Treloar College) Excellent. The communications before hand were very clear and well thought out. On the day everything went smoothly and was well executed. (Claire Webb, MCC Coordinator, Archbishop Tenison’s School) The company are very professional enthusiastic and respectful of our students needs. (Anne James, Head of Counseling, Treloar College) Extremely professional, helpful and we'd love to have you back. (Nicola Goddard, Biology Teacher, Queen’s College London) Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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Very impressed. Efficient in admin and organisation on the day Everything ran like clockwork Actors very good. (Gordon Ironside, Headteacher, Sutton Grammar School) Keen, professional and enthusiastic. (Mr J Costello, Head of Department, Sutton Grammar School) The staff were friendly, very competent and professional (Karen Maselino, Citizenship & PSHE Coordinator, Oakmeed College of Technology) Very professional – Really enjoyable & emotive. (Nuala Buckley, Head of RE, Our Lady’s Blackley) Professional at all times. (Pat Higgins, Head of Year, Trinity Catholic School) Very professional (Zoe Bailey, Head of Science, John F. Kennedy School)

Excellent (Ansar Iqbal, Head of Science, Kings Langley School) Very professional, very focused, highly organised and very well prepared. (Steve Taylor, Assistant Head Teacher, Selston Arts & Community College) Very dedicated & pleasant (A McCallum, Science teacher, Porchester School) Very professional (Gail Brockway, Head of RE/PSHCE, The Kimberley School) Very impressed by the content, planning and professionalism. (Andrew Oliver, Head of Expressive, Our Lady’s RC High School) Very efficient & professional (John Billington, Head of PSHCE, Cater Community School) Very good kept students attention for the whole 2 hours. (B. Pearce, Physics Technician, Ferndown Upper School) Well organised and forward thinking. (Anthea Parker, Head of Religious Education, Whitchurch High School.)

Well informed, highly professional. Good discipline – pupils responded well. (R Del Buono, head of Science, The Kimberley School) Very friendly, Professional, related well to the young people who can be apathetic at times! (Mrs Kathy Freeston, Head of Science, harry Carlton School, East Leake) Fantastic (Jenny Newman, Consumer Liaison Officer, Speke Community Centre) Well managed, current ideas and relevant. (P.Warburton, Head of Science, Malton School) Debate/material really well prepared. I wish at school I had – as English teacher – made more of it – had I known. (Gail Harris, English Teacher) Good overall company. The students were engaged and I feel learnt a lot from the performance. (Lynda Bearne, Life Skill Coordinator, Kings Langley School)

Appeared to be professional and well resourced – Dialogue was at times a little stilted by the need for the conveyance of specific tracts of information. (John Flint, Post 16 Learning Manager, Harry Carlton School) Company were lovely! (Jean Harris, Head of Science, The Hemel Hempstead School) Friendly & informative (M Taggart, Leader Learner Science, New Heys School)

Very efficient, friendly & very easy to deal with. (Jan Wright, IAG Coordinator, Kings Langley School) Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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Very good. (A Duncan, Science teacher, Selston Arts & Community College) An excellent resource for the school. The company were very professional and supportive of the pupils. (Zarana Harries, Head of Science, Studley High School)

Any additional comments Thank you, keep doing such a great educational enterprise. (Mrs Maria Dixon, Head of Biology, Hitchin Girls’ School) Very good, would love to do another project in the future. (Mrs Whitehead, KS4+5 Coordinator, The Ravensbourne School) Sorry I couldn't make comments because I was only there for the first 40 mins of the play. It was an excellent play like I said and useful for the pupils. (Trang Tan, RE Teacher, Sacred Heart RC School) Thank you for you time and effort. it was a delight. (Elizabeth Carlton, Head of Science, Sacred Heart RC School) Students very much enjoyed the play and enough of them want to find out more about the issues raised to make the exercise very worthwhile. (Peter Heffernan, Head of Science, Elthorne Park High School) Initial thoughts on language (swearing!) but upon reflection, they were a vital to the dramatisation. (Yasmin Ghayur, Teacher of Science, Archbishop Tenison’s School) Really hope we can work together again soon. Many thanks. (Suzi Atkin, Deputy Head of 6th Form, Winchmore School) Now that the staff from the science and PSHE dept have seen the show it will be easier to book more projects with Y Touring. (Ms Knight, Head of Drama, Albany School) These plays have been so well received students have stopped me in the corridors to say thank you and asked when these plays are coming back! (Jane Clarke, Tutor, Treloar College) It was a very well performed performance and it was good to pass on that not everything ends ' Happy ever after' and research is definitely needed. (Jenny Gillatt, Teaching Assistant, Treloar College) Thank you for providing such an enriching activity for our students. (Claire Webb, MCC Coordinator, Archbishop Tenison’s School) This was quite hard to watch. (Anne James, Head of Counseling, Treloar College) Excellent for this school. Lots of students interested in medical careers. Lots of social phobia type behaviour/ autism etc and including a characteristics was very informative as well. What about a similar show in organ transplant donation. (Gordon Ironside, Headteacher, Sutton Grammar School) Would love an annual visit. ( P.Warburton, Head of Science, Malton School)

Superb – again next year please. (Linda Smith, Subject Leader for Science, Selston Arts & Community College) Thoroughly enjoyable. (Steve Taylor, Assistant Head Teacher, Selston Arts & Community College) It would be great to have a copy of the data of how our students voted. (Karen Maselino, Citizenship & PSHE Coordinator, Oakmeed College of Technology) Students really enjoyed the visit and got a lot out of it. (Ansar Iqbal, Head of Science, Kings Langley School) Excellent. Definitely recommend for others and the future. (Rebecca Brailsford, Teacher, Selston Arts & Community College) Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

Registered in England No. 119249

46

An excellent resource for KS4 students. Thoroughly enjoyed it and students found it very beneficial. Will definitely recommend for other schools (Rachel Andrews, Science Teacher, Selston Arts & Community College) All staff & most students thoroughly enjoyed it. Would recommend to other schools, thanks for an excellent experience! (Alex Whitehead, Science Assistant, Selston Arts & Community College) Please come back! Thank you. (Andrew Oliver, Head of Expressive, Our Lady’s RC High School) Well done on an outstanding production and workshop. (Pat Higgins, Head of Year, Trinity Catholic School) It was a valuable experience, professionally executed! (Gail Brockway, Head of RE/PSHCE, The Kimberley School) An excellent & really engaging production which the pupils were fully involved in. (Jean Harris, Head of Science, The Hemel Hempstead School) Would love for you to come to our school again. (Mr M Haynes, Head of Science, Ferndown Upper School)

I have never seen such a large number of mixed ability students so well engaged for two hours without a break. (Antony Dyer, Teacher, Ferndown Upper School) A very positive experience and useful in the sense that it seeks to break down the necessary pragmatism of the false demarcations between discreet subject areas such as science and morality and hence philosophy and ethics – an interesting step towards holistic education. (John Flint, Post 16 Learning Manager, Harry Carlton School) This was a very difficult topic but the company handled it very well. It was very worthwhile for all pupils and staff. (Anne Marie Davies, Teacher, Ogmore School) It was very impressive that you held the attention of a diverse group of year 10 students for the best part of 2 hours. The way in which drama can introduce complicated issues and multi-layered discussion is a constant source of delight.(John Billington, Head of PSHCE, Cater Community School) The idea of the actors staying in character to discuss their viewpoints on the issue is effective. The whole “Y Touring” ideal is a great way to educate young people. (Anthea Parker, Head of Religious Education, Whitchurch High School.)

I would have no hesitation in recommending Y Touring. The ‘company’ who presented were superb & had a good manner with the students. They pitched the whole material just where it should be. Thank you so much to everyone involved, a pleasure to have you into Kings Langley School. (Jan Wright, IAG Coordinator, Kings Langley School) Can’t wait for you all to comeback! Thank-you. (Nuala Buckley, Head of RE, Our Lady’s Blackley) Many thanks for both the online support and the production. The presentation and organisation was excellent. Many thanks.

(Zarana Harries, Head of Science, Studley High School)

7.4 Qwizdom Results in Full QUESTION 1: What is the best way to know if a treatment or medicine works?

Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

Registered in England No. 119249

47

Because a

We know it's

Don’t know

doctor tells us been trialled and so tested Queens College 23.02.09

10

85

9

Wallington County Grammar School

15

92

12

10

89

18

Sutton Grammar School 27.01.09 AM

7

105

8

Sutton Grammar School 27.01.09 PM

13

93

11

Albany School 29.01.09 AM

20

70

15

Albany School 30.01.09 PM

22

55

14

Redden Court School 4.02.09

18

73

11

Lady Margaret School 05.02.09

8

76

8

Hendon School 10.02.09 AM

23

57

7

Hendon School 10.02.09 PM

17

75

6

Blackfen School School for Girls

7

54

14

The Green School 13.02.09 AM

17

94

14

The Green School 13.02.09 PM

29

100

3

Thomas Moore School 23.02.09 AM

5

31

2

Thomas Moore School 23.02.09 PM

3

18

3

Shirley High School 25.02.09 PM

8

74

13

Archbishop High School 26.02.09 AM

10

69

11

Archbishop High School 26.02.09 PM

15

69

11

Elthorne Park High School 27.02.09

5

60

10

Eastbury School 03.03.09 AM

14

95

11

Eastbury School 03.03.09 PM

12

87

13

St. Augustines High School 04.03.09

9

82

6

26.01.09 AM Wallington County Grammar School 26.01.09 PM

12.02.09 AM

AM

AM

Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

Registered in England No. 119249

48

Because a

We know it's

Don’t know

doctor tells us been trialled and so tested St. Augustines High School 04.03.09

19

62

10

14

85

10

11

71

9

Hitchin Girls' School 09.03.09

8

44

5

Sacred Heart School 10.03.09

14

41

5

Bacons College 11.03.09

9

43

24

Treloar College 12.03.09

14

25

5

Westgate School 13.03.09

23

82

5

Francis Combe Academy 5.11.09

4

27

3

Hemel Hempstead School 3.11.09 PM

6

56

7

John F Kennedy School 4.11.09 AM

3

76

6

John F Kennedy School 4.11.09 PM

10

80

6

Kings Langley School 2.11.09

8

51

8

The Belvedere Academy 11.11.09

16

117

8

Croxteth CCS 12.11.09

10

35

4

Malton School 9.11.09

10

113

9

New Hayes Community

2

23

2

Our Lady’s High School 13.11.09 AM

13

44

7

Our Lady’s High School 13.11.09 PM

12

38

1

Medicines for Children Research

5

14

0

Harry Carlton School 18.11.09

13

112

12

Selston Arts & Community College

20

89

8

PM The Ravensbourne School 05.03.09 AM The Ravensbourne School 05.03.09 PM

Comprehensive 10.11.09

Network 11.11.09

17.11.09 AM

Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

Registered in England No. 119249

49

Because a

We know it's

Don’t know

doctor tells us been trialled and so tested Selston Arts & Community College

12

37

12

Ash Green School AM

6

79

4

Ash Green School PM

5

78

12

Manor Park Community School

4

90

7

Trinity School 23.11.09 AM

9

68

3

Trinity School 23.11.09 PM

19

81

9

Ogmore School 1.12.09 AM

7

85

8

Ogmore School 1.12.09 PM

15

36

55

Whitchurch High School 30.11.09 AM

4

62

4

Whitchurch High School 30.11.09 PM

8

68

3

Carter Community School 8.12.09

5

41

11

Ferndown Upper School 11.12.09

9

81

4

Oakmead College of Technology

9

75

9

8

71

5

Porchester School 9.12.09 AM

3

85

3

Porchester School 9.12.09 PM

10

68

2

St Peter’s School 10.12.09

13

41

3

Helenswood School 14.12.09 AM

10

128

9

Herne Bay High School 16.12.09 AM

16

85

8

17.11.09 PM

25.11.09

7.12.09 AM Oakmead College of Technology 7.12.09 PM

QUESTION 2: Should the father in our case study be allowed to use a drug that has not been subjected to a fair, controlled and unbiased trial?

Queens College 23.02.09 Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

Yes

No

42

53

Registered in England No. 119249

50

Yes

No

Wallington County Grammar School 26.01.09 AM

85

36

Wallington County Grammar School 26.01.09 PM

82

39

Sutton Grammar School 27.01.09 AM

73

45

Sutton Grammar School 27.01.09 PM

76

43

Albany School 29.01.09 AM

66

32

Albany School 30.01.09 PM

43

62

Redden Court School 4.02.09

48

53

Lady Margaret School 05.02.09

67

19

Hendon School 10.02.09 AM

56

32

Hendon School 10.02.09 PM

56

39

Blackfen School School for Girls 12.02.09 AM

32

44

The Green School 13.02.09 AM

71

51

Thomas Moore School 23.02.09 AM

17

21

Thomas Moore School 23.02.09 PM

12

14

Shirley High School 25.02.09 AM

48

24

Shirley High School 25.02.09 PM

12

14

Archbishop High School 26.02.09 AM

72

16

Elthorne Park High School 27.02.09 AM

45

40

Eastbury School 03.03.09 AM

66

61

St. Augustines High School 04.03.09 AM

52

55

St. Augustines High School 04.03.09 PM

47

41

The Ravensbourne School 05.03.09 AM

57

55

The Ravensbourne School 05.03.09 PM

74

28

Hitchin Girls' School 09.03.10

32

23

Sacred Heart School 10.03.10

40

22

Bacons College 11.03.10

51

22

Westgate School 13.03.10

82

26

Francis Combe Academy 5.11.10

99

58

Hemel Hempstead School 3.11.09 AM

68

17

Y Touring Theatre Company, an 驶activity for health始 operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

Registered in England No. 119249

51

Yes

No

Hemel Hempstead School 3.11.09 PM

61

22

John F Kennedy School 4.11.09 AM

58

27

John F Kennedy School 4.11.09 PM

56

38

Kings Langley School 2.11.10

91

64

The Belvedere Academy 11.11.10

77

67

Croxteth CCS 12.11.10

20

27

Malton School 9.11.10

70

59

New Hayes Community Comprehensive 10.11.10

25

5

Our Lady’s High School 13.11.09 AM

54

10

Our Lady’s High School 13.11.09 PM

41

14

Medicines for Children Research Network

12

6

Selston Arts & Community College 17.11.09 AM

87

30

Selston Arts & Community College 17.11.09 PM

33

28

Ash Green School AM

52

38

Ash Green School PM

64

37

Trinity School 23.11.09 AM

64

27

Trinity School 23.11.09 PM

58

45

Ogmore School 1.12.09 AM

66

35

Ogmore School 1.12.09 PM

79

64

Whitchurch High School 30.11.09 AM

45

17

Whitchurch High School 30.11.09 PM

45

34

Carter Community School 8.12.10

36

17

Ferndown Upper School 11.12.10

75

19

Oakmead College of Technology 7.12.09 AM

60

33

Oakmead College of Technology 7.12.09 PM

48

37

Porchester School 9.12.09 AM

62

29

Porchester School 9.12.09 PM

55

20

St Peter’s School 10.12.10

28

29

11.11.10

Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

Registered in England No. 119249

52

Yes

No

Helenswood School 14.12.09 AM

95

79

Herne Bay High School AM 16.12.09 PM

39

69

Herne Bay High School 16.12.09 PM

24

34

QUESTION 3: If you did participate in a clinical trial would you rather participate in a talking treatment trial or a medication trial?

Talking

Medication/

Either Type of

Treatment

Drug Trial

Trial

Queens College 23.02.09

54

42

0

Wallington County Grammar School

67

27

30

Sutton Grammar School 27.01.09 AM

66

51

0

Sutton Grammar School 27.01.09 PM

73

44

0

Albany School 29.01.09 AM

75

12

11

Redden Court School 4.02.09

54

18

28

Lady Margaret School 05.02.09

62

8

14

Hendon School 10.02.09 AM

57

7

26

Hendon School 10.02.09 PM

66

9

23

Blackfen School School for Girls

63

1

11

The Green School 13.02.09 AM

85

14

21

Thomas Moore School 23.02.09 AM

27

5

4

Thomas Moore School 23.02.09 PM

16

5

6

Shirley High School 25.02.09 AM

48

18

13

Shirley High School 25.02.09 PM

16

5

6

Archbishop High School 26.02.09 AM

64

6

19

Elthorne Park High School 27.02.09

55

8

21

71

14

18

26.01.09 AM

12.02.09 AM

AM St. Augustines High School 04.03.09 AM Y Touring Theatre Company, an 驶activity for health始 operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

Registered in England No. 119249

53

Talking

Medication/

Either Type of

Treatment

Drug Trial

Trial

75

8

10

81

13

18

59

19

22

Hitchin Girls' School 09.03.11

43

3

9

Sacred Heart School 10.03.11

46

6

10

Bacons College 11.03.11

46

6

10

Francis Combe Academy 5.11.11

98

16

44

Hemel Hempstead School 3.11.09 AM

42

17

31

Hemel Hempstead School 3.11.09 PM

31

9

42

John F Kennedy School 4.11.09 AM

54

14

17

John F Kennedy School 4.11.09 PM

51

15

30

Kings Langley School 2.11.11

102

19

35

The Belvedere Academy 11.11.11

107

11

26

Croxteth CCS 12.11.11

43

2

2

Malton School 9.11.11

72

23

35

New Hayes Community

15

3

12

Our Lady’s High School 13.11.09 AM

43

8

17

Our Lady’s High School 13.11.09 PM

42

8

7

Medicines for Children Research

10

1

7

88

7

24

45

11

5

Ash Green School AM

41

18

32

Ash Green School PM

69

11

21

St. Augustines High School 04.03.09 PM The Ravensbourne School 05.03.09 AM The Ravensbourne School 05.03.09 PM

Comprehensive 10.11.11

Network 11.11.11 Selston Arts & Community College 17.11.09 AM Selston Arts & Community College 17.11.09 PM

Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

Registered in England No. 119249

54

Talking

Medication/

Either Type of

Treatment

Drug Trial

Trial

Trinity School 23.11.09 AM

62

12

25

Trinity School 23.11.09 PM

61

21

24

Ogmore School 1.12.09 AM

62

15

17

Ogmore School 1.12.09 PM

7

0

28

Whitchurch High School 30.11.09 AM

37

9

13

Whitchurch High School 30.11.09 PM

57

7

8

Carter Community School 8.12.11

31

7

7

Ferndown Upper School 11.12.11

60

5

11

Oakmead College of Technology

45

23

14

51

8

10

Porchester School 9.12.09 AM

40

7

21

Porchester School 9.12.09 PM

36

8

9

St Peter’s School 10.12.11

41

4

8

Helenswood School 14.12.09 AM

101

20

40

Herne Bay High School AM 16.12.09

61

7

30

31

3

14

7.12.09 AM Oakmead College of Technology 7.12.09 PM

PM Herne Bay High School 16.12.09 PM

QUESTION 4: Do you think patients should be asked to participate in clinical trials?

Yes

No

Don’t Know

Queens College 23.02.09

59

8

28

Wallington County Grammar School

58

27

33

Albany School 29.01.09 AM

83

24

20

Lady Margaret School 05.02.09

57

10

17

Hendon School 10.02.09 AM

36

28

25

Hendon School 10.02.09 PM

49

21

26

26.01.09 AM

Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

Registered in England No. 119249

55

Yes

No

Don’t Know

48

12

15

The Green School 13.02.09 AM

83

28

11

Thomas Moore School 23.02.09 AM

24

5

7

Elthorne Park High School 27.02.09

46

27

11

45

32

28

Hitchin Girls' School 09.03.12

39

10

6

Sacred Heart School 10.03.12

40

11

13

Bacons College 11.03.12

40

11

13

Francis Combe Academy 5.11.12

83

31

21

Hemel Hempstead School 3.11.09 AM

65

13

13

Hemel Hempstead School 3.11.09 PM

51

16

13

John F Kennedy School 4.11.09 AM

55

19

11

John F Kennedy School 4.11.09 PM

64

15

18

Kings Langley School 2.11.12

86

51

16

The Belvedere Academy 11.11.12

109

22

15

Croxteth CCS 12.11.12

17

22

7

Malton School 9.11.12

91

26

13

New Hayes Community

15

10

5

Our Lady’s High School 13.11.09 AM

53

7

7

Our Lady’s High School 13.11.09 PM

40

12

6

Medicines for Children Research

13

3

2

60

29

25

41

5

15

49

31

15

Blackfen School School for Girls 12.02.09 AM

AM St. Augustines High School 04.03.09 AM

Comprehensive 10.11.12

Network 11.11.12 Selston Arts & Community College 17.11.09 AM Selston Arts & Community College 17.11.09 PM Ash Green School AM

Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

Registered in England No. 119249

56

Yes

No

Don’t Know

Ash Green School PM

52

22

26

Trinity School 23.11.09 AM

56

26

18

Trinity School 23.11.09 PM

47

29

30

7.5 Facebook Comments in Full Alex Banks (Archbishop Tenison's C of E High School) wrote at 21:55 on 26 February 2009: ‘Hey you guys came to my school today (Archbishop Tenison's) and I thought you rocked! You were very thought provoking and it was touching to see what happened to the son and the effects it had on others.'

Amazing performance at (helenswood upper school) acting was so good!! the man in the wheel chair (Michael) was really good all of you where!! awesome performance! but i think its was different people coz the people in the pictures don’t look the same apart from adrian still it was really good!

Hermione Hawkins 17 December 2009 at 17:38 Hey, u guys all came 2 my skool (Helenswood Upper School) other day we all nearly cried but thought it was really good and interesting. Person in wheelchair really good and played part really well. Just wondering about something, u said about emailing u if interested in the Virtual Learning thing 'Steamfish' and wondered h...ow 2 access it coz didn't pick up a card. thanks xx Hannah Jefferson 16 December 2009 Love your work :) the person in wheel chair was unbelievably good !

Lisa Cruse 12 December 2009 Ferndown Upper School ‘You guys done a great performance and i would just like to say thank you :D’ Carly Fry 07 December 2009 ‘Well done for today. You came to Oakmead and were amazing. I really enjoyed it. I felt like I was almost going to cry in the performance!’

Paige Dyer

7.6 Reviews in Full I thought the science play on Friday was really interesting (if not very upsetting) and I wish me had more things like that because I learned way more from that than I would have done in any science lesson. I thought the acting was good and the actors managed to use the space really well even with no props. However I was really confused throughout the whole play because I didn’t know whether or not the actors were pretending or not and whether it was a true story that had happened to them (I think everyone was really confused at that) and that they didn’t tell us that I was left confused for the rest of the day! I did feel I learnt a bit about the particular story they acted out and the devastation it can leave people, but I didn’t understand much else about how they conduct drugs trials etc, I think that could’ve been a bit more clear. There should have been more explanation for the answers on the questions I think as well. I liked that we didn’t have to do any workshops or anything because no one likes them and this was much more interesting way for everyone to spend a science lesson. The pace of the play was very fast. I don’t know if I think that’s good or bad.

Fanks Emily

Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

Registered in England No. 119249

57

Hi, my names Hina Walia and I go to The green school for girls, I saw the play the other day and the good thing about the play was that because I knew it was happening to people in reality, I could relate to it, I thought the play was really moving and obviously emotional, I think clinical trials are really good and helpful because that’s how you will improve peoples health and also doctors might be able to find a cure for a certain disease, you never really know. What I thought could be improved is that some areas I wasn’t really clear about, I didn't really understand Shannon’s role in the play so I think maybe you could involve her a bit more and I did not really know what her past was, why did she have that disease? How? From the play I learnt that doctors don’t know everything, to tell you the truth I was really scared after watching it because of the mad cow disease but at the end of the day the only way to find out is to get checked out at the doctors. I think that it’s so important because what if you have a disease and you don't even know about it. When you look at peoples cases who had the disease, you really try to relate to the person who has the disease and the persons family, because if there was a new drug and it had to be clinically tested then I think I would let my child try it and what ever the result I would what doctors to use it because in the end either way my child would die and I know that negative but its the truth, Overall, I think it was an excellent play and even though it was very sad I could really relate and get into it. Thank you.

Hina Walia, Green school forgirls

I am a student in Queen’s College and I really enjoyed your play. I never knew about that disease, thank you for telling us about it.

I thought of some ways to help you improve your play. Maybe you could in the middle of the play stop and do another questionnaire to see if our opinion has changed what so whether then another one at the end, as you did. The big laptop as the screen was a cool idea however it was a bit strange when the people came to sit on it. Near to the end when you did the questions to characters it would have been nicer to be able to see them rather then them looking straight forward. The people doing the play were very clear and easy understand.

Thank you for your time Isabel F. Distassi, Queen’s College

Apart from the fact that the play made me cry, I thought it was amazing. When Michael started feeling seriously ill and his father was doing everything that he was capable of to support him, I thought if something like that happened to me, I’m not sure I could be as supportive as the dad was. We had an insight to what these diseases could do to your friends, family and to the people who you loved. The voting at the beginning and at the end was really interesting because you had a chance to see what everyone thought of the play and compare your emotions. I also thought that the part where they were interviewed was good because they stayed in role and you could see the pain everywhere at his death and the stress it caused his family.

When a family is in the state which they would do anything to prolong the time of their loved ones/children’s lives, they are desperate. In this play they portrayed this well showing that they could choose prolonging his life or watching him die. He would suffer more if they prolonged his life but they would suffer less. But if they didn’t try to help him, they would feel like they’re letting him die. It showed the pain and stress of the choice.

Jess Lotter

I am writing in response to the business card like advert which I received during the "starfish" performance, inviting me to write a short review.

I thought that the play was well written, and the acting was good. It seemed modern and up to date, and gave a relatively non- bias view- but at the end I was slightly confused on what. I. E. What was the final aim of the production?

Also, sitting in the back row, I found some parts of the action difficult, if not impossible, to see. But this is a problem neigh on impossible to rectify.

The interactivity was a nice touch, but I thought could have been expanded on, and perhaps the data from the questions could be used for other research? It would be nice to know that our answers were doing something.

All in all, the play was good, a more relaxed way to spend an hour and a half, while learning (a little).

Yash.

Starfish was an incredibly moving and insightful play. It was amazing how such few, yet such skilful actors could make the play so interesting and touching. The storyline was so heart-rending, almost unbelievable to think that it followed real events Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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in life so closely and that these things really happen: When the character Michael writhed out of his wheelchair and fell onto the ground, almost as if having a spasm, it was really painful to watch. The fact that it could actually happen to a real person, who is helpless to do anything about their own deteriorating condition...it really gives you more perception. I think I learnt a lot that I didn't know about after watching ʽStarfish’ and I even looked up some information on the mad-cow disease.

Starfish really made me think about the issues of clinical tries and the consequences and effect that would be made because of a decision. Should you risk it all for someone you love and care about? Or do nothing in the fear or making it worse or ending up with a sooner death? And how would you know if they would consent to or agree with your decision? At the end, when we were having the debate, it was interesting to see what everyone thought about trial and testing and what you would do if you were put in someone else's shoes.

Thank you so much! It was really worthwhile what we learnt, explored and debated about. Starfish really made me stop and think.

Anithra Wagiswara

When the Y touring group entered our school, it would appear to just be a couple of people acting out a play in which none of us will leave learning anything at all. Wrong. We learnt exactly the problem that Mad Cow’s disease can cause to someone’s life. It can end it in their life being cut short, their brain loses control and they become more like a child again. The actors in the Starfish play were very good in the varied roles they were given, with just 4 actors playing each character; it was easier to understand the play well and in context. The wonderment of the large laptop was confusing and at times extremely pointless. The different scenes in which the girl, with the same kind of problem as the young man with Mad Cow’s disease, is talking on the laptop was annoying, but fairly humorous at times. The other person, of whom we cannot see, talking to the girl is so American and very out of place. I would have to say it was humorous at first, but eventually just became a running joke and became slightly boring. It was easy to tell that the woman playing a ‘new’ doctor was doing the backing ‘American’ voice. Overall the narrator at the start and at the end was very honest about what he believed and thought. Asking questions at the end to each character was a good idea.

The idealism behind this play was important to our understanding of exactly why and how should be careful. They had no background WHATSOEVER and this was a very annoying aspect. Without the background it became very unbelievable, it makes the play confusing as to where the characters actually are. The only background provided was the large laptop which did not help one bit. The characters were not in the scenery, so I found it difficult to really enjoy this play. With all of the criticisms however, I have to say apart from background and bad voice acting once in a while, I would have to say the acting was amazing and the narrator at the start and end was also very patient. The overall experience of the good acting was hindered by the backdrop of just a giant laptop and a pathetic white stand in the middle in which it was given many different roles, mostly as a grave, but it just ended up as a leaning stand for the actors if they became tired. Apart from this though, it is extremely difficult to act well and get teenagers our age from 14 to 15 to listen. They did well in doing this we kept quiet from the start and because it was so very intriguing we listened intently and with some brilliant acting it helped get a better overall score. Out of 10, my own personal score would be 7/10, because of the major backdrop defaults I was not let down completely by this main problem which could easily of been stopped by putting in a better background and the use of more props.

Ben Allan, Wallington Grammar

I have to be honest that I didn’t sit down to watch ‘Starfish’ with an open mind. I simply assumed it would be another play for teenagers endlessly preaching to us on the dangers of drugs or underage sex, but I was wrong and pleasantly surprised.

The first thing that stood out for me (apart from the exciting fact that we were going to be using hand held, electronic devices!) was the quality of the acting. It was believable and realistic. I immediately found myself drawn into the lives of the characters. All actors seemed to have grasped their characters well and by the end of the play I was un-sure who or what was fictional or reality.

Before watching the performance I didn’t know what the subject was. There had been rumours of a play about animal testing but as the performance progressed it became clear that this was no entirely true. The topic ‘CJD and the issues behind trial treatments’ was however, something that I had never really come across before. Nevertheless, the issue was portrayed in such a way that it really made me think about the issue. The story-line was brutally honest and at one point we witnessed a character with CJD struggling to eat his meal and it unpleasantly sitting there on his chin. But this did not matter as it opened my eyes widely to the horror that is CJD and the personal affects of diseases such as this.

Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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It is not very often that you get to see a laptop the size of your garden shed, except while watching ‘Starfish’. This part of the set was an amazing feat of craftsmanship and was cleverly adapted to hold the story of the starfish, the computer world for which some characters used and the questions for the audience at the end. It was overall a simple set, a stand used for a grave stone at times, a reasonably sized performance space and the giant laptop, but it worked well and the lines and actions of the characters clearly told the audience of their whereabouts. It was a good example of how simplicity is often the best choice.

The question and discussion section at the end got me thinking. The charm of the host and the animated chat really made me feel that my opinions were being listened to and counted. It gave me the chance to collect my thoughts on the issue and discuss it with my friend (although this was made difficult by the fact that half of them were bawling their eyes out after witnessing the final few scenes of the play). However, there was very little to no discussion on the significance of the starfish story. This final evaluation of the meaning would’ve really completed the experience for me.

This un-expected performance was one of the best educational theatre pieces I have seen. It had originality, honesty and brilliant, realistic acting. I hope that the ‘Starfish’ performance makes the impact it deserves.

Frances James, Green School for girls On a cold January afternoon, faced with the dismal prospect of double maths, we were delighted to be told that we had a visit from Y Touring Theatre. Things were looking up.

The play involved remote controls for voting. A rather cynical young man began the show by asking us not to steal the controls. I assume that they are used to performing in rough schools, behind bulletproof glass. But this was Sutton Grammar: we wear blazers and call the teachers “Sir”. We are not celebrated for our thieving skills . Some of the students were offended, then they remembered double maths and forgave him for the stereotyping of teenagers.

The subject of the play was clinical trials. Before and after the play began we were asked about our opinions on the subject.

At first I found the questions easy to answer however, after the play I realised the complexities and considered the morality of the decisions and found the questions harder to answer. We had been made to think.

The actors were truthful and compelling: we were told the story of Michael, who loses his mind, and eventually his life, to an extremely rare, lethal disease and his father’s dilemma about the use of an untested drug.

There is a parallel story about Shannon who suffers from social phobia and has to decide whether to be brave enough to participate in a clinical trial or avoid the risk and continue to suffer. We were involved, cared and sympathised with all the characters. We were made to feel.

The play worked on both an intellectual and an emotional level. We had all been entertained and educated about the issues concerned with drug trials. Thank you Y Touring. I look forward to their next visit.

Joel Pinder, Sutton Grammar

I think ‘Starfish’ is a fantastic and valuable play for many reasons. The actors were amazing; they could always be heard and played their roles of such emotional characters in a remarkable way. The general organisation was good too, it started on time and was all packed away by the time our lunch break started, there were no technical problems and it was well rehearsed... I liked the scenery (life sized computer) too! I think the structure of the play is cleverly done because it makes you fell as if it is real life and makes you emotional, however the end can make you feel good about yourself just like Shannon.

Additionally, the costumes are basic and a small number of characters make the story easy to follow, highlighting how good the play is at portraying a story about CJD. Also I think the topic of clinical trials is very important. Furthermore because it is relevant to our learning curriculum, I think to be taught about it in such an effective and more enjoyable way is brilliant. Although it is about clinical trials, I think it also helps people deal with other family problems too, what to do for support and how they can help their loved one. Also there was factual information such as a total of 167 cases so far and 3 people currently living with the rare, incurable illness. One thing you could do to improve, is make sure there is enough time at the end to discuss the situation because after seeing the play, some people need to ask more questions or talk about it or to also have their say about clinical trials. From a scientific point of view, I think there could be more factual information and scientific sources shared about CJD and clinical trials in general. I stayed focused throughout the play but for others, who maybe did not enjoy it as much, you could consider more audience interaction within the play. Overall, a lot of my friends and I really enjoyed the performance; it gave us a strong message, which made us think about the different aspects of clinical trials and family problems too. I thoroughly enjoyed the performance and think the purpose of ‘Starfish’ is met.

Meghan Linscott, Blackfen School Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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I thought that the narrator at the start and end really reinforced the impact of vCJD and Holly’s story. I liked watching the switch between Shannon’s life and Michael/Adrian’s lives, and how their relationships developed throughout.

I had never heard of vCJD before the show but seeing the physical impact that it had on Michael’s quality of life came across very powerfully. Now knowing how hard it is in real life to battle on, I sympathised hearing Holly’s story at the end and I think it was because after watching “Starfish” I realised that losing a life through such a vile disease must be awful, but before it wouldn’t have really upset me at all, knowing it’s so rare.

The scene that gripped me the most was when Michael got up out of his chair in pain, stumbled and fell. I thought it really infused shock and emotion. Seeing Michael’s pain was almost like his lack of self control was making him burn up with anger and tension, like he was screaming out for someone to help him from the unforgivable disease. Yet, he had no self control at all; it was just a painful relentless fit that for me was verging on tearful.

The hand held voting system was something new and interactive so we felt more involved as an audience and it drew us into the show straightaway. The results were up on the screen in a matter of seconds and I thought it was quite impressive. You used all the corners of the stage, all the space around you and kept moving which was good because you didn’t have your backs to us for too long. I like the way you incorporated real life into it, as it made the performance more believable and you had the BBC website and the computer program “second life”, which I had known a bit about.

I liked this show a lot as it took us through Michael’s life before he got vCJD and showed us how he always supported those around him, especially Shannon.

The hot seat at the end was another interactive activity that I think concluded the show well and another aspect of a unique performance.

The show went very well but you may want to think about experimenting with more sounds, music and lighting for this particular play, as it might help to develop the emotion and empathy we build with the characters. I realise that as you are touring, lighting maybe an issue, but you could make sounds from the people backstage using instruments like a rainmaker or even just making sounds with your fingers tapping on the floor as an example.

Sarah Johns, The Green school

Contrary to popular belief, and strongly reinforced by the innovation used in Starfish by the Y Touring Theatre Company, not all ‘educational’ theatre is dull and boring by definition. There were a few things that made Starfish stand out both as an energetic and lively performance as well as a debate of ethics.

Chiefly, the Y Touring Theatre Company deserves great credit for the way in which they handled the controversial and difficult issue of the presence of degenerative diseases in society, and the nature of clinical drug trials. The performance revealed a lot of information about the process of participating in these drug trials and the ethical considerations concerning the treatments of degenerative conditions such as Variant CJD. Starfish stood out also because it created a successful link with the young audience. Members of the audience were encouraged to voice their thoughts and opinions on the issues presented in the play, and they were not made to feel uncomfortable or embarrassed when doing so. The performance also included traits reflective of modern society and popular culture that young people are familiar with, for example the prominence of the social networking, naturalistic online game Second Life and the use of the Internet in a clinical trial. Furthermore, the remote controlled voting systems that were given to each pupil were useful in viewing the thoughts shared by others in the room (and were quite fun to poke around with!)

The performances of the cast were very convincing and on several occasions made me feel empathetic towards the characters involved. There was a good balance of humour and seriousness, though sometimes the humour did seem to be rather forced and did not fit the dialogue, appearing awkward rather than funny. Also, towards the beginning of the play the direction of the plot seemed to meander a little, though the confusion was cleared up in time. The script was well written and the cast were able to deliver their lines professionally and with confidence. A lot of the time I felt gripped to the story and temporarily forgot that it was a work of fiction.

Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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I would recommend Starfish by the Y Touring Theatre Company to all students who are willing to learn something new and have an open mind towards the suggestions of others within moral debate. The performance was moving and informative, thought-provoking and entertaining. I was enthralled. It certainly beats a physics lesson.

Mathew Blow

I think the play was a very good on getting a message across to us but in an interesting way because if it wasn’t interesting a lot of people would of gotten bored and not really listened.

A very good technique was performing it in a real life situation that could happen because if you said the words ‘if this happened’ we wouldn’t imagine it how it really is compared to when it is preformed in front of you.

The characters drew you in a lot from the very beginning of when it started when Adrian, the father, automatically got to the point of how it was the happiest day of his life and how everything can change very fast. When Michael starting showing his illness I thought he acted it out very well and made us put our self in Adrian’s shoes so we knew how hard it would be to make the choices of what he should do.

The way of getting us to answer questions on the control was smart as well because you can see a very good way of who thinks what. Also the way we are asked to answer a question, then it is explained to us and then we are the asked the same question again and most the time we have changed our view.

Overall I think it was a good way of getting something across to us in an adventurous way.

Demika Sahni, Queen’s College

Starfish came to our school to do a play for us about the importance of medical trials. I have to admit that eyebrows were raised by many of us at the idea. How could a play about medical trials be very exiting?

After seeing the play though everyone felt differently. I thought it was fantastic how we were shown how illnesses like the one Michel had affected people’s lives so severely. It made us really think about what we would do in the position of Michel’s friends and family.

Before the play we were asked the question “Should families have the right to commission treatment for their ill or dying relative, even if the treatment has not been trialled?”

At first my answer was “No they should not be able to give their relative unsafe treatment.” However after watching the play about the emotional stress that was put on Michel’s family I began to think differently. I thought it was great how the play made us all realise that we would try anything to save the people we loved if we were in the place of Michel’s family.

It made us realise just how important medical research into diseases like that. It can make such a difference to people’s lives, it only takes one person to be brave enough to try it. Even if you can’t help everyone, it doesn’t mean you can’t help some people. Medical trials can make such a difference to people’s lives and I think it’s important that people realise just how life changing they can be.

When we were asked the same question after the play had finished my answer (as were the vast majority of us) was that they should be allowed to try any kind of medical treatment. Even if it doesn’t work you would know that your loved one died a hero. They would have saved millions of people, because they were brave enough to try.

The first thing I did when I got home was to tell my mum that in the event of me being ill, I would like my body to be at the full usage of any medical research.

The play made me realise how important research into illness and medicine is, I think we all learned that sometimes in our Quest to preserve life, some people must be the brave ones.

Anna Stedman, Queens College London

Watching the play was very interesting and moving and also got me very aware of what CJD’s actually is. At some points in the play it got quite confusing particularly towards the end but it was very good over all. The parts that moved me the most were when you saw how the process of CJD gets worse and worse as the conditions of the character Michael’s illness became very bad. The man who played Michael’s character was really amazing as he worked well with the movement in all parts of his body which was caused by the CJD. The father of Michael stayed in his role very well and really created a great sense of what it would be like to have your child in a situation like that and whether to go through with the treatment on not.

You could see by the end that when Michael died the dad felt like he had a piece missing from his heart and that he probably wouldn’t be able to go on any longer. It was good to know that the dad did something to help others like Michael after his son sadly died. This play definitely sets off a good message to others and is definitely very sad.

Mattie Ellis Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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Starfish was a very moving play which definitely provided a lot of information but in a fun and captivating way, which hit all of my heart strings and actually made me cry. The story was well told and it was hard to tell weather it was a real true life story or just made up, in particular Michaels Dad gave a very believable performance. I did feel however, a little confused by how the second life part was relevant within the play, I understand that it gave it more substance but it didn’t actually add anything.

Perhaps, also, at the end when the characters were called out to talk about their experiences, another way could have been found to talk to Michael- for instance say a close friend who was talking to Michael before he died could tell us what he said which could answer the relevant questions.

The scenes involving the wheelchair ridden Michael were quite violent for example when he was being fed and was choking, a glob of food landed on my foot, this was not appreciated, but did provide a good dramatic effect. Perhaps the audience should sit further back to avoid further accidents!

On the whole however the play was very absorbing and informative and I think very worth watching!

DEJASAY, T Queens college

I learnt a lot from watching the play. It was very interesting and gave me a chance to see how things from lots of different people’s point of view. One thing I especially was when we were asked to vote on what we would do in the different circumstances. I found that the most interesting because we could see what the majority of our school thinks about drug testing.

This was my favourite part and more of it would have been good.

One thing I think could be improved upon is the part of the play with second life. I didn’t really understand the purpose of that part and think it would be better if it was removed completely, as it does not have much to do with drug trials. I understand that the girl was then tested afterwards about her shyness problem; however you can still do that without the other scenes.

I think it was good how at the end of the play the actors stayed in roll and gave their opinions on the drug trails. Though that was maybe a little confusing to some and could be further explained.

SHAKESPEARE, A Queens college

Afflicted with an incurable disease, Michael is going to die. CJD, the human form of mad cow disease, is going to cause Michael to deteriorate further and further until his death.

Considering “Starfish” is a play by a company called ‘Theatre in Debate’, one would expect controversy; however, “Starfish” does not deal with the rights and wrongs of euthanasia. This is perhaps surprising given Michael’s predicament. Instead the play questions the morality of clinical trials by asking three questions: should terminally ill patients take part in a clinical trial?

Who should decide for the patient if they themselves cannot decide? And, should we all volunteer for a clinical trial and give something back to science, which has improved our lives so much?

Michael’s condition is incurable; however, another sufferer of CJD has undergone treatment which has caused her to live longer than she would if the disease had been allowed to run its course. Michael’s father is desperate for him to take the treatment as it could potentially save his life. On the other hand, Michael’s doctor, Sara, warns against it as the treatment could kill Michael or make his life even worse. The treatment gives Michael a chance to live, but it could also make his life even worse.

Deteriorating, Michael is unable to decide whether he takes the treatment, which involves an injection into the brain, or not.

He is close to his father, who is able to decide for him. However, the incident makes the audience consider: if Michael was not close to his parents who would make the decision for him? Is it fair to ask a friend to make that kind of decision?

The final issue is raised by the play through a subplot involving one of Michael’s students. She has a chronic fear of people, social phobia, and wants to take a medication for it. Her doctor tells her that there are clinical trials for curing the phobia, involving Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), but some of the medication has not been tested on humans before. Is it right for her to benefit from science and not reciprocate by taking part in a clinical trial?

These issues are raised through a provoking script and heartfelt acting which struck an emotional note with the audience.

However, there were definitely ways in which the story could have been improved: the doctor, Sara, was such a functional character that by the end of the play she amounted to little more than a walking encyclopaedia. Although choosing a rare disease such as CJD added interest to the play, in some ways it distanced the audience from Michael as that they did not feel much empathy with him. A disease such as cancer would be within many more people’s personal experience and would have more impact.

Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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“Starfish” is an engaging piece of drama which raises interesting and thought provoking issues; watching it was a very good way to spend a January afternoon.

Nick Pepper, Sutton Grammar School

I saw your star fish production in my school bacons college last week I thought the production was excellent. When the first character came on stage his acting was superb so much so I didn’t even know he was acting, I thought he was coming on to talk about him self, and all of the actor acting was soo believable the way they stayed in role all through out the play and even after when they was answering our questions. The thing I like the most about your production is the way you made learning fun. In the sense that we was having fun by watching your production but at the same time we was also learning about the advantages and disadvantages of clinical trials. I also like the way you got us all involved in the production using the electronic voting systems and the way the man presenting the production and holding the quiz engaged with the audience, he got us all involved and active making us move around to different places depending on our opinion. Personally I don’t think there Is anything you should change about the production, how ever I do believe that if you are to ever show this production again, that you should make the actual production its self more engaging and fun because whilst I could engage and sympathise with all the characters certain parts of the production was a little bit boring.

Thank you Ope Ogun 15, Bacons College

Review of Starfish by Elle Monaghan, The Westgate School. Loved the show so much btw - amazing!

Starfish is a capturing, intense experience that takes you on a rollercoaster of emotion and feeling. As a production for teenagers and young adults, it brings to light the importance of testing new medicine in order to move forwards. It clearly addresses all points of view, and remains unbiased, giving the audience a chance to make up their own minds about what they think is right before the debate at the end. The characters in the production are believable and, for the short time in which they portrayed by the actors, completely real for the audience.

Perhaps one of the things that makes Starfish truly great to experience is the fact that it exposes every detail instead of glossing over some of the nastier moments; the audience feels Michael’s frustration and despair in every moment as he falls under the hold of his mysterious illness. The production exposes fear and hopelessness to the audience in its clearest form, meaning that by the time the audience must say what they think they not only strongly believe in their choice but also fully understand the opinions of the other side.

The anonymous votes are also an important part of the debate at the end of the production. People do not feel afraid of being judged or demanded an explanation of, and so are much more comfortable in expressing their views. There is no right or wrong – you are free to choose your side without any kind of pressure. The opportunity to question – or ‘hotseat’ – the actors in character is also an exciting part of the production, as the audience is given an opportunity to delve deeper into the storyline and the feelings of the characters there.

Starfish is filled with passion and is a wonderful way to encourage young people to address arguments that may affect their future. I would highly recommend it; the storyline and characters stay with you long after the production is over and you are sent back to your lessons.

Elle Monaghan, The Westgate School

Recently St Augustine’s was visited by ytouring which showed us a touching piece of drama based on true stories about a rare disease that only a few survived from. It touches the sensitivity of how the character called Michael catches the disease and it affects his family friends and even an unstable relationship with a loved one (Saira). It goes through all the challenges and even though it is Michael with the disease everyone is affected. First the most affected is his father Adrian. His beloved wife died when Michael was an early age and now his son who is the only one left in his family has a very high chance he will be left by himself. He tries to be overprotected to save his child but his attempts failed as he died. Next his lover Saira; the one he was in a relationship with. She came to take the job as the local GP which her father had before he passed away. He was well known so in the piece indirectly it shows that she is trying to fill her father’s shoes. Also there is Shannon who is shy to an extreme condition she had a slight “crush” on Michael who introduces her to second life to make her more confidence which makes her meet Saira at the GP to see treatment in computer therapy. So just one death changes the way many people live in positive and negative ways.

In the drama piece there were many things that touched me and I think touched the whole year in my school. The fact that there was someone that can teach us a disease that affects a minority but is still killing and show it in a way that is interesting is very good. But what I like of the theatre is the way it is shown so in the end they are all linked in a way because all the Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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characters meet each other. I also like the remote that enables us to vote about our opinions on sensitive subjects like this and explain more to us.

The things I do not like of the play were at the start when the first character (Adrian) explains about his son. The reason was because we were all confused and we didn’t even know whether the play has started. Another thing I thought was not well planned was the voting scheme. I did not like this because I feel that we did not have many questions and if you asked more questions you could ask our opinion on the subject and keep us more alive this brings me to my next point on opinions. I feel that you did not devote much time for us to ask questions because many of us wanted to know and in our class after you left we were intrigued to know more about the disease.

Overall it think that it was a good play and the playwright should be proud to make a wonderful story and starfish it a very good story.

Andy Mensan St Augustine’s church of England school

I have to admit, when my form tutor said we had to go to a play about drugs, I threw a big strop! I was under the impression it was going to be yet another don't take drugs session, and considering we've been to millions of them, I was not happy.

However, when I arrived in the hall I was pleasantly surprise to find out that the topic was on something that was of an interest to me. Probably one of the only down sides to the event was that the true topic wasn't made clear. I think if Id known it was only clinical testing and not don't smoke pot, I would have been less sceptical.

I loved the layout of the audience looking in on the set, as it made you feel like you were part of the play and really got you involved. Being so close and on a level with the actors and scene made me feel like I was really there and played on my own emotions. Also the commitment to the roles was very impressive.

The play itself was very dramatic and excellently performed, yet at the same time very informative, but the facts were presented in a way that was interesting and easily digestible.

The host was very good and had great control over our rowdy year 10s, he was very easy going which made the atmosphere relaxed and him easy to listen to.

The question and debate was a great idea, however I though it was a bit short. I think there should be a few more questions and more time devoted to it as it think people could really get into a good debate.

I have to say I am very impressed and that the session has given me even more of an interest in the subject of clinical testing, and I have decided to do an issue report on clinical testing of variant CJD for my biology coursework. So I'm going to be a bit cheeky and ask if there are any good sources I can get my research on??

Thank you for a very eye opening couple of hours.

Charlotte Smith, Ravensbourne School

Saira, has taken over her fathers position of becoming a doctor after he had passed away. While she visiting her fathers Grave yard she bumps into her Ex-boyfriends dad (Adrian).She tells him the good news about the job and he is really pleased for her and was told that he will pass the message on to his son Michael. While all this is happening a young girl who studies art has a problem of being really shy, her teacher who is Michael has introduced something for her online called "second life" which she has really got the hang of and has made true friends. she visited the doctors {Dr Hussein}, who finds it hard to help her from being "extremely Shy"...Meanwhile Michael takes a visit to the clinic after he is told by his father that Saira is back. He is examined and told that he is fine and that its stress that's causing the problem. She gives him advice to take some time off work, but he refuses to do so. After the check up he invites Saira to go to Starbucks to catch up and have a coffee. At a later day when the two meet up Michael tells Saira how he "loves" her and had always felt that way and has never had the chance to say it before. The meet up goes really well and they both were really happy. After that day Saira hadn't heard from him for a while, and then when Adrian (Michaels dad) appears at the clinic he tells her the situation that he is acting funny and he is not himself. As Saira had checked him recently and everything was fine she didn't think it was so serious and so she persuaded Adrian that it was nothing and that he'll be fine. But eventually he managed to convince her to pay a home visit and she agreed. When she visited him she was so shocked and couldn't believe that something was wrong with him. Saira told Adrian that she will do more tests as soon as possible and let him know what the situation is. When she found out what it was she had to break the news to Adrian that Michael has developed a strange and very serious illness, she tries everything she can do get Michael better. Dr Hussein offers Shannon a ‘social phobia’ testing trial and gave information to help her make a choice. She was also Accessible for getting counselling which she said that she shall think about.

But Shannon was really confident and wasn't so scared as before.

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No wanting to lose his son Adrian finds out about an untrialled treatment on the Internet, but Saira wasn’t sure about the thought as it was untrialled. Michael was now on a wheel chair and after a few days of suffering he had died...Should he had Taken the untrialled treatment...???

Renhaz Choudhury

The play 'Starfish' was based on the 'Starfish' by Judith Johnson starring Michael (Design and Technology teacher), Adrian (Michael's father), Shannon (one of Michael's students), and Saira (GP). It's about a teacher who is happily doing his job until he finds out that he has a mysterious and very serious illness. The other characters revolved around the main character (Michael) and had their own views and ways to sort out the problem. He soon dies and leaves Adrian, Shannon, and Saira all grieving for him to come back.

One feature i liked was the feeling of the characters and how in-depth the actors were conveyed in their characters. This gave us an understanding of the characters and made the play true instead of reading us the whole play. Also, the actors were very confident and (if they needed to) they would go for dramatic scenes from the play without being nervous or "put off". I liked this because it gives us the progress and work the actors have put towards this play and give out the message (which Judith would of wanted).

However...

One drawback was the audiences response to the two kissing scenes which put off the actors. On the other hand, they carried on until the audience watched back which gave confidence. Also, the audiences reaction wasn't there fault.

Overall, the play was fantastic and helped me understand about the illness and made me cry near the ending (yes i know boys shouldn't cry but hey, that's how good it was). Also the drama piece was good because i missed a double period of science (which was great!)

I hope you carry on telling other schools and keep up the good work!

P.s. sorry i went a bit over 500 words but i hope you will consider this...

Jake Bentley-Ross, Archbishop Tenisons CE High School

Over all I think the play and discussion went well and I would recommend you to other schools. The acting was superb, all the characters well played and there was only one mistake in the lines: It was so good the person next to me thought Adrian was the real dad of the person in the play. The big laptop was a very good prop as you could show where a scene was with a picture of part of it. This also helped in the discussions.

I thought that the discussion was good as it raised the issues of clinical trials and drug with no or bias clinical trials. The interactive counters were good but there were a few draw backs: People were messing around with them by pressing menu and then entering the answer again; they could carry colds and other infections left on there from the people using it before if they are not properly cleaned and it is not worth the hassle if you are only asking 4 questions. I thought the person who led the discussion was good at explaining and controlling the group.

Samuel Nash, Wallington grammar

7.7 Advisory Board Biographies Sir Iain Chalmers Editor, James Lind Library Iain Chalmers directs the James Lind Initiative, which promotes public and professional acknowledgement of uncertainties about the effects of treatments, and research to address them. He coordinates the Database of Uncertainties about the Effects of Treatments – DUETs (www.duets.nhs.uk), a resource to help prioritise new research in the UK, and edits The James Lind Library (www.jameslindlibrary.org), a web-based resource containing explanatory material in seven languages about fair tests of medical treatments.

Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

Registered in England No. 119249

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Testing Treatments: Better Research for Better Healthcare - a book for the public co-authored by Imogen Evans, Hazel Thornton and Iain Chalmers – was published by The British Library in 2006, and is now available without charge in The James Lind Library.

Iain Chalmers was Director of the UK Cochrane Centre between 1992 and 2002, and Director of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit between 1978 and 1992.

Professor Janet Darbyshire Joint Director of the UK Clinical Research Network Janet Darbyshire joined the Medical Research Council to co-ordinate clinical trials and epidemiological studies in tuberculosis in the UK and Africa. Subsequently she developed the MRC’s programme of clinical trials in HIV infection and in 1998 established the MRC Clinical Trials Unit. She directs the Unit’s programme of trials in cancer, HIV infection and other disease areas.

She is a member of many Trial Steering Committees and Data Monitoring Committees, and has worked closely with community support groups particularly in HIV infection. Since February 2005, she has been the Joint Director of the UK Clinical Research Network with Professor Peter Selby.

Lester Firkins Employed by the Department of Health and the Medical Research Council as a lay representative for various areas of concern For 35 years Lester Firkins was employed by a variety of UK Banking Companies, finishing his career as Area Director for Lloyds TSB. In 2001 his family experienced a tragic event and this was what changed his career direction. Lester has headed up a UK Patient Charity and has been Co-Chair of a Clinical Trial.

He is now employed by the Department of Health and the Medical Research Council as a lay representative for various areas of concern including the James Lind Alliance.

He is married with one son and has a keen interest in Soul Music of the 1960's. In short, he is everything you would expect of a middle class white male.

David Kaskel CEO and MD of languagelab.com David Kaskel is the CEO and Managing Director of Languagelab.com, a pioneering Second Life-based language school.

He will be responsible for coordinating in-world modelling and scripting and for the collaborative development of the educational/dramatic scenarios. Kaskel has directed the building of a highly sophisticated virtual city in Second Life, populated by qualified and experienced language tutors, and containing inventive teaching and learning materials, interactive tutorials and scenarios designed to fully exploit the possibilities offered by the Second Life environment.

Kaskel is currently overseeing the development of Theatron, an Eduserv funded project which involves the reconstruction of 20 historically significant theatres in Second Life. In addition, he is developing a range of interactive spaces to support the work of the Centre for Computing in the Humanities, where he is also a part-time Ph.D. student, studying aspects of the user-avatar relationship in shared virtual environments.

Professor Max Parmar Joint Director of the UK Clinical Research Network Mahesh Parmar has been with the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit for over 20 years, and Head of the Cancer Group since 1998. He is also an Associate Director of the National Cancer Research Network since its inception in 2001. He has interests in improving outcomes for patients in a range of cancers, together with a methodological interest in new designs for clinical trials and improved methods of analysis.

Dr Sophie Petit-Zeman Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

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Head of External Relations, Association of Medical Research Charities Sophie Petit-Zeman has been Head of External Relations at the Association of Medical Research Charities since 2004. Before joining AMRC, she was a biomedical researcher focusing on stroke, epilepsy and pain, and her PhD, at London's Kings College Hospital, investigated the causes of brain cell death in motor neurone disease and dementia. She then migrated, via mental health research as Biomedical Research Manager at the Mental Health Foundation, to communications and journalism. Shortlisted MIND Mental Health Journalist of the Year 2001, she has worked for all the UK broadsheets, numerous specialist journals, for the NHS, private and voluntary sectors in the UK and abroad. Sophie appears regularly in the mainstream media, both for AMRC and other ventures (most embarrassingly as the neuroscience expert on the BBC national television quiz, Test the Nation 2007) and has written two books, “Doctor, What’s Wrong? Making the NHS human again (Routledge, 2005) and “How to be an Even Better Chair” (Pearson; 2006).

At AMRC, Sophie is responsible for member support and public engagement on many of the controversial issues affecting the sector, from the use of animals in medical research to embryo and stem cell research and patient involvement in clinical trials. She sits of numerous advisory boards and steering groups, including those of Understanding Animal Research, and the James Lind Alliance. Sophie has recently been elected a Vice President of the Institute of Animal Technologists and is on the Executive Board of the Brain and Spine Foundation.

Dr David Tovey Editor-in-Chief, Cochrane Library David Tovey was the Editorial Director for the Knowledge division of the BMJ Group, responsible for the Clinical Evidence and BestTreatments products, which provide a review of the evidence on the beneficial and harmful effects of medical treatments for health professionals and the public.

He worked at the BMJ from 2003 and is now Editor-in-Chief for the Cochrane Library. He previously worked as a General Practitioner in South London Professor Simon Wessely MD FMedSci Professor of Epidemiological and Liaison Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at King’s and Maudsley Hospitals Professor of Epidemiological and Liaison Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at King’s and Maudsley Hospitals.

His research interests are in the areas of medicine and psychiatry, clinical epidemiology, psychiatric injury and military health.

He is Director of the King’s Centre for Military Health Research Unit at King’s College London. In 2006 the unit published the first results of a study of the physical and psychological health of 12,000 UK military personnel, half of whom have served in the Iraq conflict. All the cohorts are currently being followed up.

Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

Registered in England No. 119249