Any teachers willing to give an honest answer?

[nikos]

Do the kids of mums who help in school (PTA, reading) get the best parts in school plays?

No, how could that be fair or defensible?
They have been given parts on occasion, but we pride ourselves on our equality of opportunity.

'I always thought the best speaking parts went to the best readers and most able learners '

Except if they come to you and beg, with a hopeful expression that please can they not be a narrator. Can they be a comedy sheep, because it's fun and they usually get chosen for reading.
He's a sheep this year.

I think it is such a shame that people put a lot of spare time in working hard on the PTA and then people come up with such nonsense-it makes you wonder why they bother. I have been on PTA, my DCs don't get main parts, they don't want main parts and they are too self conscious to have main parts.

When I have been casting for parts I explain the play. Ask them which parts the want and they audition.I take the best for the part-bearing in mind

1. their voice has to be loud enough.
2. They will not suffer from nerves on the night.
3. They will learn their lines.

4.They are reliable.

1. They are not going to be the sort to do something silly, that they find funny, in the performance.

I'm a teacher. I've run school plays for several years. This is an insane idea! I can't even imagine what motivation you think teachers would have for casting kids of the pta. Why would they? Don't understand at all.

I am trying to think what the motivation would be. What advantage would it be to the teacher?

When I was a DC I liked being on the back row of the chorus, I think many DCs are the same, but they have mothers who want them centre stage!

I am convinced that you don't need a play-you just dress the DCs, line them up and give them the same length speech with the same length actions and everyone is happy. They want to see their DC and are not interested in the play as a whole and think 'wasn't Josh wonderful as X', they just think 'why wasn't my DC X'

Actually, we do, The TAs pay a subscription into a secret slush fund so that the teachers can drink champagne and scoff truffles on staff nights out.
Or we run a silent auction, fees to secure roles have run into the hundreds with additional bribery a feature of more high profile events.
But you knew that all along OP.

No - I would never ever give a pupil a part because their parent was on the PTA.

In fact, two years ago the main part went (deservedly) to the son of an LSA who works in school. The LSA came to see me to ask if I was sure because she was worried sick that other parents would say I gave him the part becasue she worked in school.

At the time I laughed, but having read threads like this I can see why she was worried.
Like all the pupils in my class he had that particular part because after they had auditioned (for the parts they were interested in) I believed he was the right person for the role

DownbytheRiverside Don't give away all the secrets

There does tend to be a correlation at our school, but I think as earlier posters have suggested it is because the PTA governor type of parents tend to be confident, assertive, educated middle-class types, who will tend to have the "nicely spoken", concientious DCs.
They have a board up at school, with photos of school councillors, eco-council etc., and almost all the parent governors had children on the councils last year. BUT, the parent governors were elected AFTER the school council were chosen.....
The one thing that does annoy me is if the same children get the positions or best parts year after year. DSs school won't allow anyone to be on the councils if they have already done it, and makes sure that there are several "stars", in the productions.

DS tells me they are struggling to find someone to do the carol service reading for his class, as all the ones who go to church have already done it, and very few of the others want to!

I am chair of the PTA until I can get out of it and also a teacher at the school my son attended until last year (now at secondary school). My son was obviously picked for every single main part, was leader of school council, and won every single prize going.

Oh wait, none of that happened actually.

I don't really think that is the case. However, the confident "loud" intelligent ones always get the main parts...mainly because they are capable enough to learn the lines and speak clearly.
Next, a great effort is made to include SEN children and rightly so, so they too always get some part if capable. Then unfortunately, the average quieter child may get overlooked. Personally, I think they all should be rotated as much as possible but that is not always the case.

I think that the average, quieter DC wants to get overlooked-unfortunately for them they often have mothers who want to push them forward.

No one has explained the motivation for the teacher in having the DC of PTA members.What is the advantage? Once I was a parent I tended to know these things, but as a young single teacher I hadn't a clue who was on it anyway.

Can some of you explain the purpose of a school play then? If the same kids, i.e. the loud confident ones get the parts every year so it is a "success", then what is the benefit of doing a play? Clearly it is not to develop all the children, to give shy ones a chance to improve their confidence or encourage other kids to try new things. It is not a learning opportunity so what is the point of it. I think priorities are really screwed up when it comes to these things.

Can some of you explain the purpose of a school play then?

I try and use the opportunity to piss off the maximum amount of parents in one go. I find that by the time I have rewritten the script so it is suited to my class, allocated parts, organsised costumes and props I have pretty much managed to achieve this

NO, absolutely not.

But surely a less confident child can have their confidence improved by being part of the chorus or having a short line to say, helpmabob? Do you think it is only the children with the starring parts who learn from being in a play? Mine never had a starring part and yet I am sure they got something from being starts and shepherds and all the rest of it. Being part of a production is a learning experience in its own right. Ime it is usually the parents who think something is wasted if little Emily doesn't get the top part: little Emily is often too busy enjoying the whole show with her friends.

'I try and use the opportunity to piss off the maximum amount of parents in one go.'

Ours is on Wednesday and Thursday .

Bring it on!

I think when kids repeatedly see the same children get the big parts, they certainly do learn something, they learn that life is dominated by petty politics and socal heirarchies and is deeply unfair. So yes maybe these plays are useful in hardening our kids to the realities of life.

I suspect the kids in the chorus do what we did in school, they see play rehearsals as a time to gossip and play while the teachers are focused on the main parts. I recall a lot of hanging around doing nothing, very educational!

Mulled wine sounds good.

Sorry, but having spent today shopping for stuff for the play and sewing costumes it's a bit galling to read all the complaints.

It's also the perfect opportunity to fall out with you colleagues over rehearsal schedules etc ... oh, and the opportunity necessity to be in school from 7.30am until 9.30pm without a break for four days in December is an added bonus!

Seriously, for a shy child just delivering a few lines is a huge achievement (and I hope their parents appreciate and recognise this) and I find the whole thing helps the children to work as a team

They produce school plays because the parents want it!

The most successful one I did was when the DCs got to choose if they acted, made the music or did the props. It worked brilliantly. The DCs split naturally into the 3 groups, everyone had first choice. I had the art group and we had a wonderful time painting the background, making trees etc. The music group composed the music and played it. It left the acting group free to get on without crowd control. The end product was good and the DCs got a huge amount out of it.
Unfortunately it was never repeated because parents want to see their own DC on stage and not be told -'I made the second tree from the left!'

It was a great shame. Lots of DCs don't want to be on stage-the boy next to us always tried his best to do the lights.
Half the time the DC hasn't auditioned for the part, they don't want it, and yet you then get the parent saying 'it isn't fair'!

No, dd learned that the other children got the parts because they were able to do something she couldn't, and that if she wanted the same thing she'd have to up her game. It was her choice if she practised her voice production and memory to get a better chance.

It is no different from letting a child who could play the trumpet perform at a school rather than dd who couldn't play the trumpet. As a member of the audience, I would far rather listen to the child who could play even if it wasn't my own. And I'd far rather listen to a child who could speal audibly and not fidget on stage.

I always felt it was my job to teach dcs how to deal with not being chosen for the best bit: learning how to enjoy other people's performance and to enjoy doing things as a team. Dd is now in her teens and spends most of her spare time at drama school: the reason it is so enjoyable is clearly that there is no cattiness about who gets X parts; they work together for a production and enjoy each other's successes. I can't help thinking that this might be something to do with how we dealt with the situation as parents, many years ago.

I couldn't influence the school play- but I could change what dd got out of it. Bitterness doesn't actually get you very far in life.

It does absolutely nothing for a not very confident child if you give them a big part that is too much for them to handle or if you give a child who can;t remember lines too many they will get stressed and upset. Much better to give them something they can manage and feel they can do a good job at.

I do think dd was once given a solo becasue the teacher was running out of time to teach the music and knew dh was a singing teacher! However lots of others had solos and duets too.

In my drama classes there are two sisters who do always get big parts and their parents are ones who help out a lot. However the girls get good parts becasue they can be relied upon to always be there at rehearsals and to know their lines. They are the ones who when we were short of numbers for a carol concert they had opted out because of other commitments said to their parents can we please do it becasue we want to help elphaba out as she is short of children.

I tell dd (who has been lucky enough to be in small scale touring professional stuff ) that there are no small parts only small actors.

cory - you sound like a fab mum with a lovely positive attitiude.

I don't know, but what does get my goat is that in the ones I've seen, Mary is always blonde and simpering, because that's what is defined as pretty. (embittered dark-haired person here!) Mary, IF she existed, was not blonde FFS!

OK, nicos. you wanted an honest answer: absolute load of bollocks.

That do you?