PANDEMIC Superheroes: An oral history and performance

Over the Summer, I've been cooking up a project for Primary and Secondary schools (roughly Y6-Y7) , inspired by the children I’ve taught in the last year. I saw the gap between media doom about “post-pandemic children” and the optimistic energy I witnessed daily.

In July 2026, around 850,000 Year Six children will leave primary school. They began school at five, just as 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.

We’ve got some momentum; playwright Danusia Samal has provisionally agreed to write the play, we have a musician on board, and teacher and filmmaker Elsa Osman has created some draft resources and a film for schools. But we need to secure some investment – about £15K within next month - to make this project happen. Our timetable is tight, and memories are fading. Please contact me if you think you can help.

A more detailed draft proposal is below. As well as thoughts on the idea - positive, negative - we’d also love to hear from schools, youth theatres or youth clubs anywhere in the UK who would be up for participating, and organisations which might be up for co-leading this.

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 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 – positive and negative, shocking and funny – 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.

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 Year Six children 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.

Goals

- 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” Year 6 scripts that dominate, and develop teachers’ skills as creative producers and directors.

Process/structure

Nov – January: Memory-gathering

- Work with Year Six students in primary schools, year 7 students in Secondary 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 Y6 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.