What are we doing?

and why?

Children in school years 5-8 were in the first few years of education when the pandemic hit and have carried that experience with them ever since. The media calls them the “most affected” pandemic generation. But their own stories reveal courage, creativity, humour and resilience. Pandemic Superheroes will capture those stories and turn them into a musical play that any school, youth theatre or youth club in the UK can adapt and perform.

The memories you gather and the musical you will help create and perform will be archived and displayed by the new National Education Museum as a lasting record and a guide for the future.

Background

In July around 850,000 Year Six children across the UK will leave their primary schools and transition to secondary school. Like it or not, true or not, they are a cohort of children that adults are particularly worried about. The pandemic hit their lives when they were five years old and just starting primary school. The common consensus amongst teachers, school leaders, researchers and possibly parents, is that they, along with the year groups either side, have been more negatively affected by the pandemic than any other age group. Their social and emotional skills as well as academic performance has suffered, and predictions are that they will continue to underperform. One study from Bristol University predicts that the GCSE results of these children will decline by about one third.

This, of course, is only half the story. What about their story? The headlines may tell a tale of loss but what about their story of courage, creativity, and adaptation?

What do they remember from those lockdown years of 2020-21? How do they think it has changed them, and the communities around them? Looking back, what do they miss from those times? what are they angry about? Looking forward, what do they need so they can carry on bouncing back? We need to capture, celebrate and learn from these memories before they fade into the rear mirror view of adolescence.

An image of a british primary school closed due to the pandemic..jpg

Aim

To create a musical that could be adapted and performed by any primary or secondary school in the country — exploring children’s and their communities’ memories of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The play, written by a playwright and musician with experience of writing for and with children, will draw on source material from published research and from the lived memories of hundreds of current children aged 9-13 across the UK. While it may use occasional direct quotes, it will not be ‘verbatim theatre.’ Instead, the playwright will identify the strongest themes and weave them into an imaginative, resonant script. The script will be adaptable to different contexts and will include spaces where schools can add their own self-written sections.

We plan...

- To change the catastrophising narrative around these young people, demonstrating their resilience, courage, humour, and diverse opinions to their parents, communities, and beyond.
- To develop children’s knowledge and skills as oral historians, writers, and performers.
- To offer schools an inspiring alternative to the “off-the-shelf” scripts that dominate, and develop teachers’ skills as creative producers and directors.

A school production for year 6- UK school. On stage in assembly hall. Singing..jpg

Timeline

Nov – January: Memory-gathering

- Work with students in schools and young people of a similar age in youth clubs and youth theatres to capture their memories of the pandemic and lockdown — via a simple, 90 minute lesson any teacher or adult can run.

- Create resources for an additional homework session where children act as community investigators/oral historians, gathering stories from their local area. - Supplement with findings from the Covid Inquiry CYP hearings and elsewhere.

January – April 2026: Playwriting

- Collaborate with a playwright, musician and possibly a performing arts company to develop an adaptable script.
- Test the script in schools, incorporating their feedback.
- Leave deliberate space in the script for local adaptation.

May – July 2026: Performing

- Disseminate the script and music to schools nationwide.
- Offer training for school staff to become confident creative producers/directors.
- Document the performances, building a collective record of this nationwide project to go in the new National Museum of Education.

Meet The Team

Joe Hallgarten

Executive Producer

I’m a primary teacher and freelance writer, researcher, and education consultant. Since teaching full-time for five years in the 90s, I have led initiatives as Learning Director for Creative Partnerships, Director of Education for the RSA, and CEO at the Centre for Education in Youth.

Although I’m not an artist and have never created a play before, I have a deep background in arts and creative learning, and a passion for reinvigorating cultural education in England — in ways that are innovative, equitable, and rooted in children’s voices.

During the pandemic I taught and co-created a new “Explorer” curriculum in Poplar schools. In 2024, teaching part-time in Whitechapel, I saw the gap between media doom about “post-pandemic children” and the optimistic energy I witnessed daily. Pandemic Superheroes 5–11 was born from that gap.

Danusia Samal

Playwright and Director

Danusia Samal is an actor, writer and jazz singer with a prolific stage and screen career. Her work focuses on themes of identity, activism, and jokes your Dad would be proud of!

Danusia also campaigns and produces. In 2020, she launched the ‘Virtual Collaborators’ network to provide support and collaboration opportunities for artists in lockdown. She also co-founded and runs the Green Rider campaign – an actor led movement to cut emissions in the screen industry.

Elsa Osman

Creative Producer

Elsa Osman is a producer, teacher, and filmmaker working across community arts, film, and photography. Her practice combines education and creativity, with a focus on collaboration and amplifying young voices. During the pandemic and beyond, she has led art installations and exhibitions co-created with children, transforming classrooms into spaces for storytelling and resilience. Grounded in community filmmaking and photography, Elsa uses visual media to support self-expression and collective memory. She thrives on building partnerships across schools and arts organisations, producing inclusive, engaging projects that make creativity central to everyday life.

Grayam Clayton

National Education Museum Director of Communications

Graham Clayton is the Vice Chair of Trustees and the Director of Communications for the National Education Museum. A lawyer by profession, he practised as an Education Law specialist. Graham is now working with Pandemic Superheroes to build our living archive, which will be based at the National Education Museum.

More information about the National Education Museum can be found here:

https://nationaleducationmuseum.uk/

The National Museum of Education

The National Education Museum is a charity which aims to establish a national museum celebrating the history of education in England and Wales. Its trustees describe the goal of their project as the creation of a museum of the 21st century, looking to the past to prepare for the future with a mission to educate, to enlighten and to entertain. For 2026 the National Education Museum is planning the launch of events and initiatives as part of its development programme. The collaboration with Pandemic Superheroes is an important part of that development.