Theatre of Debate Electronic Patient Records

Theatre of Debate Programme: Electronic patient records and databases Evaluation

1st March 2008 – 31st December 2010

‘It is rare to see a drama that will make you think about something you don’t really care to

think about’

(Joel Borquaye, Student)

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Y Touring Theatre Company, an ʻactivity for healthʼ operation of Central YMCA. Registered Charity No. 213121 Registered in England No. 119249 Registered Office: 112 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3NQ.

Contents

1. Executive Summary

2. Introduction 2.a Background 2.b Objectives 2.c Method of Impact Measurement 2.d This Report

3. Method 3.a Development 3.b The First Tour 3.c Audio Recording 3.d The Second Tour4. Evaluation 4.a To raise young people’s (aged 14-18) and adults’ awareness of the use of electronic patient database records for research and its impact on health by engaging them in an informed debate about the issues surrounding the subject through Theatre of Debate programme (play, debate and online support materials to provoke discussion and debate) 4.b To create the play and support materials in partnership with subject- related experts and young people 4.c To create a play and support materials that can be used by both science and humanities teachers, thus encouraging understanding of the use of electronic patient database records for research and inter-disciplinary pedagogical approaches 4.d To collect quantitative data by the use of electronic polling on what the target audience feels, thinks and knows about the subject

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4.e To provide a quality resource for science communication professionals and teachers (play, debate, online support materials and podcast) 4.f To make the Podcast and online resources freely available to every secondary school in the country 4.g To raise playwrights’ and other theatre professionals’ awareness of science in society; exploring how it can inform and stimulate their imaginations and creativity5. Conclusions

6. Recommendations

7. Appendices 7.1 Breakdown of Schools 7.2 Example Teacher Evaluation Form 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); Simon Roberts as Richard and Rebecca Thorn as Janet; Beth

Mac as Lizzie and Liz Jadav as Janet; Kieron Craven-Grew as Simon and Karla Crome as

Lizzie; Kieron Craven-Grew as Simon, Jonathan Andrews as Richard and Beth Mac as Lizzie.

All photographs copyright Robert Workman

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1. Executive Summary

‘I know that I have never really been interested in the news of the NHS but after that outstanding performance I will be thinking more about my health records and what happens to them’

(Alex Mackie, Student)

Theatre of Debate Programme: Electronic patient records and databases was developed in partnership with the Royal

Academy of Engineering and was supported by the Wellcome Trust. The programme consisted of five parts: play, debate,

online resources, a downloadable podcast and an evaluation.

After an initial workshop day the play and a young researchers project, Breathing Country, was written by Ben Musgrave.

The programme toured to schools in London in Autumn 2009, and to schools in eight areas nationwide in Spring 2010. A

total of 7601 young people saw the production. Online resources for teachers and students were produced. Ben Musgrave

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

The first objective of this programme was to raise young people’s and adults awareness of the use of electronic patient

database records for research. This objective seems to have been met, with generally high levels of engagement, particularly

during the play. Audience members also generally felt that the play stimulated informed debate, with an unbiased

presentation of the issues. However, numbers for this tour were far below capacity, especially on the second tour.

Secondly, the programme sought to create a play and support matierals in partnership with subject-related experts and

young people. Through the workshop day and young research groups Y Touring worked with young people from the start,

as well as adapting the debate in response to the young audiences it performed to. A strong advisory group of experts was

also formed for this project, who played an active and crucial developmental role throughout.

The third objective was to create a play and support materials that could be used by both science and humanities teachers.

Statistics in terms of use of resources were encouragingly higher than normal for this project, and there was a fairly even split

of users between science and humanities staff.

The programme also set out to collect quantative data by the use of electronic polling on what the audience feels, thinks and

knows about the subject. Electronic voting was used throughout the tours, although there were some technical problems

with the equipment, especially at the start of the second tour, which meant that some data was not captured. The

programme started out by collecting the answers to 10 questions before and 10 questions after, but it was quickly felt that

this was too much, and this was reduced to 5. The use of electronic voting was then revised between the two tours, and 7

questions were used on the second tour, allowing a good range of questions to be polled, but without being too many.

In this programme Y Touring set out to achieve a quality resource for science communication professionals and teachers.

Feedback was very positive about the quality of the resource, from teachers, adult audience members and students. This

was felt to be crucial for turning what was quite complex and dry subject matter into something engaging,

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A further objective was to make the podcast and online resources freely available to every secondary school in the country.

By using Y Touring’s flagship theatreofdeabte.com website, Y Touring have made the resources and audio recording free to

everyone who wishes to access it. Y Touring then marketed the resource to all UK secondary schools.

The final objective for this project was to raise playwrights’ and other theatre professionals’ awareness of science in society.

Through out the project Y Touring worked with a number of playwrights and theatre professionals, and to engage them in

society through the workshop day, and through contact with the advisory group.

Generally, Theatre of Debate Programme: Electronic patient records and databases met its objectives, although some

recommendations have been made for future projects, particularly in regards to audience numbers. Y Touring has a history

of running similar projects including Mind The Gap, The Gift, Every Breath and Starfish and this evaluation would suggest

that this continues to be a relevant and successful model for engaging audiences.

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2. Introduction

‘It would be nice if other newspaper/government story’s that most young people don’t understand are acted out in this way which would make it easier for me to understand and think about’

(Beaza Balcha, Student)

2.a Background

Touring Theatre Company received funding from the Wellcome Trust to work in

partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) on a Theatre of

Debate® programme exploring the use of electronic patient records and databases.

The programme consisted of a play, post-performance debate, online resources and

a podcast targeting Key Stage 4 and above (14+)

The award was made under the Joint Initiative in Electronic Patient Records and

Databases in Research. This partnership, comprising the Wellcome Trust, Medical

Research Council, Economics & Social Research Council and Engineering &

Physical Sciences Research Council, aims to improve the quality, accessibility and

linkage of electronic patient databases for research. 17 projects were funded, 4 of

which were public engagement projects.

2.b Objectives

Y Touring’s application to the Wellcome Trust sets nine objectives for Theatre of Debate Programme: Electronic patient

records and databases. These were:

• To raise young people’s (aged 14-18) and adults awareness of the use of electronic patient database records for

research and its impact on health by engaging them in an informed debate about the issues surrounding the

subject through Theatre of Debate programme (play, debate and online support materials to provoke discussion

and debate);

• To create the play and support materials in partnership with subject-related experts and young people;

• To create a play and support materials that can be used by both science and humanities teachers, thus

encouraging understanding of the use of electronic patient database records for research and inter-disciplinary

pedagogical approaches;

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Kieron Craven-Grew as Simon and Karla Crome as Lizzie

• To collect quantitative data by the use of electronic polling1 on what the target audience feels, thinks and knows

about the subject;

• To collect qualitative data by running a series of deliberative workshops and a ‘Vision conference’ and thereby

explore the attitudes and concerns of selected audiences in more depth;

• To gather the views and attitudes of the audiences and disseminate the findings to the relevant stakeholders and

policy formers to give the public, in particular young people, a voice in this arena;

• To provide a quality resource for science communication professionals and teachers (play, debate, online support

materials and podcast);

• To make the Podcast and online resources freely available to every secondary school in the country;

• To raise playwrights’ and other theatre professionals’ awareness of science in society; exploring how it can inform

and stimulate their imaginations and creativity.

This evaluation addresses all the objectives expect the fifth and sixth. These objectives are being delivered by the Royal

Academy of Engineering, and are not covered by this evaluation.

2.c Method of Impact Measurement

Impact measurement was carried out in the following ways:

data was collected from audiences using the electronic voting system, Qwizdom, prior to each performance. In addition

Qwizdom was used by students 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 of 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 to the Y Touring office daily by the

Company Manager on tour. The reports monitor audience numbers, diversity (both

ethnicity and gender) and provide Y Touring with an evaluation of the quality and

progress of the tour. 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 were invited to write and submit reviews of Breathing Country.

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1 Electronic polling takes place using an electronic voting system. Each audience member is given a handset (similar to a

mobile phone), the facilitator poses a question and asks them to select an answer on their keypad. The results of the poll are

shown as a graphic on a screen visible to everyone.

2 Appendix p. 27

Kieron Craven-Grew as Simon and Beth Mac as Lizzie

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 and to measure and assess the impact of this project.

Overall the company had a return rate with 67% of teacher evaluation forms returned. Every attempt has been made to

chase unreturned forms by emails, fax and telephone.

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3. Method

‘It is so much better to do a drama act rather than handing out booklets or doing a presentation where you can easily get bored and not be interested in the subject at all even if it concerns you’

(Sana Nisar, Student)

3.a Development

The project was managed by Y Touring staff, a team including:

Nigel Townsend, Executive Director

Eleanor Lang, General Manager

David Jackson, Tour Producer/ Administrator

Boris Witzenfeld, Associate Director, Creative Learning

John Rolph, Associate Director, Production

Emma Jane-Trivett, Associate Director, Participation

The initial step in the development of this project was the setting up of an Advisory

Group. Working closely with the Royal Academy of Engineering, Y Touring drew

together agroup of experts in the field of clinical trials and online virtual worlds. The group3 consisted of:

• Gus Hosein, Visiting Fellow, London School of Economics;

• Professor Martyn Thomas FREng, Director and Principal Consultant, Martyn Thomas Associates;

• 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;

• Marlene Winfield OBE, Director for Patients and Public at NHS Connecting for Health;

• Dr Trevor Yellon, General Practitioner, The Killick Street Community Health Centre, Kings Cross;

A workshop, attended by the advisory group, young people, patient representatives, interested stakeholders and five writers,

was held. The writers each submitted a synopsis, which the advisory group and Y Touring staff fed back on. Writer Ben

Musgrave was selected as the playwright for the project. He then submitted the first draft of the script, Breathing Country,

and this was also assessed by the advisory group and Y Touring staff. After taking on this feedback, a second draft was

submitted. Simultaneously, the Royal Academy of Engineering worked with 3 groups of young researchers and their

thoughts and findings were presented to the advisory group and Ben Musgrave.

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3 For biographies of the Advisory Group please see the appendix p. 85

Beth Mac as Lizzie and Liz Jadav as Janet

Y Touring’s Associate Director, Production, John Rolph, worked on creating preparatory lessons and follow up lessons for

schools. The lessons provide an introduction to the vocabulary and topic of the project, as well as encouraging students to

think about feel and questions they would like to ask. Post-production lessons were developed for several subject areas, all

linked to the national curriculum. These included: English, PSHE, ICT, Drama, RS and Science.

3.b The First Tour

During the pre-production period the Artistic Director, Nigel Townsend, worked with our regular designer Jaimie Todd who

created the set for the production. Jaimie Todd is extremely experienced in creating touring sets for schools. He was

contracted and the play was cast. The production was marketed to schools across London through direct mail contact from

Y Touring. Breathing Country was rehearsed in August and September 2009 and the first tour ran from Monday 14th

September – Friday 16th October 2009.

The production toured for 5 weeks. It visited 20 schools, did 34 performances and

was seen by 3705 young people in schools.4 An average audience size was 108.

While the tour was fully booked, there were 3 cancellations on this tour. Three

performances were given for adult audiences. One was held at the Dana Centre for

the public. A special performance was held at the Wellcome Trust for an invited

audience and a performance was held at One KX, for members of the Royal Society

for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA).

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

facebook group was set up for students to make general comments on the play, as

well as responding to 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. 26 reviews were

received.

3.c Audio Recording

In November 2009 the cast from the first tour rehearsed and recorded the adapted script for an audio version. Following on

from the successful partnership with Input Media on the Starfish audio recording, Input Media recorded and produced the

audio recording of Breathing Country, which was directed by Nigel Townsend.

The recording was delivered by December 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

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4 See appendix p. 25 for a full break down of schools

Kieron Craven-Grew as Simon

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 recording was marketed to all secondary schools in the UK through direct mail. Information was also sent to all

members of the Y Touring Facebook groups

3.d The Second Tour

The second tour of Breathing Country was marketed to Hampshire, Somerset,

Edinburgh, Bradford, Berkshire, Birmingham, London and Manchester. The

production was directed by Nigel Townsend, with a new cast. They rehearsed in

January and performances took place between Monday 25th January and Friday 26th

March 2010.

The production toured for 8 weeks, with a week break for half term. The production

visited 25 schools, did 38 performances and was seen by 3896 young people in

schools.5 The average audience size was 103. This tour suffered very badly from

cancellations (thirteen cancellations over 8 weeks), mainly due to snow problems.

There were two special performances for invited audiences at One KX and a

performance for young people at the Royal Academy of Engineering as part of a Vision Conference.

As with the first tour, links to the preparatory and post-performance lessons were sent to all schools. The facebook group

and review writing competition were continued and 19 reviews were received.

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5 See appendix p. 26 for a full breakdown of schools

Kieron Craven-Grew as Simon and Beth Mac as Lizzie

4. Evaluations

‘This was probably one of the most biggest wake up calls of my life… it has really helped me understand more about medical documents and also mental illnesses. This is a huge help’

(Oliver Riley, Student)

4.a To raise young people’s (aged 14-18) and adults’ awareness of the

use of electronic patient database records for research and its impact

on health by engaging them in an informed debate about the issues

surrounding the subject through Theatre of Debate programme (play,

debate and online support materials to provoke discussion and debate)

The first objective of Theatre of Debate: Electronic patient records and databases project was to raise awareness and

engage audience in an informed debate on the subject, through a Theatre of Debate programme.

The play and debate seem to have met this objective. 81% of teachers felt that students were very engaged or quite

engaged in the play and the remaining 19% all felt that students were sometimes engaged. This is an encouraging result,

suggesting that drama is an effective way of engaging audiences in complex subjects.

Additionally 13 teachers used the words ‘engaged’ or ‘engaging’ positively when commenting on the production and several

others made similar comments. Nicola Goddard, Biology Teacher at Queens College commented ‘It was a very valuable

learning experience for the pupils. It made them think and consider an ethical scientific question from many points of view…

They were totally engrossed from start to finish.’ Student comments from reviews also indicate that students were very

engaged in the play. Nicky Suchy commented that the play was ‘very entertaining, funny, and gave us a good insight into

how the electronic patient records would be used’ and another student commented that he ‘was expecting some dull

lecture while some boring people spoke to us for a couple of hours whilst we all feel asleep! And that definitely was not what

we received!’

However a small number of teachers felt that some students struggled with the topic, four of them suggesting that this was

a hard topic for lower ability students to fully engage with, and two of them indentifying that at times the jargon was hard for

some students. Y Touring’s preparatory lesson seek to overcome the problems outlines by teachers above, but schools do

not always find it possible to use them.

Many teachers commented on how topical the play was, using words like ‘current’, ‘relevant’ and ‘key’ to describe the

issues. Students also seemed to appreciate this, with one student commenting that ‘it is us that will be growing up in the

world you have created’.

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Please rate how engaged you feel the students were [in the play]

Please rate how engaged you feel the students were [in the debate]

Teachers tended to think that students were slightly less engaged in the debate than in the play, with 54% feeling that

students were very engaged or quite engaged, 30% feeling that they were sometimes engaged and 6% feeling that students

were not very engaged. Several teachers attributed the diminishing engagement of students to the fact that students were

tired, and several felt that the older year groups, and/or smaller groups were able to grasp the debate better. Sandra

Basterfield, Head of Drama and Head of Lower School, Fairfield High School for Girls, felt that ‘Felt Year 10 got much more

from it, as were a smaller group and also better able to comment’.

Not engaged Not very engaged Sometimes engaged (19%)Quite engaged (43%) Very engaged (38%)

38%

43%

19%

Not engaged Not very engaged (6%)Sometimes engaged (30%) Quite engaged (53%)Very engaged (11%)

11%

53%

30%6%

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Student comments on the debate, on the other hand, were very positive. Charlie Foster, a student at Sutton Grammar

School, commented that ‘if I had forgotten anything it was immediately brought up which helped me take more out of the

performance than I would have done without the debate’, while Hayley and Tania from Hendon school felt ‘it was good to

get involved and have the debate… Many performances that come into the school do not interact with us’. This last

comments highlights the importance of presenting more than ‘just’ a play – by providing both the debate and resources, Y

Touring seems to make a bigger impact.

Within this objective Y Touring aimed to reach a varied audience. It targeted mainly young people, but also adults

(performances at Dana, for the RSA and special performances). Feedback from the Dana Centre6 was mostly positive about

the performance, with one audience member commenting:

‘I was very impressed; I was actually very, very impressed. I have to admit I went in with a slightly cynical mind set, I

expected something very kind of ad hoc, very kind of I don’t know – very amateurish and it wasn’t, it was so professional, I

was amazed. I thought some of the performances were fantastic.’

The tours sought to target both more rural areas (Hampshire, Berkshire and Somerset) as well as urban centres (Bradford,

Birmingham, London and Manchester). The production also toured to Edinburgh, to capture the opinions of young people in

a country who already had an electronic patient records system.

In comparison to the UK 2001 census data this tour reached a much larger ethnic mix than is 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 There was a fairly equal balance between

male audience member (49%) and female audience members (51%).

Y Touring had hoped to reach 19,500 audience members over this production. However, the total number reached was

7966, 7601 of which were in schools. This is substantially lower than target. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly,

White (67%) Asian (14%) Afro-Caribbean (17%) Other (1%)

1%17%

14%67%

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6 A focus group was held after the performance at the Dana Centre, to collect audience opinions.

7 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/apr/06/immigration.britishidentity1 British Cenus 2001

8 http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=457

average audience sizes are down from 126.5 in 20049 to 106, although this is an increase on the average audience size on

the 2009 tours of Starfish, where the average audience size was 97.5. Secondly, the production was badly hit by

cancellations (16 schools in total, meaning that a possible 32 performances are missed, with an audience total of 254410).

Most cancellations occurred on the second tour (13) and were due to knock on effect from the snow that hit most of

England in January 2010. While the snow did not directly affect the tour a number of schools cancelled due to rescheduling

exams and timetables as a result of previous snow disruption. It was often not possible to rebook the tour at short notice, as

other schools were experiencing similar difficulties, although every effort was made to do this, or to accommodate schools

on other days. Encouragingly, 72% of schools took 2 performances (up from 50% for Starfish), although sometimes

audience were small, as schools felt might be more impactful for students to be in smaller groups.

Finally, embedded within this objective, was the desire by Y Touring to stimulate informed debate. Thirteen teachers

commented that the play brought up relevant and important issues on electronic patient records and their use in medical

research. Louise Clarke, Biology Teacher at Hugh Baird College felt that ‘The play was excellent and highlighted the issues

relating to the new medical database in a clear and concise manner whilst engaging learners’. Two teachers commented

that the debate was biased towards one side (although they did not say which side), but three other teachers specifically

commented that they thought all sides of the debate were aired. Audience members at the Dana centre were also split, with

one commenting that:

‘I thought it was very bias-ly for the system… the feeling that you’re being brain washed to agree with this system and this is

going around schools’, while another commented ‘I didn’t get that, I thought it was quite well balanced, I thought they’d

carefully balanced it actually. I thought maybe the negative lessons were a bit more subtle than the positive ones but they

were still there, it was still quite balanced.’

Y Touring worked extensively with a diverse advisory board, to try to ensure that there was no agenda in the play or debate.

It is also encouraging that several students commented in their reviews that they continued to think and talk about the issues

after the end of the session.

4.b To create the play and support materials in partnership with subject-

related experts and young people

The second objective for this programme was to develop the play and support materials in partnership with experts and

young people.

As detailed above, in section 3a (Development), experts from different view points were brought together to ensure that the

project included as many different perspectives as possible. This group helped at every stage to shape the play, debate and

education materials, as well as briefing the actors on the issues involved. The ability of Y Touring to bring experts with

diverging opinions is key to all Theatre of Debate® projects. One advisory board member commented that they ‘developed a

relationship of mutual respect with others on the advisory group whose initial views I did not share’.

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

10 Working on the average for this tour of 106

The workshop day also included 15 young people from 3 different schools: The Robert Clack School, Camden School for

Girls’ and the Guru Nanak Sikh School. The views and questions of these young people helped shape the day, and enabled

an exploration of the questions important to young people.

These young people then formed audience researcher groups and presented their findings to the advisory group, Ben

Musgrave and Y Touring staff, and their findings fed into the development both of the play and the support resources.

4.c To create a play and support materials that can be used by both

science and humanities teachers, thus encouraging understanding of

the use of electronic patient database records for research and inter-

disciplinary pedagogical approaches

Overall Y Touring seems to have met this objective. The play was booked by a variety of subject teachers, with 55% of

bookings coming from science teachers (including ICT), and 45% of bookings coming from Humanities teachers. The cross

curricular reach of the project seems to be important to engaging students in the subject. Geet Nayer, Curriculum Manager

ICT at Bacons’ College drew attention to the fact that the play ‘helped students understand a topic which taught in the

traditional way is boring and students do not fully understand’.

Overall 69% of schools used some of the resources provided, an increase from 53% on the second tour of Starfish. 40% of

users were science teachers (including ICT) and 60% were humanities teachers, indicating the cross-curricular appeal of this

project, and the desire of teachers from both disciplines to understand the project.

4.d To collect quantitative data by the use of electronic polling on what

the target audience feels, thinks and knows about the subject

Electronic voting was used throughout both tours of Breathing Country. This continues to be a popular with audiences as a

method of collecting data, and involving audiences in the debate. Seven teachers commented positively on its use, in

particular because ‘for those not able to express themselves the handsets helped’ (Irene Rohesian, Teacher, Merchants

Academy). Two teachers did feel that the hand sets were overused, and that too much time was spent on voting. As part of

the Royal Academy of Engineering’s evaluation into audience opinion on the use of electronic patient records, the first tour

started with 10 questions before the production and 10 afterwards. It was felt, from feedback both from teachers and Y

Touring staff that this was too much, so the questions were reduced to 5. For the second tour, after another revision, 7

questions were then asked before and after.

Students also seem to feel that electronic voting is a good way to collect their opinions. Several students mentioned the

handsets in their reviews with one, Beaza Balacha, saying ‘I loved the keypads, felt like I was in Who Wants To Be A

Millionaire! And we got to really think about what was being asked and it was anonymous so you couldn’t be scared to

answer’. Anonymity of voting is mentioned by several students, and seems to be an important factor in their desire to

participate.

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Students found the data from Qwizdom enhanced their enjoyment and understanding. Rosa Hicks wrote ‘I thought that the

survey was very enjoyable, as it got the audience involved, and actually made me think about my views, and opinion of the

things going on in the play… the fact that the same questions were repeated again at the end, made us realise how naïve

we were about our medical files’.

There were a number of technical problems with Qwizdom on both tours, as there have been on previous tours for other Y

Touring productions.

Problems on the first tour were sporadic throughout the tour, without any obvious pattern. On the second tour, there were

big problems encountered at the beginning of the tour, but by working closely with Qwizdom and installing new software this

was resolved, and the latter part of tour two encountered few technical problems with Qwizdom.

The results of the Qwizdom data are shown in the appendix to this report, and a fuller evaluation of them will be provided in a

separate report by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

4.e To provide a quality resource for science communication

professionals and teachers (play, debate, online support materials and

podcast)

This objective seeks to ensure that a high quality resource is provided. Teachers were asked to give their views on the quality

of the play:

Worked Fully (60%) Worked Partially (8%) Didnʼt Work (32%)

32%

8%60%

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This is a good result, with 96% of teachers rating the quality of the play as excellent or good. Comments from teachers on

the play echoed this, with several teachers commenting on the high quality of the acting, writing and the production values,

and some making the link to the importance of this in engaging with students. S Robert, Head of PSE, Merchants Academy,

commented that ‘The play was excellent the pupils were fully involved and to be able to put such difficult ideas in to the story

was really engaging’.

Students also rated the quality of the acting, one commenting that ‘the actors were brilliant at playing their roles and made

us feel a part of it when speaking directly to us’. Production values were also highly rated. Connor Spaulding, a student at

Deptford Green schools wrote that ‘seeing the high-tech stage I was instantly impressed and knew that the next 2 hours will

be enjoyable’ This was Y Touring’s most technically challenging production to date, and it is a pleasing result that audiences

value this.

Teachers were asked to rate the quality of the debate as well.

It can be seen that teachers did not rate the quality of the debate as highly as the quality of the play, with 4% of teachers

saying that the quality was quite poor, while 65% of teachers rated it good (52%) or excellent (13%), down from 96% for the

play. Six teachers gave time as the main problem with the debate – although several pointing out that this was due to the

school, not the resource offered by Y Touring. Y Touring always suggests that an hour and 45 session is needed, but

schools are not always able to accommodate this, meaning that the debate tends to be shortened. This is an increasing

Poor Quite Poor OK (4%) Good (42%) Excellent (54%)

54% 42%

4%

Poor Quite Poor (4%) OK (30%) Good (52%) Excellent (13%)

13%

52%

30%4%

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problem for schools in terms of timing table. Pari Collis, Science Enrichment Co-ordinator drew attention in her comments to

the problems that schools often seem to face in booking productions:

‘Our main problem is that we have one hour lessons and it is difficult to get pupils out of other lessons. Also we had to use

the School Hall which is also our Dining Hall’.

Generally, however, there were a lot of positive comments from both teachers and students regarding the debate. Nicola

Goddard, Biology Teacher at Queens’ College felt that ‘Many pupils who usually wouldn’t contribute in science lessons, felt

confident enough to participate in the debate. The quality of their responses showed they really understood the issue from

watching the play’, while Ruby Earle, a student at Camden Schools for Girls’ felt that the role of the facilitator was crucial to

getting students involved:

‘The man running the debate genuinely seemed interested in our opinion which meant that we really got involved and

passionate about the subject’

Y Touring feels that it is critical to the success of the project to have a high quality debate where students can explore the

issues introduced in the play in depth.

The final area that teachers were asked to comment on was the quality of the resources.

Teachers used a fairly broad range of resources and in general thought that the quality was good (60%).

0

5

10

15

20

Prepara

tory R

eadin

g

Prepara

tory L

esso

n Plan

s

Post S

how Le

sson P

lans

Discus

sion T

rigge

rs

Num

ber o

f Use

rs

19


Overall teachers seem to have found the resources useful. Eve Scott, Deputy Year Manager and Drama Teacher at

Southmoor School commented that the resources were ‘an excellent way to promote discussion in the classroom’. Y

Touring seeks not only to create high quality cross curricular resources, but also to create resources that will help the quality

of the project overall, by preparing students for the production. ICT teachers seem to have been the least satisfied with the

resources, with two commenting that they had to adapt them.

In producing the audio recording Y Touring worked with Input Media, a professional production company, to ensure that the

highest quality podcast was produced. At this stage no evaluation has been carried out of audio recording, as it has only

been recently launched, and is an ongoing resource.

Additionally, Y Touring seeks to engage through both emotions and the brain. It would appear that, through the high quality

of the performance, debate and resources students engage with piece emotionally and objectively, which is key to making

them want to find out more about the underlying issues.

4.f To make the Podcast and online resources freely available to every

secondary school in the country

This objective was to make a lasting resource on the topic of electronic patient records available to schools nationwide.

Through the development of the audio recording, as detailed in section 3c above, a broadcast quality audio recoding has

been produced, with accompanying resources and made freely available on Y Touring’s website www.theatreofdebate.com

The accompanying resources, comprising preparatory reading, lesson plans for teachers and discussion triggers are all

available to download, and users also have access to the film clips of the experts from the workshop day, talking about their

views about electronic patient records.

Poor Quite Poor (4%) OK (20%) Good (60%) Excellent (16%)

16%

60%

20%4%

20


The website has been marketed to all schools in the country, and Y Touring will continue to promote it, and monitor its use.

At the present time, it is too soon to analyse its use.

4.g To raise playwrights’ and other theatre professionals’ awareness of

science in society; exploring how it can inform and stimulate their

imaginations and creativity

Y Touring sought to achieve this objective in two ways. The first way in which they sought to achieve this objective, was

through the inclusion of five writers in the initial workshop day exploring issues around electronic patient records. Y Touring

feel strongly that it is important to bring arts and sciences together. This is done at a later date in schools by the use of cross

curricular resources, and by the appeal of the play to many different disciplines. However, this theory must also be

implemented in the developmental stages of the project. The workshop day acts as a stimulus to the playwrights to engage

in a scientific topic, and to be creatively inspired by it. The synopsis submitted by all writers for a potential play were all of

high quality, and all inspired by different parts of the day, suggesting that Y Touring has achieved its objective in this area.

Secondly, as part of the pre-production stage, Y Touring seeks to engage both its designer and its actors in the subject, and

to raise their awareness of science in society. A number of students commented on how well the set enhanced the meaning

of the play, one wrote ‘the background of datalines and LED screens was a good setting for the computerised lives of the

characters’. Actors are briefed by the advisory group, to fully understand the issues, to bring reality and depth both to their

performances and the debate. Another student picked up on this writing ‘how extensively and pain-staking well informed the

play and cast were, with information from GPs, Professors of Psychiatry and others’.

Finally, Y Touring were pleased to receive external recognition from the theatre community for this piece, which was short-

listed for the Brian Way Award for best new play for young people.

21


5. Conclusion

‘It’s something more than just ‘another show’’ (Max Loveday, Student)

It is clear that Breathing Country has mainly met its evaluated objectives which were:

• To raise young people’s (aged 14-18) and adults awareness of the use of electronic patient database records for

research and its impact on health by engaging them in an informed debate about the issues surrounding the

subject through Theatre of Debate programme (play, debate and online support materials to provoke discussion

and debate);

• To create the play and support materials in partnership with subject-related experts and young people;

• To create a play and support materials that can be used by both science and humanities teachers, thus

encouraging understanding of the use of electronic patient database records for research and inter-disciplinary

pedagogical approaches;

• To collect quantitative data by the use of electronic polling on what the target audience feels, thinks and knows

about the subject;

• To provide a quality resource for science communication professionals and teachers (play, debate, online support

materials and podcast);

• To make the Podcast and online resources freely available to every secondary school in the country;

• To raise playwrights’ and other theatre professionals’ awareness of science in society; exploring how it can inform

and stimulate their imaginations and creativity.

Overall, there seems to be an agreement that a quality resource (of play, debate, resources and an audio recording) has been

created, which creates awareness of the issues surrounding electronic patient record databases and their use in medical

research. Perhaps most encouraging is the evidence that the debate around the issue and the interest in it continues out of

the session, at least for a little while.

It is also a significant achievement that this project has succeeded in engaging its audiences in quite a dry topic, and

creating high quality drama around quite technical subject matter.

Furthermore, it can be concluded that this project really works to bring together arts and science, both in the creative

process and in schools. Both booking and the use of resources are fairly evenly split between subjects, and the comments

from both disciplines are equally positive. This inter-disciplinary pedagogical approach is important in furthering Y Touring’s

mission of facilitating informed debate and engaging all students in an awareness of the place of science in society.

22


6. Recommendations for Future Tours

‘I am now in a position to make an educated decision on the question of the electronic patient record if the occasion arises. I fully appreciate the work put into the session and I have enjoyed taking my knowledge and discussing it amongst my family. I believe the programme should be made more global in order to help other students understand the importance of the electronic patient record’

(Shahmima Akhtar, Student)

Theatre of Debate Programme: Electronic patient records and databases has been a very successful project. There are a

number of recommendations that it may wish to consider in the future.

It is important to encourage teachers to use the preparatory resources, particularly for lower ability groups. These familiarise

students with concepts and jargon used in the play. While time is often tight in schools, Y Touring may wish to promote the

preparatory resources more, and point out the advantages they offer.

The subject area least happy with resources were the ICT staff. Y Touring may wish to enter into a dialogue with ICT staff

when preparing future resources to increase their relevance and be of more use for subject staff.

A recurring problem throughout tours seems to be timetabling issues, which often restrict the length of the session. Y

Touring may need to consider ways of making it clearer to schools that to gain the best of the session the full hour and forty-

five minutes is required, or alternatively needs to look at other ways of delivering the debate either in a shorter time or

through another medium.

Cancellations are still a big problem, with schools lacking the flexibility in timetables and under huge pressure to deliver. While

many cancellations were a knock-on effect of the snow, which is unavoidable, Y Touring may need to consider other ways of

reaching schools, possibly through streaming11. This would also allow Y Touring to extend its reach, making up for the fact

that numbers in sessions are smaller, as schools seem to be preferring smaller groups of students.

Y Touring needs to continue to work closely with Qwizdom to iron out the problems encountered with handsets. It also

needs to introduce a rigorous procedure for testing new software dates before introducing the updates on tour.

Finally, Y Touring should continue to concentrate on producing high quality artistic and technical productions, as these seem

to be key to engaging students in the production, and sparking their interest in the issues discussed.

23


11 Streaming would involve filming the production and broadcasting live over the internet.

Having evaluated the project the model seems to be a successful one, in terms on 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 Debate® projects.

24


7. Appendices

7.1 Breakdown of Schools

Schools in Tour 1 Audience Size Number of

Shows

Maria Fidelis 150 1

Bacons College 165 2

Charter school 170 2

George Green school 231 2

Deptford Green School 254 2

Swakeley School 67 1

Kingston College 70 1

The Douay Martyrs RC school 350 2

Sutton Grammar school 264 2

Queens college 170 2

La Sainte union 100 2

Brittons High school 300 2

Lilian Baylis School 180 2

Hendon School 190 2

Camden School for Girls 209 2

Dunraven School 180 1

Sedgehill School 300 2

Emerson Park School 140 2

Redden Court School 150 1

St Edward’s School 65 1

3705 34

25


Schools in Tour 2 Audience Size Number of

Shows

The Romsey School 228 2

Treloar College 53 1

The Westgate School 258 2

Winton School 170 2

Bristol Metropolitan Academy 100 1

Merchants Academy 96 2

Bishop of Winchester School 130 1

Craigroyston High School 138 1

Craigmount High School 161 2

Southmoor Community School 150 2

Bassingbourn Village College 128 1

Belle Vue Girls’ School 280 2

The Holy Family School 58 1

Westhill SChool 290 2

Hugh Baird College 60 1

Fairfield High School 240 2

Urmston Grammar 234 2

University of Manchester 57 1

Queensbridge School 104 2

Birley Community College 58 1

Eastwood Comprehensive 51 1

Small Heath School 129 1

King Edward VI Fiveways 302 2

Studley High School 300 2

Bartley Green School 121 2

3896 38

26


7.2 Example Teacher Evaluation Form

General InformationQ1 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

The Play 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 appropriatePoor Excellent1 2 3 4 5

Q9 Please rate how engaged you feel the students were Circle as appropriateNot engaged Very engaged1 2 3 4 5

Q10 Please give your comments on the play:

The DebateQ11 Were you present for the debate? Yes (go to Q12) No (go to Q16)

Q12 Please rate the quality of the debate Circle as appropriatePoor Excellent1 2 3 4 5

Q13 Please rate how engaged you feel the students were Circle as appropriateNot engaged Very engaged1 2 3 4 5

Q14 To what extent did the debate facilitate student participation? Circle as appro-priate

Not at all To a great extent

27


1 2 3 4 5

Continued overleaf

Q15 Please give your comments on the debate:

Teacher’s ResourcesQ16 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 Preparatory reading to prepare yourself/your class Preparatory lesson plans Post show lesson plans Discussion triggers

Q18 Please rate the quality of the resources Circle as appropriatePoor Excellent1 2 3 4 5

Q19 Please give your comments on the resources:

Any Other CommentsQ20 Please share your comments regarding the preparation and planning of the

event:

Q21 Please give your impressions of the company:

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.

Please return this form to:Y Touring Theatre Company, One KX, 120 Cromer Street, London, WC1H 8BS.

7.3 Teacher Responses in Full

Number of Teacher Evaluations received

Tour 1 Tour 2

16 39

28


Which Year groups were present?

Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10 Year 11 Year 12 Year 13

1 1 6 24 14 3 2

Were you present for the play?

Yes No

51 1

Please rate the quality of the play

Poor Excellent

1 2 3 4 5

0 0 2 22 28

Please rate how engaged you feel the students were [in the play]

Not engaged Very engaged

1 2 3 4 5

0 0 10 23 20

Please give your views and comments on the play:

The relationship between the characters of Lizzie and Simon were the most engaging for the students, together with a range shown in dramatic strategies which was helpful for the drama students. The weaker Year 10 male students struggled and lost some interest, finding themselves unable relate fully to the characters and complex subject matter. (Ms Joanna Howson, Head of Drama, St Edward’s C of E School and Sixth Form College)

The content of the play was interesting and addressed a number of issues that were supported with a lot of factual informa-tion. The characters and their background stories however were a little under developed for the audience and the pace was at times a little slow and confusing for some because of the amount of information that was also being delivered.(Claire Gordon, Head of Expressive Arts, George Green’s School)

A relevant and interesting play which produced very many positive feedbacks from staff and students. Thank you. (Dr. Farah Taheri, Head of Science, Dunraven school)

Excellent – Some of the monlogues were a little long though (Joanna Hartas, Head of Science, Douay Martyrs School)

Good although I wish they had made more use of the interactive handsets. (Kieran Robinson, Science Teacher, Douay Mar-tyrs School)

It was a very valuable learning experience for the pupils. It made them think and consider an ethical scientific question from many points of view. Very well acted and delivered. They were totally engrossed from start to finish. (Nicola Goddard, Biology Teacher, Queens College)

29


The play was very engaging. Excellent use of the screen and multimedia. Students were fascinated by the use of technol-ogy in the play. Most of them were unaware of how records are kept. (Pari Collis, Science Enrichment Co-ordinator, La Sainte Union Catholic Secondary School)

Very complex issues addressed which the students sometimes struggled to relate to the actual drama? (Alex Yates, Assis-tant Head Teacher, Hendon School)

Well presented, helped students understand a topic which taught the traditional way is boring and students do not fully un-derstand. (Geet Nayer, Curriculum Manager ICT Business Studies, Bacons College)

Very well done. Like the emails/websites/texts appearing on the screen during the play (Huw Murkin, ICT Teacher, Bacons College)

Excellent play, covered the key issues involved in EPD. Positive feedback off all pupils. (Tara Whelan, ICT Teacher, Bacons college)

Excellent use of technology to support the play. Actors were very professional + issues were relevant to students. I did not like the level of swearing as it seemed unnecessary, especially as this is against school policy. (Michelle Stephenson, Head of Oracy, Swakeleys School)

Sound and back projection enhanced production. Acting very good – engaged with audience. Lots to think about. Play held everyone attention. (Gordon Ironside, Headmaster, Sutton Grammar School)

Excellent as always. The play seemed less humorous and there seemed some quite lengthy dialogues. I wondered how pupils found some of these sections. (Vinay Sharma, Faculty leader, The Westgate school)

The play was interesting although at times it felt a little lacking in pace. (Sean Flaneh, Head of Performing Arts, Win-ton School)

Excellent performance – hit all the issues. – fits well with 21 centruy science course students follow (Mr Jenner, Head of Science, Bassingbourn Village College)

I was very impressed at how current the performance was and how relevant to the pupils. It had pace which kept the pupils engaged (Eve Scott, Deputy Year Manager (Drama Teacher), Southmoor School)

It was very informative. The students were very interested as the context of the play was quite close to home for some of them (Jenny Gillard, Teaching assistant, Treloar College)

Well acted, creative presentation, interesting set. The play highlighted the issues very well – not an easy topic to make great entertainment out of, so well done (Cavan Syrad, Teacher, Treloar College)

The play was excellent the pupils were fully involved and to be able to put such difficult ideas in to the story of the play was really engaging. (S Robert, Head of PSE, Merchants Academy)

Really interesting. Raised a lot of valid points and issues to discuss further. Raises things that yr10 might not have thought about. (Rebecca Fields, Science Teacher, Bassingbourn Village College)

Good use of visual stimuli to back up what was happening in the stories. Characters were consistent throughout play so pupils could focus on the story line (Raf Stabler, Faculty leader for Science, Holy Family School)

Very thought provoking. l liked the use of images to add to the meaning. (Lynn Battersby-Vogt, Tutor, Treloar Col-lege)

Content very topical and students able to relate well to characters/ content (Tania Russell, Tutor, Treloar College)

30


The play was clear and flowed nicely. More visuals could be good (Helen Dunnet, P.T Guidance, Craigroyston High School)

I only saw ½ (first) – it was good, I felt it tackled some good subjects (Zoe Rawson, ICT Teacher, The Romsey School)

I really enjoyed it – just a shame that I only saw the first half! (Carol Sim, Teacher, The Romsey School)

Good – quite long for teenage attention span. (B Neale, Assistant Head Teacher, The Romsey School)

I only saw the last 10 minutes (Fiona Hardy, CL Drama and Media, The Romsey School)

Difficult to comment as I was timetabled to teach before seeing it all (Josephine Mustoe, Curriculum Manager Citi-zenship Students, The Romsey School)

Seemed to enjoy scenes with Lizzie and the young male character. Too much jargon usedby other characters - S2/3 pupils unable to relate. (Annette Maloney, Drama Teacher, Craigmount High School)

Very well acted and staged. Clear presentation of issues. (Muriel Shepherd , Curriculum Leader – Creative Arts, The Romsey School)

Most students were engaged, but a small group were not (Les Jolley, Enrichment, Bristol Metropolitan Academy)

This was a difficult subject for a lower ability group but I felt they were able to relate tothe human story especially the goy/ girl relationship. I thought the opening questions with the handsets was an excellent way to engage them. (Irene Rohesian, Teacher, Merchants Academy)

The students were more engaged when the younger characters were on stage (Lizzie and boyfriend). Sometimes the jargon used and the way the dad and the doctor discussed issues did not interest/ engage students. (Laura Thompson, Principal Teacher Drama, Craigmount High School)

The play was excellent and highlighted the issues relating to the new medical database in a clear and concise manner whilst engaging learners. (Louise Clarke, Biology Lecturer, Hugh Baird College)

Interesting, factual, well-presented (Sandra Basterfield, Head of Drama and Head of Lower School, Fairfield High School for Girls)

Made good use of a story to convey dry content (Matthew Readham, Drama Teacher, Queensbridge)

Very informative/ engaging (Gurdeep Ubhie, Head of Performing Arts, Queensbridge School)

Great. Kids clearly enjoyed it. (Claire Close, HOD/ Enterprise Teacher, Queensbridge School)

Well acted (Drama teacher present at start who said it was very good) Definitely engaged the pupils (Fay Cracknell, Head of Science, Eastwood Comprehensive)

Very engaging and informative (Angela Calvert, Curriculum Leader Humanities, Birley Community College)

Good content. Very well delivered. Discussion a bit long ie voting seemed too drawn out (Richard Howard, Teacher, Birley Community College)

Some difficult issues dealt with sensitively (Riffat Wall, Deputy Headteacher, Urmston Grammar School)

75% of students were really engaged (Liz Jolley, Head of Arts, Bristol Metropolitan Academy)

31


2 subjects (Mental Health and personal information/EPR) handled very accurately and sensitively. I thought the main topic might be mental health in teenagers but this was a device for discussion about EPR (Michael Ibbs, Teacher, Urmston Grammar School)

Fantastic performances. Touched on some very important and topical issues (Ryan A Davenport, PhD Candidate, Universtity of Sheffield, Birley Community College)

Very good. Raised many relevant issues sometimes, however, different senarios (eg consensus for consent of use of anonymised data were conflated (Mark Taylor, University Lecturer, Birley Community College)

The ICT was excellent. Some pupils found it a bit difficult to get into. The Head of Lower School was concerned about the bad language used during the first production, however he spoke to the cast who were excellent for the second production. The cast were excellent in terms of timekeeping, very organised and helpful (Zarana Haines, Head of Science, Studley High School)

Were you present for the debate?

Yes No

41 9

Please rate the quality of the debate

Poor Excellent

1 2 3 4 5

0 2 14 24 6

Please rate how engaged you feel the students were [in the debate]

Not engaged Very engaged

1 2 3 4 5

0 3 14 25 5

To what extent did the debate facilitate student participation?

Not at all To a greater extent

1 2 3 4 5

0 2 10 21 13

Please give your views and comments on the debate

I would suggest the way the debate was held implicitly pushed an agenda in the way the questions were asked and points discussed. The results felt a little manipulated as the speaker was rooting for a particular direction of thinking. (Ms Joanna Howson, Head of Drama, St Edward’s C of E School and Sixth Form College)

32


The debate was interesting as I was concerned that with the amount of students present they would not engage or would be talking over each other. This did not happen and a number of students gave some interesting points and reflections on what they had seen and how they could be affected, now or in the future. I felt that this gave them a much better under-standing of the pros and cons of electronic medical files. It certainly made a number of them think twice about the informa-tion that they already have about themselves on various social networking sites. (Claire Gordon, Head of Expressive Arts, George Green’s School)

The interactive nature of the debate engaged the students and encouraged them to participate in discussions. (Dr. Farah Taheri, Head of Science, Dunraven School)

Many pupils who usually wouldn’t contribute in science lessons, felt confident enough to participate in the debate. The qual-ity of their responses showed they really understood the issue from watching the play. (Nicola Goddard, Biology Teacher, Queens College)

Again – some struggled to engage with a subject topic quite ‘alien’ (or so they tought!) to them personally (Alex Yates, Assis-tant Head Teacher, Hendon School)

To short (Mukonta Daka, Teacher, Bacons College)

I feel it could have been more effective if the students had been broken down into smaller groups (Huw Murkin, ICT TeacherBacons College)

Very good questions asked. Debate looked at everybody’s perspective (Tara Whelan, ICT Teacher, Bacons College)

Excellent – although at times I did feel that it wasn’t an extremely open debate as students were led. (Michelle Stephenson, Head of Oracy, Swakeleys School)

The lead was very good – direct style that kept everyone on their toes. I would like to have seen the results of the electronic voting, especially whether the play changed opinions. (Gordon Ironside, Headmaster, Sutton Grammar School)

This year we used a majority Y9 audience and it was noticeable that some weren’t able to properly deal with the issues, hence during the debate, there were concerns about engagement. However, in the second showing, with Y11s present, the debate was very well received because Y11s set the ball rolling and Y9s were more able to come aboard. (Vinay Sharma, Faculty Leader, The Westgate School)

The debate was very good. Students, particularly year 9 were very engaged (Sean Flaneh, Head of Performing Arts, Winton School)

Last thing on a Friday – students not fully engaged as a result. Nothing to do with quality of presentation (Mr Jen-ner, Head of Science, Bassingbourn Village College)

I thought the debate was well structured and helped the pupils understanding. (Eve Scott, Deputy Year Manager (Drama Teacher), Southmoor School)

Both sides participated well together with lots of questions from both sides (Jenny Gillard, Teaching Assistant, Tre-loar College)

Time ran out, so the debate was a bit rushed. The debate was handled well and students views were respected and used well (Cavan Syrad, Teacher, Treloar College)

The handsets and voting was a good way to relate. The pupils enjoyed that. Using the actors in role also deepened understanding. However for pupils with low literacy levels the language of the questions was problematic and many pupils were unwilling to talk in such a big group. (S Robert, Head of PSE, Merchants Academy)

33


Timing of session was at fault as last thing on Friday before a half term not the best time. I think at another time it would have been excellent. (Rebecca Fields, Science Teacher, Bassingbourn Village College)

The students were tired after the performance and were a little subdues for the questioning. The quiz machines allowed all students to voice their opinions and provided instant feedback. It was good to include the characters in the debate to pose different views (Raf Stabler, Faculty Leader for Science, Holy Family School)

Shortage of time meant this had to be shortened but was useful nonetheless. Really safe environment was created to make students want to contribute. (Lynn Battersby-Vogt, Tutor, Treloar College)

Difficult because time was short and students have communication difficulties. (Tania Russell, Tutor, Treloar College)

Pace was a little slow (Helen Dunnet, P.T Guidance, Craigroyston High School)

Too slow too keep pupils involved (B Neale, Assistant Head Teacher, The Romsey School)

Some pupils did not really understand what the questions were really asking (Fiona Hardy, CL Drama and Media, The Romsey School)

At times pupils were distracted due to the length of debate. Good use of handheld voting devices (Annette Ma-loney, Drama Teacher, Craigmount High School)

It was a shame that the devices were not working (Les Jolley, Enrichment, Bristol Metropolitan Academy)

Taking into the account the literacy limitations of this group I felt this debate did involve them and allowed them to give an opinion or comment. For those not able to express themselves the handsets helped I accept this would not be a very in depth discussion (Irene Rohesian, Teacher, Merchants Academy)

(Perhaps older kids would have engaged more in this part)I liked the use of hand held voting devices students seemed to lose interest in the subject matter during the debate. The characters coming on sometimes dragged a point out for too long e.g when the doctor went into depth and used a lot of jargon. (Laura Thompson, Principal Teacher Drama, Craigmount High School)

The debate was excellent the use of the characters as participants in the debate really brought the issues raised in the play to life. (Louise Clarke, Biology Lecturer, Hugh Baird College)

Needed more time with Year 9 and felt it was repetitive of what had happened prior to the performance. Felt Year 10 got much more from it, as were a smaller group and also better able to comment (Sandra Basterfield, Head of Drama and Head of Lower School, Fairfield High School for Girls)

The debate enabled the students to really think about their opinions (Gurdeep Ubhie, Head of Performing Arts, Queensbridge School)

Unfortunately I think the children were tired by the time of the debate – not a criticism of production particularly (Claire Close, HOD/ Enterprise Teacher, Queensbridge School)

Great use of Qwizdom possibly some of the questioning of the ‘actors’ went on a little too long and some of the pupils lost focus (Fay Cracknell, Head of Science, Eastwood Comprehensive)

Bit drawn out voting (Richard Howard, Teacher, Birley Community College)

Enjoyed the characters’ opinions – thought our students/pupils were reluctant to speak – encouraged contribution through Qwizdom (Riffat Wall, Deputy Headteacher, Urmston Grammar School)

Time was limited (pre lunch) but arguments well balanced. If time would have lied more on personal data on net-working sites and perhaps open up mental health (Michael Ibbs, Teacher, Urmston Grammar School)

34


A good idea to return to questions raised initially. Interest to not the changes in opinion! (Ryan A Davenport, PhD Candidate, Universtity of Sheffield, Birley Community College)

The issues of what constituted a ‘safer’ record of patient safety and data security were confused, but otherwise v good (Mark Taylor, University Lecturer, Birley Community College)

Although the students didn’t ask many questions they were keen to contribute and answer questions when given a bit of a push (Zarana Haines, Head of Science, Studley High School)

Have you made use of any of the resources in the teacher’s pack?

Yes No

25 23

Which resources have you used?

Preparatory

Reading

Preparatory

Lesson Plans

Post Show

Lesson Plans

Discussion

Triggers

16 12 5 12

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

Poor Excellent

1 2 3 4 5

0 1 5 15 4

Please give your views and comments on the resources

A very thorough pack with helpful activities and discussion points, however it would have been more user friendly if it was less dense. I would also suggest a much shorter synopsis as it was far too long to read and use for a GCSE class.(Ms Joanna Howson, Head of Drama, St Edward’s C of E School and Sixth Form College)

Unfortunately none of the resources had been used prior to or after the performance. This was mainly due to time restraints of staff due to our upcoming Ofsted inspection. This has been disappointing as I believe that this could definitely be used to inform the students Citizenship course, which would have been the perfect forum for them to explore the issues that were portrayed in the piece. (Claire Gordon, Head of Expressive Arts, George Green’s School)

Good – pupils were engaged in lesson (Joanna Hartas, Head of Science, Douay Martyrs School)

Fairly user friendly although text heavy (Alex Yates, Assistant Head Teacher, Hendon School)

Maybe prepare it so there is a student pack already prepared (Geet Nayer, Curriculum Manager ICT Business Studies, Ba-cons College)

Very good although the timing of the release was a little close to the performance (Huw Murkin, ICT Teacher, Bacons Col-lege)

35


Lots of detail & prepared pupils for the day (Tara Whelan, ICT Teacher, Bacons College)

Very useful – especially when preparing students (Michelle Stephenson, Head of Oracy, Swakeleys School)

Last year I ‘overprepared’ some students. This year I read everything myself but decided the students would enjoy the expe-rience more with no preliminary study as I felt they would be familiar with the themes vocabulary etc. (Gordon Ironside, Headmaster, Sutton Grammar School)

Introduced important terminology but a bit dry. A disc explaining the database would have helped set the scene (Mr Jenner, Head of Science, Bassingbourn Village College)

An excellent way to promote discussion in the classroom (Eve Scott, Deputy Year Manager (Drama Teacher), Southmoor School)

The resources were excellent and have allowed us to follow up the work (S Robert, Head of PSE, Merchants Acad-emy)

Terminology good but ICT resources would have been better. (Rebecca Fields, Science Teacher, Bassingbourn Village College)

Maybe more useful for mainstream schools/colleges (Lynn Battersby-Vogt, Tutor, Treloar College)

The preparatory lessons were the same questions in the debate before the play (Helen Dunnet, P.T Guidance, Crai-groyston High School)

Did not work for ICT lessons – they had to be re written. (Zoe Rawson, ICT Teacher, The Romsey School)

All drama based – I’m an ICT teacher so had to adapt (B Neale, Assistant Head Teacher, The Romsey School)

Clear and thorough (Les Jolley, Enrichment, Bristol Metropolitan Academy)

Although I did not have time to use many of the resources I felt it was helpful for them to think about what ‘Privacy’ means to the individual. (Irene Rohesian, Teacher, Merchants Academy)

Well thought out. Lots of ideas unfortunately I didn’t have much time during lessons to use suggested lesson plan ideas (Laura Thompson, Principal Teacher Drama, Craigmount High School)

Helped me to prepare but not otherwise (Angela Calvert, Curriculum Leader Humanities, Birley Community Col-lege)

Good for PSHE (Liz Jolley, Head of Arts, Bristol Metropolitan Academy)

Please share your comments regarding the preparation and planning of the event

A well planned and professionally run company – a pleasure to work with. (Ms Joanna Howson, Head of Drama, St Edward’s C of E School and Sixth Form College)

Preparation was left entirely to one person and as such proper planning for students before and after the event did not take place. However I would be extremely interested in any similar projects as it was extremely successful and would be even more so if it had followed up and/or planned as a specific scheme of learning. It would perhaps be an idea to request from the school confirmation that preparatory lessons/readings had been delivered prior to the show. We could also be given student evaluation forms that need to be completed in their next lesson after the show for initial impact. (Claire Gordon, Head of Expressive Arts, George Green’s School)

36


Excellent preparation and planning. The set-up at the Drama Hall was professional and the displays were eye catching and interesting. Thank you. (Dr. Farah Taheri, Head of Science, Dunraven School)

Both were easily done (Nicola Goddard, Biology Teacher, Queens College)

Preparation was made easy by the detailed booking form. Our main problem is that we have one hour lessons and it is diffi-cult to get pupils out of other lessons. Also we had to use the School Hall which is also our Dining Hall. (Pari Collis, Science Enrichment Co-ordinator, La Sainte Union Catholic Secondary School)

Excellent as always (Alex Yates, Assistant Head Teacher, Hendon School)

As facilitator I produced a set of standard lessons for all the dept x2 for ks4 and x3 for ks5 investage further * all ran smoothly on the day (Huw Murkin, ICT Teacher, Bacons college

Would highly recommend company, excellent planning and informed pupils of very serious topics (Tara Whelan, ICT Teacher, Bacons College)

Very good organisation – clear paperwork/expectations/ good resources for before and after (Gordon Ironside, Headmaster, Sutton Grammar School)

Excellent - please keep in touch. (Vinay Sharma, Faculty Leader, The Westgate school)

Very good, although I didn’t receive the information on language or teacher pack until the day before (Sean Flaneh, Head of Performing Arts, Winton School)

Very good (Mr Jenner, Head of Science, Bassingbourn Village College)

Very smooth and well organised.A pleasure to work with this company (Eve Scott, Deputy Year Manager (Drama Teacher), Southmoor School)

It all went smoothly (Jenny Gillard, Teaching Assistant, Treloar College)

As a group we did no preparation we took advantage and the live presentation vising the college, and enjoyed it (Cavan Syrad, Teacher, Treloar College)

The use of play did engage puils and allowed us to access concepts we would not have done in a normal lesson(S Robert, Head of PSE, Merchants Academy)

Excellent (Rebecca Fields, Science Teacher, Bassingbourn Village College)

Good materials (risk assessment and teacher docs) Easy to contact (Raf Stabler, Faculty Leader for Science, Holy Family School)

Very good organisation and preparation (Lynn Battersby-Vogt, Tutor, Treloar College)

Thorough preparation and planning (Tania Russell, Tutor, Treloar College)

I am not convinced that this workshop was relevant to s3/4 students. Maybe it should be aimed toward senior pu-pils? (Helen Dunnet, P.T Guidance, Craigroyston High School)

Good-although saying they arrive 1 ½ hours before the event and actually arriving hour (B Neale, Assistant Head Teacher, The Romsey School)

Very easy and clear (Les Jolley, Enrichment, Bristol Metropolitan Academy)

37


I liked the set up. The audience were close enough to the performers to feel involved and part of the play (Irene Rohesian, Teacher, Merchants Academy)

Great! (Laura Thompson, Principal Teacher Drama, Craigmount High School)

Could have done with more info on cast numbers, staging etc (Sandra Basterfield, Head of Drama and Head of Lower School, Fairfield High School for Girls)

Great company. Very professional/ friendly (Gurdeep Ubhie, Head of Performing Arts, Queensbridge School)

Enjoyable, mature approach to grown up issues. Students were stretched in their thinking (Claire Close, HOD/ En-terprise Teacher, Queensbridge School)

Very straight forward, helpful staff – great (Fay Cracknell, Head of Science, Eastwood Comprehensive)

Excellent – fitted in well with previously planned event (Richard Howard, Teacher, Birley Community College)

Excellent – very well informed (Riffat Wall, Deputy Headteacher, Urmston Grammar School)

Prep was excellent (Liz Jolley, Head of Arts, Bristol Metropolitan Academy)

Well written and performed with bespoke set. Impressive (Michael Ibbs, Teacher, Urmston Grammar School)

Very professional/ efficient (Ann Pemberton, Enrichment Co ordinator, Birley Community College)

Excellent. Thank you (Mark Taylor, University Lecturer, Birley Community College)

Prep and planning is excellent (Zarana Haines, Head of Science, Studley High School)

Please give your impressions of the company

A very kind and generous ensemble who gave their time at the end of their allocated time to speak to Year 12’s about career paths – Many thanks! This was extremely valuable (Ms Joanna Howson, Head of Drama, St Edward’s C of E School and Sixth Form College)

Superb. The discussion and the way it was pitched was exactly right for this year group. They were not condensing in any way, which allowed for sensible and thoughtful responses to be given by the majority of the students that fed back. (Claire Gordon, Head of Expressive Arts, George Green’s School)

The company works professionally and is efficient. The only thing that I was not happy about was the negative moaning about how there was no teaching staff to greet the team. There should be an understanding that the teaching staff are teaching most of the time and are not available to meet and greet. (Dr. Farah Taheri, Head of Science, Dunraven School)

Excellent – very professional (Joanna Hartas, Head of Science, Douay Martyrs School)

Well resourced and friendly (Kieran Robinson, Science Teacher, Douay Martyrs School)

Very professional – 1st class! (Nicola Goddard, Biology Teacher, Queens College)

They were great. They came in on time and got on with it. They were very professional. (Pari Collis, Science Enrichment Co-ordinator, La Sainte Union Catholic Secondary School)

Professional and very easy to accommodate – called ahead etc. (Alex Yates, Assistant Head Teacher, Hendon School)

Well organised and trained (Mukonta Daka, Teacher, Bacons College)

38


Professional (Geet Nayer, Curriculum Manager ICT Business Studies, Bacons College)

Excellent would investigate other performances. (Huw Murkin, ICT Teacher, Bacons College)

Excellent company, very professional (Tara Whelan, ICT Teacher, Bacons College)

I found the person leading the debates very rude as he used inappropriate language towards pupils who were not as settled as they should have been. These pupils were removed however it was not appropriate to say “you were shoving things up his arse” calling them “plebs” to name a few of the comments made. (Miss Sanghera, Second in Dept, Brittons School)

Very organised + keen to please a young audience. Modern + very relevant (Michelle Stephenson, Head of Oracy, Swakeleys School)

Very good – Liked working with them. I like the exploration of ethical themes through drama. The company would be wel-come back at any time. (Gordon Ironside, Headmaster, Sutton Grammar School)

Y Touring are so well versed with the arrangements of schools that they go about their business in such a professional way, you could hardly tell that they’ve visited, and meaningfully engaged over 200 students. (Vinay Sharma, Faculty Leader, The Westgate School)

Excellent, very organised (Sean Flaneh, Head of Performing Arts, Winton School)

Very good – would use again (Mr Jenner, Head of Science, Bassingbourn Village College)

Excellent! The performers were very professional and did a brilliant job. (Eve Scott, Deputy Year Manager (Drama Teacher), Southmoor School)

Excellent (Jenny Gillard, Teaching Assistant, Treloar College)

Well organised, committed to the themes and with a spread of talents. Well worth attending. (Cavan SyradTeacher, Treloar College)

1st class – they came on time, set up without help and were 100% professional. (S Robert, Head of PSE, Merchants Academy)

Would love to see it again and use it another time. Very professional. (Rebecca Fields, Science Teacher, Bassingbourn Village College)

Professional, well organised (Raf Stabler, Faculty Leader for Science, Holy Family School)

Professional, friendly and able to relate to our students needs very well. (Lynn Battersby-Vogt, Tutor, Treloar College)

Approachable, well rehearsed. Good use of props – Engaged with students (Tania Russell, Tutor, Treloar College)

The actors/ actresses were brilliant – really enthusiastic and friendly. (Helen Dunnet, P.T Guidance, Craigroyston high school)

They were good. Seemed very organised – good use of technology (Zoe Rawson, ICT Teacher, The Romsey School)

Generally good teem spirit. Prompt starts would be better. (B Neale, Assistant Head Teacher, The Romsey School)

Committed and able to engage pupils (Fiona Hardy, CL Drama and Media, The Romsey School)

Very professional (Josephine Mustoe, Curriculum Manager Citizenship Students, The Romsey School)

39


Warm, friendly. They clearly tried to simplify quite a complex area/topic (Annette Maloney, Drama Teacher, Craigmount High School)

Professional and organised (Muriel Shepherd, Curriculum Leader – Creative Arts, The Romsey School)

Very good throughout the process. The subject was not easily accessible. (Les Jolley, Enrichment, Bristol Metropolitan Academy)

Very professional – able to relate to the students and tried to involve them and encourage them to talk. Also in some cases to re-focus! (Irene Rohesian, Teacher, Merchants Academy)

Very professional. All seemed really nice people. Easy to speak to. Thanks for coming (Laura Thompson, Principal Teacher Drama, Craigmount High School)

Excellent, professional and helpful (Sandra Basterfield, Head of Drama and Head of Lower School, Fairfield High School for Girls)

Very warm and friendly with the students. Engaged in conversation and debate enthusiastically (Matthew Readham, Drama Teacher, Queensbridge)

Professional. Efficient. Great value for money (Gurdeep Ubhie, Head of Performing Arts, Queensbridge School)

Great/modern/interactive use of performance (Claire Close, HOD/ Enterprise Teacher, Queensbridge School)

Really good – would use again and recommend to other schools – thanks (Fay Cracknell, Head of Science, Eastwood Comprehensive)

Very interesting issues raised – topical and challenging for students. Would need to have a high achieving audience to understand some of the issues (Angela Calvert, Curriculum Leader Humanities, Birley Community College)

Professional – part of current public issues (Richard Howard, Teacher, Birley Community College)

V professional – a fantastic resource (Riffat Wall, Deputy Headteacher, Urmston Grammar School)

Very professional (Liz Jolley, Head of Arts, Bristol Metropolitan Academy)

Skilful and engaging (Michael Ibbs, Teacher, Urmston Grammar School)

Outstanding overall (Ryan A Davenport, PhD Candidate, Universtity of Sheffield, Birley Community College)

Fantastic – believable – moving performance – information given within the story much easier to debate (Ann Pemberton, Enrichment Co ordinator, Birley Community College)

V good – will look for other ways to use this experience (Mark Taylor, University Lecturer, Birley Community College)

A second performance which was excellent (Zarana Haines, Head of Science, Studley High School)

7.4 Qwizdom Results in Full

PRE DEBATE QUESTON: My Personal Medical Record would be safer kept on a paper file than electronically (eg on a computer database)

40


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree

Bacons College 16.09.09 AM

Bacons College 16.09.09 PM

Charter School 17.09.09 PM

George Green School 18.09.09 AM


Deptford Green School 21.09.09 PM

Swakely School 22.09.09 AM

Duay Matryrs School 25.09.09 AM

Duay Matryrs School 25.09.09 PM

Sutton Grammar School

Brittons School AM

Hendon School AM

Hendon School PM

Camden School for Girls AM

Camden School for Girls PM

Dunraven School PM

Emerson Park School 12.10.09 AM

Emerson Park School 12.10.09 PM

Redden Court 16.10.09 AM

St Edward’s 16.10.09 PM

Romsey School 25.01.10 AM

Romsey School 25.01.10 PM

Treloar College 26.01.11

The Bishop of Winchester 5.2.10 AM

Craigrouston School 8.2.10 AM

Craigmount School 09.2.10 AM

Craigmount School 09.2.10 PM

16 34 34 5 1

16 37 37 2 2

12 27 27 7 2

16 31 31 15 5

23 17 17 10 4

5 19 19 15 11

2 10 10 17 2

6 40 40 36 17

3 41 41 40 10

14 60 60 30 20

0 0 0 0 0

7 41 41 5 5

5 31 31 12 9

2 24 24 40 17

9 31 31 34 3

17 41 41 30 15

4 22 22 23 1

4 23 23 17 5

13 23 23 30 14

2 7 7 19 5

12 21 21 9 6

10 11 11 23 9

11 11 11 8 8

7 29 29 14 11

19 15 15 21 16

3 9 9 15 15

4 12 12 16 15

41


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree

Southmoor Community School

10.02.11

Bassingbourne Village College

12.02.11

Westhill School 8.03.10 AM

Westhill School 8.03.10 PM

Hugh Baird College 9.03.10 AM

Fairfield High 10.03.10 AM

Fairfield High 10.03.10 PM

Urmston Grammar 11.03.10 AM

Urmston Grammar 11.03.10 PM

Manchester University 12.03.10 AM

Queensbridge School 16.03.10 AM

Queensbridge School 16.03.10 PM

Birley Community College 18.03.10

Eastwood Community 19.03.10 AM

Small Heath School 22.03.10 AM

King Edward Fiveways 23.03.10 AM

King Edward Fiveways 23.03.10 PM

Bartley Green 25.03.10 AM

Studley High School 26.03.10 AM

Belle Vue Girls School 24.02.10 AM

Belle Vue Girls School 24.02.10 PM

Holy Family School 25.02.11

4 16 16 7 3

23 22 22 15 13

23 30 30 29 23

18 32 32 28 23

3 12 12 3 8

22 41 41 19 10

2 7 7 6 2

5 16 16 31 13

2 33 33 26 12

3 8 8 12 6

3 10 10 8 9

7 6 6 11 10

2 15 15 18 4

2 12 12 11 5

20 15 15 16 38

8 21 21 46 17

6 29 29 47 14

8 10 10 8 12

13 43 43 27 14

28 19 19 11 16

16 22 22 28 16

2 9 9 13 9

POST DEBATE QUESTiON: My Personal Medical Record would be safer kept on a paper file than electronically (eg on a computer database)

42


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree






Hendon School AM

Hendon School PM


Dunraven School PM










10.02.11


12.02.11








12 30 17 8 7

21 19 25 4 2

11 15 24 10 14

15 11 18 6 27

1 3 20 13 3

10 17 50 4 3

20 9 30 12 9

14 15 36 14 20

19 22 68 22 26

17 4 16 10 11

17 18 15 15 26

17 15 41 9 13

14 17 55 16 11

12 7 13 3 11

36 19 18 11 16

15 15 16 15 15

15 10 36 11 12

16 2 5 7 8

36 13 26 7 31

35 27 45 12 29

33 23 21 25 28

6 6 12 12 10

84 25 17 8 15

13 13 15 4 3

24 30 28 20 20

17 34 22 14 17

43


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree










Bartley Green 25.03.10 PM




3 12 9 17 11

9 8 16 11 11

10 9 5 6 9

2 20 11 20 4

3 10 12 14 4

27 16 16 10 39

30 23 36 22 34

21 19 31 16 38

17 12 14 8 6

5 10 15 3 12

46 24 29 11 11

36 19 10 11 35

5 8 10 20 13

PRE DEBATE QUESTION: I'd be happy for my electronic patient record to be used for health and medical research

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree










4 14 16 23 23

4 18 13 15 15

7 11 12 15 15

0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0

13 8 21 10 10

9 18 4 9 9

21 52 37 16 16

61 32 9 12 12

44


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree


Brittons School AM

Hendon School AM

Hendon School PM



Dunraven School PM





43 38 18 31 31

14 35 18 27 27

6 8 20 19 19

3 13 10 10 10

23 34 11 20 20

25 32 10 16 16

40 31 22 25 25

9 23 10 8 8

3 12 8 12 12

30 28 7 13 13

6 9 9 7 7

POST DEBATE QUESTION: I'd be happy for my electronic patient record to be used for health and medical research

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree





Brittons School AM

Hendon School AM

Hendon School PM



Dunraven School PM


6 6 6 6 19

7 7 7 7 24

22 22 22 22 5

7 7 7 7 6

31 31 31 31 12

24 24 24 24 23

13 13 13 13 23

25 25 25 25 16

43 43 43 43 7

0 0 0 0 0

17 17 17 17 6

45


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree




13 13 13 13 3

13 13 13 13 24

8 8 8 8 2

PRE DEBATE QUESTION: I'd be happy for my anonymous electronic patient record to be used for health and medical research

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree









10.02.11


12.02.11









19 41 18 1 15

35 32 28 1 13

12 9 16 2 9

30 22 20 17 16

0 0 0 0 0

17 13 6 9 9

16 29 26 7 7

9 14 6 6 8

45 24 10 7 26

45 41 25 15 29

57 32 11 9 26

17 6 4 3 8

34 69 31 12 6

11 12 11 11 2

41 27 15 10 23

58 25 8 5 2

25 18 2 2 2

46


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree













21 14 10 4 6

15 12 3 3 9

22 26 6 3 1

9 25 2 9 5

42 22 19 4 34

73 32 23 5 19

45 39 22 6 30

20 12 9 6 8

39 34 24 13 17

67 34 13 5 6

49 46 17 6 3

24 15 9 7 2

POST DEBATE QUESTION: I'd be happy for my anonymous electronic patient record to be used for health and medical research

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree








10.02.11


12.02.11


26 24 29 5 5

36 28 36 8 8

14 11 6 4 4

19 27 12 13 13

17 13 6 11 11

26 14 23 11 11

14 10 9 4 4

38 19 19 15 15

63 39 19 9 9

47


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree




















27 36 36 11 11

26 5 1 1 1

61 48 20 13 13

20 8 9 5 5

47 29 17 13 13

50 28 10 8 8

26 14 7 1 1

20 5 18 6 6

19 11 3 3 3

25 23 4 5 5

10 15 7 2 2

55 22 22 3 3

71 31 16 13 13

59 31 16 13 13

28 11 8 7 7

12 11 12 6 6

58 33 14 7 7

44 28 11 6 6

18 28 8 2 2

PRE DEBATE QUESTION: I don't feel I know enough about electronic patient records to make a decision about whether I would allow researchers access to my anonymous record

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree



13 22 18 18 18

10 12 18 18 18

48


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree









Brittons School AM

Hendon School AM

Hendon School PM



Dunraven School PM





6 9 17 17 17

4 13 21 21 21

8 17 20 20 20

16 15 19 19 19

11 20 8 8 8

51 34 36 36 36

14 38 19 19 19

33 56 36 36 36

20 33 38 38 38

23 15 26 26 26

20 23 16 16 16

39 38 10 10 10

40 29 12 12 12

54 40 38 38 38

17 13 18 18 18

13 19 22 22 22

27 29 8 8 8

4 11 18 18 18

POST DEBATE QUESTION: I don't feel I know enough about electronic patient records to make a decision about whether I would allow researchers access to my anonymous record

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree




Hendon School AM

42 6 6 1 3

12 8 16 12 4

0 6 3 29 0

8 15 32 21 14

49


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree

Hendon School PM


Dunraven School PM



4 8 19 7 12

6 6 8 20 60

20 34 51 23 16

8 17 6 10 6

8 29 13 20 9

PRE DEBATE QUESTION: I don't understand why people's electronic medical records would be able to help health and medical research

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree














10.02.11


12.02.11



15 15 21 21 21

23 23 12 12 12

14 14 18 18 18

0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0

6 6 32 32 32

6 6 35 35 35

13 13 15 15 15

6 6 30 30 30

58 58 19 19 19

7 7 14 14 14

23 23 26 26 26

3 3 18 18 18

16 16 28 28 28

16 16 25 25 25

14 14 20 20 20

50


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree



















4 4 11 11 11

20 20 50 50 50

7 7 14 14 14

20 20 23 23 23

4 4 15 15 15

2 2 6 6 6

2 2 12 12 12

3 3 6 6 6

1 1 13 13 13

2 2 14 14 14

23 23 27 27 27

16 16 16 16 16

15 15 31 31 31

7 7 17 17 17

9 9 34 34 34

19 19 30 30 30

16 16 32 32 32

3 3 12 12 12

POST DEBATE: I don't understand why people's electronic medical records would be able to help health and medical research

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree





13 18 13 12 14

8 11 35 23 14

6 8 33 16 51

9 10 7 6 9

51


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree





10.02.11




















13 11 21 12 34

5 15 12 12 12

10 5 27 14 29

7 7 6 7 17

47 39 19 10 19

2 3 3 3 25

13 23 25 49 36

9 5 14 7 10

15 9 20 21 58

6 5 13 21 59

1 0 2 3 38

3 6 12 12 24

8 6 12 6 12

1 7 3 26 21

1 8 10 12 12

35 6 6 7 52

24 11 14 15 84

28 17 11 11 73

9 3 13 13 23

0 6 12 9 21

19 11 26 24 24

12 8 23 11 11

2 6 5 28 15

PRE DEBATE QUESTION: People that use the NHS have a duty to help out by sharing their electronic medical record

52


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree





George Green School 18.09.09 PM






Brittons School AM

Hendon School AM

Hendon School PM



Dunraven School PM





40 24 4 6 0

27 18 13 4 4

33 17 5 6 4

33 26 20 4 7

0 0 0 0 0

12 13 21 5 16

6 7 17 8 3

6 19 20 30 62

19 37 10 29 23

18 13 18 39 66

11 25 21 20 43

11 28 21 18 11

3 8 10 19 32

8 26 22 34 12

18 36 16 15 14

13 35 30 36 41

6 14 8 18 14

3 11 6 24 18

15 18 12 13 36

10 7 9 4 11

POST DEBATE QUESTION: People that use the NHS have a duty to help out by sharing their electronic medical record

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree



12 24 17 14 8

8 15 17 11 19

53


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree




Brittons School AM

Hendon School AM

Hendon School PM



Dunraven School PM




4 7 18 23 16

18 18 23 6 5

3 8 11 15 1

17 22 37 14 17

6 16 34 4 34

6 11 10 19 40

16 52 14 19 3

12 25 12 19 34

38 56 39 14 14

3 34 13 6 1

11 31 12 22 19

7 13 12 5 3

PRE DEBATE QUESTION: Parents should decide for their children under the age of 16, whether their information can be used

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree









Brittons School AM

Hendon School AM

10 9 9 21 24

11 11 14 18 18

12 15 10 14 15

11 10 18 11 18

14 11 5 7 4

32 34 19 31 23

18 32 17 26 24

43 28 19 28 35

34 19 7 15 44

24 7 15 15 30

54


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree

Hendon School PM



Dunraven School PM





11 12 7 6 39

10 32 11 22 27

15 22 9 29 26

33 33 19 27 45

14 7 4 12 22

7 6 6 14 30

14 11 3 26 51

6 11 7 8 9

POST DEBATE QUESTION: Parents should decide for their children under the age of 16, whether their information can be used

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree






Brittons School AM

Hendon School AM

Hendon School PM



Dunraven School PM




13 25 7 7 10

17 15 13 13 16

22 10 17 17 12

13 12 14 14 32

2 13 12 12 3

18 16 15 15 45

16 9 26 26 18

17 11 11 11 38

17 31 15 15 18

12 16 14 14 32

23 32 29 29 35

5 7 13 13 21

24 15 13 13 36

5 7 7 7 11

55


PRE DEBATE QUESTION: I think the age at which people can decide for themselves on whether to allow researchers the use of their medical records should be:

Age 10 Age 12 Age 14 Age 16 Age 18









10.02.11


12.02.11


















11 3 37 30 13

19 14 32 25 20

2 2 5 15 26

11 7 30 41 21

11 22 15 10 10

13 12 31 21 8

2 1 13 20 9

14 5 14 17 3

32 9 34 62 20

3 3 5 23 2

3 3 6 15 12

8 18 57 62 7

6 6 13 19 3

9 6 36 55 16

11 2 12 63 11

4 0 7 18 22

11 11 16 9 8

1 1 4 30 8

9 7 20 18 4

3 4 21 21 2

15 5 8 60 34

21 19 45 55 15

35 12 53 29 13

2 2 11 30 10

11 18 28 24 36

56






6 1 8 96 20

4 5 43 49 26

4 5 22 21 4

POST DEBATE QUESTION: I think the age at which people can decide for themselves on whether to allow researchers the use of their medical records should be:











10.02.11














4 4 18 21 14

4 3 33 11 2

24 11 31 13 7

27 11 29 28 15

6 1 4 9 20

12 11 43 24 3

11 33 8 9 9

5 11 34 16 5

7 0 18 20 1

29 30 27 10 36

2 1 3 3 8

8 10 51 77 5

8 4 20 15 1

33 11 31 44 5

6 14 21 58 6

5 2 11 16 14

17 9 18 8 5

2 4 1 30 8

3 2 37 12 3

5 5 15 14 3

12 5 8 27 5

7 4 11 24 4

57



Studley High School 26.03.10 AM 18 11 58 34 6

PRE DEBATE QUESTION: I always want to be asked before researchers use my anonymous record, even though this would slow down research and make it less reliable

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree





17 21 5 17 14

28 12 5 10 16

11 8 12 12 21

27 11 10 7 13

POST DEBATE QUESTION: I always want to be asked before researchers use my anonymous record, even though this would slow down research and make it less reliable

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree

Bacons College 16.09.09 PM 9 6 9 12 32

PRE DEBATE QUESTION: I always want to be asked for my consent each time researchers want to use my anonymous medical record

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree








57 13 10 4 5

37 20 30 7 15

35 0 5 1 6

69 14 16 6 5

9 14 19 19 44

35 12 4 6 6

21 17 21 8 17

58


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree


10.02.11


12.02.11





















23 9 7 4 1

67 10 9 17 13

75 17 18 17 27

64 22 11 14 24

20 6 2 3 8

63 35 33 13 5

21 12 5 4 4

61 15 12 10 21

31 18 14 10 25

10 8 4 12 17

32 7 7 5 5

22 5 6 3 7

21 18 8 8 3

26 12 4 5 3

63 18 14 4 22

57 24 11 23 36

44 22 25 7 44

30 6 6 4 9

61 22 18 11 16

57 18 18 5 30

62 18 13 17 13

17 15 6 7 8

POST DEBATE QUESTION: I always want to be asked for my consent each time researchers want to use my anonymous medical record

59


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree










10.02.11
















61 15 5 16 15

3 5 7 21 17

60 9 13 5 12

45 17 22 13 17

34 4 1 0 3

52 16 10 7 11

38 12 5 4 4

12 10 14 12 13

20 6 8 0 6

9 13 18 15 59

11 4 3 3 13

90 25 14 12 10

13 7 11 8 9

25 23 21 23 31

22 18 20 14 33

7 6 6 12 18

34 7 4 4 7

16 5 5 3 16

13 10 12 13 10

11 14 9 7 2

31 22 6 10 35

23 12 4 6 14

36 4 4 2 7

45 15 16 16 33

PRE DEBATE QUESTION: I'd be happy to give my consent just the once, and let researchers use my anonymous medical information for any study they liked

60


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree





44 20 5 2 2

46 14 5 2 4

34 23 6 2 1

49 12 5 2 4

POST DEBATE QUESTION: I'd be happy to give my consent just the once, and let research-ers use my anonymous medical information for any study they liked

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree

Bacons College 16.09.09 PM 40 13 12 3 2

PRE DEBATE QUESTION: I already put my personal information on site like Facebook, so sharing my medical information does not bother me

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree









10.02.11


12.02.11


9 10 26 19 19

4 7 23 18 18

8 2 8 3 3

6 13 21 24 24

11 1 50 39 39

8 9 7 17 17

14 13 20 17 17

5 9 10 11 11

18 24 16 23 23

37 10 29 21 21

61


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree




















25 25 24 28 28

2 3 8 6 6

7 21 49 27 27

2 7 16 9 9

16 21 22 28 28

13 21 21 20 20

7 8 7 10 10

9 12 5 11 11

5 4 4 5 5

4 8 18 19 19

5 2 15 13 13

7 8 16 13 13

16 22 27 36 36

17 17 36 25 25

7 8 13 8 8

24 18 28 24 24

30 19 18 10 10

12 14 14 21 21

10 14 15 15 15

POST DEBATE QUESTION: I already put my personal information on site like Facebook, so sharing my medical information does not bother me

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree



12 11 21 21 45

10 19 11 11 3

62


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree








10.02.11
















13 7 20 20 23

15 12 21 21 50

7 5 5 5 19

14 8 15 15 47

8 7 9 9 14

13 16 20 20 19

11 2 6 6 15

57 8 17 17 28

52 17 16 16 33

3 1 6 6 19

13 19 45 45 47

6 9 4 4 16

20 11 17 17 52

13 21 18 18 31

6 0 2 2 29

16 5 6 6 22

8 5 6 6 23

4 5 5 5 21

1 6 12 12 13

6 6 6 6 30

13 4 7 7 21

25 19 21 21 36

PRE DEBATE QUESTION: I think it is really important that a nationwide electronic patient database is created

63


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree









10.02.11


12.02.11


















16 30 36 1 1

13 25 54 13 13

14 11 14 5 5

16 37 23 12 12

28 19 20 8 8

6 16 7 9 9

12 12 21 27 27

8 15 14 5 5

20 30 38 13 13

20 45 58 5 5

16 45 35 13 13

5 7 11 1 1

12 48 59 21 21

3 10 24 6 6

11 34 46 13 13

14 38 22 15 15

9 12 14 8 8

5 20 14 7 7

6 14 8 3 3

3 20 24 8 8

6 13 20 5 5

18 8 20 10 10

18 46 52 16 16

27 36 42 18 18

8 15 21 6 6

28 49 28 8 8

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POST DEBATE QUESTION: I think it is really important that a nationwide electronic patient database is created

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree







10.02.11















17 20 37 12 12

19 25 34 21 12

14 9 11 1 6

15 13 13 6 6

18 8 36 9 9

17 12 9 1 5

30 5 9 71 17

15 8 10 10 1

19 35 62 20 11

9 12 22 1 3

44 31 23 12 14

35 32 22 8 7

22 17 6 5 1

16 11 20 1 6

14 10 9 2 7

15 31 8 3 1

8 22 7 1 3

25 11 13 3 3

26 8 14 1 3

39 34 40 7 6

PRE DEBATE QUESTION (TO SCOTLAND SCHOOLS ONLY): I think that we should have a system that allows our medical records to be used for research

65


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree




41 38 31 5 5

20 36 21 18 18

7 24 19 5 5

POST DEBATE QUESTION (TO SCOTLAND SCHOOLS ONLY): I think that we should have a system that allows our medical records to be used for research

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree

Holy Family School 25.02.11 19 27 9 1 0

PRE DEBATE QUESTION: What concerns me most is the idea that millions of electronic patient records could be lost through a single human error

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree






2 12 17 24 16

4 8 18 19 21

3 7 15 24 12

5 16 15 23 29

9 20 14 15 11

POST DEBATE QUESTION: What concerns me most is the idea that millions of electronic patient records could be lost through a single human error

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree

Bacons College 16.09.09 AM 8 6 23 19 18

66


Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree



6 5 8 17 33

8 4 15 29 19

PRE DEBATE: People make too much fuss about data security - nobody except the NHS would be intrested in looking at my record anyway

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree






18 36 10 3 4

26 17 16 2 9

13 19 15 7 8

8 13 19 13 30

15 14 9 15 12

POST DEBATE: People make too much fuss about data security - nobody except the NHS would be intrested in looking at my record anyway

Strongly

Agree

Slightly

Agree

Neither

Agree or Disagree

Slightly

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree



12 37 16 4 5

21 17 13 6 13

7.5 Facebook Comments in Full

Topic: I’d be happy for my data to be used to develop a more effective abortion pill Disagree,I would like to be able to have the choice to pick which things to support with my medical data :)For example, for curing caner or any diseases, i would DEFINETLY.but im not sure about this one, i can see why people make these deicsions, but i would never have an abortion myself, no matter what and would not really want to support it.Miriam Skrentny

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I would not be happy beacuase i believe abortion is murder Joel Ryan Borquaye

Topic: I’d be happy for my data to be used to develop a new drug to treat cancerOf course i would be happy ..people are suffering out there and if i can make a differnece it would please me and the person recieving the treatment but i would like my infromation to be AnonymousJoel Ryan Borquaye

Topic: I’d be happy for my data to be used to develop a new drug to treat cancerI disagrre because it is personal to me and it is not right for everyon to know

General Posts

did everyone love ittt? Vanessa Gregory

yeahhhhhhhhhhh ♥

Jess Cooper

;) xxxDanniella 'barbie' Blackhurst

haha, i dont get this jenn?neither do i. its cool thoy ;) Jennitals Quinn

smile and wave boys smile and wave;) Danniella 'barbie' Blackhurst

haha :) Jennitals Quinn

Safe ;) ♥

Nicky Nacky Nicole Walker

you were at craigmount today in edinburgh!, i am going to enter your comp to win an ipod touch!!Isla Murray

Ahahaha they came to my school today :LCarolyn Jane Bell

It was reali good!!! Hannah Tickle

yeah, it was!! Abbie Hounsome

it was Amazing!!!! Imogen Hanvey

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7.6 Reviews in Full

Breathing Space was a play and a questionnaire about the proposed new health system and asking the opinion of young people. The play informed us of the impact of the new system if it was launched.When I first entered the hall the hall to sit down it would be like the two plays I had already seen at school. Then when I saw the handsets on the seat, projector display and LED screens I knew this was going to be different.The man who presented it and ran through the questions with us was really good. It was really easy to understand how to work the handset, he told us what the questions meant to make them easier to answer and, when at the beginning there was a slight technical hiccup, he handled well and was even able to make me laugh!The acting itself was a good way of showing us what could happen if medical data was loaded onto a database. It showed the benefits and the risks in a real world situation to make it easier to understand.The characters were really well created. The character I liked best was the boy because of the conflicting arguments on his interest in the girl. He could be in love with her, but is too shy to tell her this and doesn’t know what to do. Or he could be someone she has met on Facebook and is trying to worm his way into her affections. The character is a good portrayal of a concerned friend or boyfriend, but makes it more difficult for the person involved because they are afraid or ashamed to tell him. As well as this, the character demonstrated how some people may want to get access to the data illegally; this could help us raise our awareness on data security. The set was laid out in such a way that the audience could see the acting and the questions. The background of data lines and LED screens was a good setting for the computerised lives of the characters, who used the space well. You could visu-alise the rooms, walls and doors; and I liked the way the box was a desk, a set and something to stand on.Overall I thought it was an excellent performance, with only the dad’s character to find fault in. I think it is an imaginative way to teach young people data protection and to get their opinions. I say this because it is us that will be growing up into the world you have created. Ciaran Elmes, Charter School

The thought the play Breathing country was really good and vey interesting. I thought that all the actors played their part really well. However I thought the setting of the stage was quite poor because from where I was sitting I could not see most of the activities going on, which was a shame. Another drawback was that microfones should have been used because I could not hear some of words they were saying.Sahr Neka

This is a review about the play that was acted in my school Sutton Grammar School for boys. I suggest that the play was really well played and I have learned many lessons from it. Such as the upcoming year, in 2010, that we will have our medical record into electronic databases and whether we allow it or not for people to research it.Then what I have learned from it is that the medical records will help millions of people who use NHS. This is for the reason to save people and their lives because of our records. Since right now 5000 people are dying a year because of the wrong medical information given to doctors. This makes me feel that I have responsibility because I can save someone’s life with my own medical record. That way I will have the chance to join in life. Also the play made me think that this is such a good idea since the world needs these medical records since there is at least one medical record for one person in one hospital. This is a great disadvantage since if that person was to be ill in another country then the chance of him cured is low since probably that person’s medical record only exists in that other country and the sickness might be very serious so that’s why using the electronic database will be able to save people’s lives anywhere in the world. In addition our medical records are being used for research so we can save other people’s life, because we have the similar or the same illness as them so we can save their lives with the medicine available. This way the whole world will be saved due to the fact that everyone’s medical records are being compared to each other and are used to save everyone. This is the advantage to this electronic database, that’s what I have learned from the play.However, there is also a downside to this electronic database which I have learned from the play. This was that the personal information will be sent out to everyone and they will be able to know you and might do something with that information in some way. In that way, our information will not be treated as well as we treat their information. Also the medical information records everything in their life as well when they have illness in certain ages and accidents that happened to them. So people will not like their own personal information about themselves to be shown by others. Making them feel unsecure about them-

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selves and feel that their own privacy has been disposed giving a feeling of embarrassment and fear, probably, towards the person. This also includes that 60 million people’s medical records are in a database then that means all of it can be lost in one minute so we might not be able to recover it. Even in a USB stick then someday somebody will be able to lose it mean-ing that will also lose the 60 million medical records. This might not ensure safety for the people since their own medical in-formation will be lost and people might not be able to be saved due to the fact that the medical records are gone so each person’s illness, allergies etc. will not be able to be cured if they don’t have their medical records with them. Also people can hack in the medical information. Since the security will have to be simple for staff to use it and since they are busy they don’t want such a complex security. This might infiltrate the 60 million people’s records and they can make money out of the in-formation and they can also know the person’s age, weakness and many cases might be caused because of this.So the conclusion is that this play has taught me both the advantages and disadvantages of using the electronic databases. And I the play was really educational and well put forward. Patrick Pan, Sutton Grammar School

Today, I was subject to the performance by “Breathing Country”, and in all honesty before the performance I hadn’t a clue about my medical record and that in a years time a database was going to be introduced to store the information. However, a few hours after the performance I am now fully aware about what is happening and I now don’t see my medical record as just an extra bit of excess paper.In the play the actors were extremely informative and really helped improve my understanding. The play itself was very funny, which helped me to stay focused and take in more information. That was just a few of the reasons out of the many I could name. Personally, I really liked the fact that they used an example of panic attacks, because I know someone who suffers in the same way, and now I understand how they feel now. This also helped me relate to the play thinking how I could help my friend.The interactive part was an additional bonus; it helped me think about what I would do with my medical record and whether it would be private, or used to help others. It really helped me touch on matters, which would have otherwise been left un-touched, and I would have probably never given a seconds thought to. It also helped me think carefully about many of the matters associated with my medical record and how they could influence me and other people.Furthermore, when he introduced that we were doing the debate, I felt it would be a great chance to argue about what I had just learnt. I was told to argue for the database. It was really interesting listening to each other’s opinions and arguments, this showed how others felt passionately about the matter, and there were a vast range of views that covered everything I learnt. So if I had forgotten anything it was immediately brought up which helped me take more out of the performance than I would of done without the debate.The whole “Breathing Country” performance was amazing and helped me, and I am sure plenty of others to spend more time thinking about the important issue of medical records. Before today I would never even hear of the term until I was 18. However, now that I have been informed and that I have covered every aspect about my medical record, I will be sure to check my own and I will no how to use it. To benefit me or to benefit others, I will be using it and I thank “Breathing Country” for giving me the knowledge to do so.Charlie Foster, Sutton Grammar School

When the host first walked onto the stage I thought “Here we go again, another boring play that the school thinks we should watch” However, after listening for a few minutes I found myself interested as I was wondering about the topic. The topic was the issues raised by electronic patient records which I found to be fascinating as I felt it really did involve me which many topics might not. The host asked a few questions which although were simplistic really provoked thought from me and my fellow students. Then the play began. This in my opinion was the best part of the afternoon. It started out making us wonder why the girl was acting so strangely, why did she hate electronic devices so much? Then as the plot thickened I found myself thoughtfully watching the play. I particularly liked the way it had so few characters which kept it easy to follow and the monologues used in parts. I think the play could have been a bit shorter so that there was more time for the questions and debating after. The play finished interestingly, on a sad note of the doctor being unfairly fired which I think summed up the whole afternoon. Un-predictable, startling and interesting.After this the actors bowed and filed out and the host returned. He now asked us questions and asked us to stand if the answer was yes. I found it astonishing how easily people could with so little information hack into our personnel things and even get bank details. It really made me think about what I put on my facebook and e-mail. Then the debate started. The room was split in half and my half was told to think of pros of EPR and the other half was told to think of some cons of EPR. After debating a few points such as security and cost I saw how close the cons and pros were which brought a new interest

70


for me in the topic. Then after debating a while longer it was time to go home and I found myself milling over the topic all the way I walked home.Some good points of the ytouring play are that it provoked thought and all the way through it I was thinking about the issues of the EPR. It was also very varied, had questions with the interactive, the performance and a debate which really kept stu-dents interested. Another good point was the interactive questions as it made it interesting having another way of answering questions and also made the answers be honest as no one could see what I wrote. Some drawbacks of the play were that the play was long which restricted the time for the activities. Another drawback was that there could have been more props used to illustrate the point and we weren’t given anytime to talk to or hot seat the characters which would have been worthwhile.James Farenden, Sutton Grammar School

I got the experience to watch the talk 'breathing country'.It was so nice and interesting because it talked about not just the EPR it talked and showed it in a way that young people can understand - in a drama.At first I did not understand what the EPR is and it was even being planned. But this drama showed me about what is being planned and gave lots of stactics like how much is costs to move all our medical records to a electronic device and how many people are using the NHS and the way it's presented just automatically made you remember everything.It was also showing you the advantages and disadvantages of putting all our medical on a computer such as it could be hacked into but an advantage is that it wouldn't be messy or it's hard to loose it.Also the drama contains very modern story lines and it also contained some problems such as anxiety disorder which i have never seen before.I also learnt more new things such as information couldn't be passed on from hospital to hospital and that we CAN read our own medical records!I loved the keypads, felt like I was in Who Wants To Be A Millionaire! And we got to really think about what was being asked and it was anonymous so you couldn't be scared to answer.The actors were really realistic and excellent, didn't seem like they were acting! There were lots of funny parts aswell so it didn't make it too serious. The sound effects were really cool and it used like youth sites such as facebook. It would be very nice if other newspaper/government story's that most young people don't understand are acted out in this way which would make it easier for me to understand and think about.It was a pleasure to be there and I really loved it. I understood everything said and it's a good way to hear the veiws of us aswell.Beaza Balcha, La Sainte Union

Hi, my name is Nick, and I would firstly like to say thank you for coming to my school to perform your production. Secondly I’d like to say how much I both found the production entertaining, and very insightful. I thought it was a really good topic to come to school children about, as the electronic patient records will affect most people, and children often wouldn’t have a say in something this big, so it would be left to adults to decide what to do, without any input from us. My favourite part of the production was the play, as it was very entertaining, funny, and gave a good insight into how the electronic patient re-cords would be used, however, I thought that some of the language used was a bit extreme, as my headmaster was sitting in the room at the time, and it was extremely awkward. I also enjoyed the questions at the beginning, as it gave me a chance to be truthful about what I thought without everyone knowing my views, however I don’t think I knew enough about the whole topic to answer the questions to the best of my knowledge, for example, we didn’t know the security of the electronic patient records. We didn’t know whether they would be protected enough so that hackers couldn’t access them, or whether they were carried round by any GP on a memory stick or if they were only accessible on specific computers in the country and their information not allowed to be transported by memory stick. On the plus side though, when this system comes into place, I’m sure we will have these things explained to us in much more depth so it was not that important that you explained some of these aspects.Once again I would like to say thank you for such an enjoyable experience!Nick Suchy, Sutton Grammar School for Boys.

On Tuesday 22nd of September, Ytouring came to my school to deliever a phenomonal performance.When I entered the assembly and seeing the high-tech stage i was instantly impressed and knew that the next 2 hours will be enjoyable. In my opinion I think everyone was excited upon seeing the very familiar 'pods'.Our host was very entertaining and 'down with it'. He was very comical indeed. He made the questions asked very under-standable, I think without his explanations i would've not been able to answer his questions.

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After the host had finished introducing us to your scheme of work, there was a play set in the year 2010. We see an emo-tional wreck, Lizzie, starting to open up to life again after her mother commited suicide. Lizzie's computer genius friend helps her along the way but deep down he wants to know what's kept Lizzie from society for so long. Whilst chaos is happening at home Lizzie's father, owner of the NHS, opens up a new system, EPR (Electronic Patient Record) to help solve the conflict of so many people dying while in care of the NHS. I thoroughly enjoyed the play, especially the use of the iPhone. However i feel that the play could have added another scene, showing us the evemts leading up to the death of Lizzie's mother.To conclude with I overall enjoyed your presentation. But I think that the questions asked should have been varied more slighty and maybe have more questions. Also adding that extra scene to the play would had more of a massive effect you already placed on me. However it was an exquizzit assembly. Will you come back? I certainley hope so!Connor Spaulding, Deptford Green

I have never really taken much interest in the news, or the NHS, (which is surprising as I want to be a doctor when I am older) I always found it boring and uninteresting, but the Breathing Country drama workshop really enlightened me about how I want things to be (medically) for my future and how things should/ideally would be run. The Drama was extremely in-teresting, factually and funny, everything you could want from an educational production. It was fascinating to watch the outcomes that I know in real life could and are happening. The questions really made me think about how much I know about the NHS and my medical records, it was more fun with the quiz hand set as it seemed less serious, which could be classified as a downside. I understood more about the dangers of things such as, MySpace, Facebook and other online chat services. I also understood more about how I would like to help, like donating my medical records for scientific studies. The whole session was extremely interesting and factual I learnt a lot and would defiantly recommend it to the school to do again. Laura Mackinney, La Sainte Union Secondary school.

‘Breathing Country’ was very entertaining, and at the same time, very informative. I was fascinated by the chosen topic: ‘Should our medical records be stored electronically?’ This was mainly because I had not known before the play, that our medical records were kept on paper; I had assumed that they were already stored electronically. Furthermore, I liked the way the programme was laid out. It begun with a survey with questions that we could an-swer from where we were seated, using the remote controls we were given. After that, the actual play begun, and the audi-ence got their first real insight into how electronic records worked, and how it compared with a paper record. In addition, there was a story included, about how a teenage girl struggles in life with just a father who always seems to be busy with his work, and her boyfriend who she thinks cares ‘too much’ about her. I enjoyed how the story and the topic were interlinked. This allowed us to learn more about the electronic system, whilst at the same time, watch an entertaining play. After the play had ended, we had to answer the same questionnaire, which I thought was a good idea, because it was an interesting way for all of us to see how our opinions changed about electronic systems being used to store our medical records. That was then followed by a debate. The debate was based on the advantages and disadvantages of both an electronic system, and the paper system. During the debate, I learnt a lot about both systems, and it helped educate me on which system was better in certain areas, and which system was better in other areas. Overall, I think the programme was well laid out, it had a good structure, it educated me a lot about topics that previously I did not know a lot about, and I liked the fact that it interacted with the audience, and got their feedback. However, I do have a few negative points to make. During the performance, there were moments in the play that did not have much relevance, and those scenes were fairly boring, and this may have caused some of the audience to lose interest in the play, and as a result, a lot of the audience may not have understood what was happening. However, I think ‘Breathing Country’ was an enjoyable performance, and was an experience that I cherished, especially while it lasted. Naresh Mohanm, Sutton Grammar

When Ytouring came to my school lilian baylis with there play breathing country, I thought it was going to be one of those boring plays that have no action but this one was different. It was entertaining and educational at the same time and that is a hard thing to do. It adds to the question is electronic patient records safe being stored on computers.The play talked about the importance of electronic patient records in medical research and how safe it is being stored on computers. The thing I did not like about the play was that the actors did not address the problem clearly to us. There were some parts of the play that stood out and there were some parts that didn’t relate to the matter. Secondly the actors didn’t look at the audience when they performed so we did not know there emotions. Furthermore the actors did not give us there names. Finally we did not understand some parts of the play because it changed from one subject to another.

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There were more good things than bad things in the play and one of these good things was the question that was given to us to answer. I think that is a good thing because it gives the opportunity to someone who is shy to have there point of view. In addition the use of technology in this play was extraordinary. Furthermore the play had good timing, it had a good intro-duction telling us what the play is about and the importance of patient records, and secondly it had a good middle part which told us a story of a girl which had panic attacks every now and then. Also there were these three main characters, her dad, a man who betrayed her and the doctor. The ending was good to telling us its websites and contacts so we could get in touch. When I walked out of the play had sensed that that I learned more than when I entered the play. I personally think it needed more movement than just standing there and talking on the phone to someone. Because if it had more movement it would stand out from all the other plays that is in London.This is the second time that ytouring has come to my school. They came in year 7 and were not that educational and did not give us enough information but this time they give us more information and it was more educational because we are more grown up than when we were in year 7.Finally I would recommend this play to anyone under the age of 18 because it does not suite adults. Also I think that this is the best play that I have seen talking about medical research. All the other plays are entertainment based but this one con-tains two categories and that is why I think this is a good play to see. Olven Esmaeel, Lilian Baylis

Today the ytouring company come to my school to perform the play 'Breathing Country'.I thought the play was really good and i like Lizze Peace because she performed very well. I also like the background. I un-derstood the plot of the play really well and i think it should be performed again. I like the ue of technology and we could also vote without using our voices so everything was annonomus.I tihnk medical records shouldn't be kept on a electronic datbase because if someone put a virus on the computer, it would wipe out the whole system. Whereas with paper, one or two files may get lost but viruses won't effect it. Also someone could just hack into the atabase ans steal everyone confidental records. Or even, sometimes the doctor could be really care-less nd lose the memory stick like the Doctor in the play. Overall, i tihnk Breathing country was a great peice.Angela Quan

With the current advanced technology and science, people can nowadays meet each other anywhere around the world, with the access to Internet using a social network site, such as Facebook. Similarly, with these newfound communica-tion abilities, we can make a country breathe. This is what the Breathing Country Theatre is all about. As more people utilise the NHS, the medical records of these patients keeps increasing. Local NHS General Practitioners have hundreds of paper records in stacks in their shelves. As your medical records are in a paper document, only your GP knows whether you are allergic to something or not. Therefore were you to fall unconscious at someplace far from your GP with no one else to talk, the doctors there would not know any medical history of you. This problem can be solved by introducing a computer data-base of all the patients’ medical records, where only the people who have the right to see it can see it, including the patient. This was what the Breathing Country Theatre by Y Touring Theatre Company was all about.

Breathing Country Theatre was both entertaining and informative. It helped the audience to have a genuine under-standing of what was going on, by setting the context of the performance on a normal young person’s illness. Just by having some excellent young actors who are closer to the audience’s age perform, it made the experience feel closer to the young people watching it.

One factor that I particularly liked about this theatre-and-debate was that the questions were anonymous. The audience was asked identical questions before and after the performance. Each one of us held a handset which set a series of buttons on them, and thus allowing us to answer the questions anonymously.

Personally I think although the paper documents are safer in terms of theft and sabotage, but I am sure that a database would be much more efficient and in some aspects, safer for the patient. And I am sure most people would agree with me. A week after the theatre, I still consider the performance worth the time.kwang min Lee

The breathing country performance was fantastic and gave us an idea of what the NHS is going to do in the future. When we first came into the hall, we knew nothing about the electronic patient record. It was great to be able to interact and be a part of the future which asked us questions which we could be a part of in the future. The actual performance helped us to realise that the information on our records can be really important either to us or other people. We think that it should be

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both ours and our parent’s choice whether we share it or not. Even though it may be used for research it is our confidential and private information. The electronic patient’s record could be a good idea but there are many problems with the system. We think all of the actors were good and stayed in role the whole time and we would love to see another performance from you very soon. This electronic patient system could save us and our environment and let the doctors access any information they need to help us. We thought it was good to get involved and have the debate so that we would not get bored and just sit there listening and watching the show. Many performances that come into the school do not interact with us so we thought it was a very good idea. We thought the issue that you spoke about was very relevant and interesting as most peo-ple our age would have had no clue about the subject. Hayley And Tania, Hendon School.

I am writing to review on the beneficial production ‘Breathing Country’ you performed at Camden school for girls. Firstly I would like to comment on your acting skills as they were well presented and engaged the audience in many ways. The script which was performed was dramatic and informative as I understood and benefited from it. Personally I have never seen my own medical record, yet I am sure there is nothing on it which I would be embarrassed to share however, after watching the production I understood a lot about why people prefer their personal information such as medical records to be private. Furthermore, I thought that the question air which was done at the beginning and repeated at the end was very effective as it made me think of how we could use technology in many ways to cure illnesses and improve the health of citi-zens in this country. I am happy to say that my answers changed at the end of the production as I gained more knowledge on how useful it would be to share medical information within hospitals and medical clinics. I also liked the debate in which we shared our opinions and asked questions. However, one thing I do no understand and would like to know is why the pro-duction is called ‘Breathing Country’. Overall I enjoyed the being an audience and participating in this effective production. An honest opinion,Sundus Mohamoud, Camden School for Girls

My personal opinion on this play is that it was very good, I liked that the play was about the NHS because it really gave me an eye - opener on how things could easily go wrong. At times I found myself glued to the chair anticipaiting what was going to happen next. It also sent a message out that if you are not careful with what you do you could lose everything. Like the woman did in the paly when she left a memory stick in a Laptop with the medical records of paitents. Unfortunatly someone found this and it was found dumped it in a park. For the womans carelessness she had to resign or she would of been sacked. Also I think that our NHS info should be kept on paper and on the computer network because if someone managed to de-lete everybody in the U.K's medical record on a computer i.e terrorist, we would have mayhem on our hands, e.g if someone is seriously injured and unconscience and the doctor does'nt have their right medical record they could give them an medi-cine what could give them a bad reaction or potentially kill them, but if we had it on paper aswell we would have a chance of saving their life. I hope you liked my reveiw, hopefully I can win the Ipod touchOshane Geovani Harris

Once everyone settled in there seats and the show was to begin it was confusing enough that there was a huge screen in the background which looked confusing enough, but once the man, who’s name has slipped from my mind, started talking about computer data my mind started to deft of as did many of the year as i looked around. However once we released he was not just a ‘Teacher’, and spoke a language we could all understand im sure i could speak for many people by saying my ears quickly came to attention. They first asked you a load of questions based on your medical records, which to be honest i don’t think is the first thing on any teenagers minds, yet for the simple fact that something like is, that is thought to be so igsagnificant to myself or any other regular teen’s daily life, was made into something that got me thinking about the reality of technology and that i could, effectively change the way that the government decide to change the way things work. That my point of view was important, would make a difference. This intrigued me..Once the man who’s name i still can’t quiet remember exited the stage, i instantly thought the next hour would be something i would count down the minutes of, yet i was proven wrong. The acting, in my personal opinion was outstanding, and the way the actress ( Lizzie) portrayed the feelings, anczioties and general frustration of a person with these sorts of mental prob-lems, really surprised me. He intense acting really engaged the audience into the story, and like a book, wanted us to read

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more into the story. What was wrong with the girl? What was this relationship she shared with her father?, and at the end all of my questions had been answered, with might i say, excellent acting. However with so many complements, there were some improvements i must add. Although the acting was good, and i could relate and feel the feelings the actors portrayed, the rambling on about numbers and press that was said by the father, instantly turned me off and didn't highlight the points of the performance as much as i hoped it to, and i think one should remember they are informing a group of young teenagers, not a group of educated working class adults. Yet saying this, over all i truly though that with some down falls that after this performance, i really understood the point they tried to put across and am extremely surprised with the quality and hard work these people put in to connect with the younger generation. The way they communicated with us was positive and didn't treat us, as many do as ‘young kids’ who have no idea about the world around us. If you listen to us we will respond to you.Alice Sapieka, Dunraven School

Breathing Country' is a drama piece developed to educate young adults about not only the problems that the NHS's paper-based health records cause, but also the effect that these problems can have on people, which could often be averted with better organisation, for example, with a computer-based database. An engaging, thoughtful performance captures the audience's mind, and puts right any doubt that it's just propa-ganda aiming to make you want a computer-based database, rather then paper records. On the contrary, 'Breathing Coun-try' shows the possible pros and cons of both outcomes, and leaves you to make your own decision. The story-line can be quite confusing at times, with a couple of "Wah..?" moments, but overall you can understand what's going on. I feel that the characters are well chosen, and the audience can relate well to them, with the references to Facebook and the relevant age group. As a result, there are many funny moments, although sometimes, I thought it was more the audience laughing at the adults for trying to act like teenagers, rather then the jokes themselves. Nevertheless, I still thought it was a good performance, which teaches young adults about an important subject which is relatively unheard of, I know for one I had no idea about this problem before I saw 'Breathing Country' The interactive voting system is an interesting way to record how people's views on the subject change after the performance, although I feel it would be more effective if the audience was shown the results of the first set of voting (before the performance) rather then only the voting done after the performance. I also think it would have been good to have a question like, "How confident are you about this subject at the moment?" before and after the performance, to highlight how few young adults actually know about this problem. In conclusion, I think it's great that a show like this exists to educate people and relay information gathered to the government, as it's something more then just 'another show' and then interactive voting aspect helps the audience to feel like a part of the performance. I hope that these results, gathered from the voting, can help the government to finally make a decision regarding this. I believe this is a great performance, and would encourage young adults to watch it, to learn about a huge problem that's been going on for years, at the same time as enjoying a fun and engaging performance.Max Loveday, Dunraven School

Breathing Country is a play or act based on the NHS and what new stuff could be brought in to help people and also destroy people. First off all there is a teenager who has past medical illnesses like Panic attacks e.c.t, she has an on and off relationship with another boy but your wouldn't call it that plus there is the father who is looking after his daughter after his wife died off taking an overdose. Now a doctor has a brilliant idea, the idea is to put everybody's Medical details on 1 database, after this she makes a decision to help out the girl just to see how it would work out, so she sends the girl the letter, the girl in a frenzy goes up to her and tells her in a assertive way Why has she done this? How did she get my address and how to you know about my condition?, eventually it all works out the girl ,but unfortunately the GP / Doctor looses her USB with all the Medical information on it because she was careless and to busy and eventually she looses her

job.I think they have shown an excellent interpretation off what could happen if all our Medical Records if they were all on 1 da-tabase although it can save lives and make it easier on GP's but you got to realise that once it's get's stolen everybody Medical Records will have gone and it can also cause in people dying.Personally i think that we should have all our Medical Information on 1 Database , because it can save lives, get treatment for pople with the same conditon and it also save's alot off time especially if your waiting to see the Doctor or the GP.Thank you for ReadingDominic Barnett

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I was told that the play we were going to see was about science and ethics but when I realised it was about sharing medical records and electronic patient records I was certain that we were going to be persuaded to agree and only told the good aspects of the scheme because it was a government organization. However, I found the questions interesting but hard to answer and I liked the rounded views given to us by the host. The play was long and I know loads of people lost concentra-tion but the message was put across so I guess it was successful. Although it’s a good way of getting the audience to un-derstand, a better thing would have been to get all of us to participate more. Everyone was paying attention when we had to stand up if we had facebook etc so maybe that would help. Also, the seating arrangements made it really easy just to slip down and take a nap unnoticed so quite a few people opted to do that. The presenter was funny and laid back which was good and I think the majority of the girls listened to him. All in all it was an agreeable hour and a half but I think the idea of electronic patient records is overwhelming and more discussion would make it seem less daunting. Alba Phillips

I really enjoyed your performance/show it made me learn a thing or two about msn accounts and that i should be more care-ful when i go on my account that i should not put my personal details on it really made me think is it always safe to go on my hotmail account anyway i was thrilled by the performance and i hope you keep on thrilling your audience's in the future Tom Morgan

“Breathing Country” came to my school about 2 weeks ago with a role play and questionnaire about weather NHS medical documents should be put on a data base. I really enjoyed the talk and found it really interesting discussing the topic. The man running the debate genuinely seemed interested in our opinion which meant that we really got involved and passionate about the subject. He started of by intro-ducing the topic with a few questions using electronic quiz panels to show us our answers on the board. This immediately gained my attention because I found it interesting to see the majority of opinions without singling anyone out and because they showed us the information in an interesting, eye catching way we became intrigued to know more. The role play was really enjoyable as well. Although the information was interesting and presented in a snappy format it didn’t explain the topic as well as the play did. The role play showed the audience (my year) the pros and cons of a medical data-base and helped us either enforce or change there opinion which they held at the beginning of the afternoon. They really related the play to teenage life, parties, Facebook etc helping me really relate to the characters. I particularly found it interesting because my mum works in the NHS and has to deal with lots of her patient’s files everyday. The doctor in the play reminded me slightly of my mum, and it was quite interesting to see what sort of trouble she could get in with them. When we were asked the question “would you mind people seeing your medical file” I said that I wouldn’t mind because I have nothing to hide. When I was first asked this question at the beginning, I thought that it was weird that people did mind and that they were probably just being silly. The play showed us a typical situation of someone who would mind there medical file being seen and I think that this opened my eyes to the right they have to keep their file personal. At the end of the talk/play we tried to come up with a option that would give people (like the girl in the role play) a chance to keep there documents to themselves but that would also give all of the medical documents which didn’t mind to be seen to help medi-cal research etc. I wouldn’t say there is much that could be improved to the afternoon, but if I had to make a criticism I would say that maybe it could have been improved by a few more facts our figures at the beginning our the end about the NHS and its patients. Having said this I found the talk very interesting as it is quite a common debate amongst politicians nowadays. It gave us an incite on the subject and helped us come up with our own opinion on weather NHS medical documents should be put on a data base, as well as letting us hear other peoples. Thank you very much for coming Ruby Earle, Camden School for Girls:

Yesterday I had the privilege of watching a spectacular play written by Ben Musgrave called Breathing County. It was very thought provoking and inspiring to see a drama not just to entertain but to make people think. It is rare to see a drama that will make you think about something you don’t really care to think about, this play actually made an impact in my life because it was really personal to me.I have what’s called rheumatic fever and it is a really confusing thing to have, what’s worse different doctors prescribe me with different things and have also diagnosed me with different things. Every time I’ve been to the hospital I get asked so

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many questions before my treatment can start because they don’t know my information or can’t get to it quickly enough. I have not had this fever for quite a while and the hospital have still not contacted as they where supposed to. I have not once thought about the way my data was kept, I know some of my information is stored on a computer and some printed or written in files. Before I saw the play our teacher told us it was about the NHS, Data, social networking and so, I instantly thought that this was going to be boring however emotional. Before the play began we had a small discussion which had quite a lot to do with me and others, I thought this was a good way to interact with the audience and get us involved. It was also a good opportunity to let everyone have a say because of the electronic system that was used. As the play started it used a clever technique of the electronics used in the play for instance their phones where displayed clearly on the big screen and everything about it was realistic.Not only was it a good thing to watch but it kept us thinking, I felt that the system is so messed up for 5,00 people to die every year just because there data is stored in the wrong way is ridiculous. Doctors and Nurses need to be able to get to our information quickly to insure that we are receiving the right treatment instead of wasting time and making silly mistakes. It was also clever the way it made an impact on every single character which symbolises that it makes an impact on us as well even though most of us are not affected now but will surely be later. I’d like to thank you for coming to our school and I hope you continue to make a difference to others. Could I please have details on the online database in high I might be able to find my past medical history. I wish I could write more but there is a limit of 500 words. I’d also like to apologise on behalf on my classmates for misbehaving.Thank YouJoel Borquaye, St.Edwards Church of England School & Sixth Form College

My name is Akhilesh Manandhar, I am currently studying at Dunraven School. This email is regarding a review of ‘Breathing Country’.Y Touring is a company which inform people all the medical information electronically. It can save millions of information of millions of lives, and help people and also the NHS. If the NHS has medical information stored electronically of all the people, it would be great for research of any person at any time and any place. Doctors will be able to help patient to cure illnesses properly without any mistake. For example, someone had an accident in Birmingham while he was on Holiday from his home town in London. When am-bulance arrives with that unconscious person in the hospital in Birmingham without any medical information about that per-son will be very difficult for treatment. My opinion towards the medical information which is stored electronically, is supportive, it can help people to live there life better and also to be healthier. The young generation will need this type of technology, due to so many types of virus and diseases around the world. The project is going to cost 12.3 billion pounds, but it’s worth every penny. The advantages towards this type of technology would be:

• Being able to save lives.• Giving the correct information’s to people, and also the NHS.• Saves time for the doctors, while searching through medical records.• Being able to go to any of the hospital in the United Kingdom without needing to carry your medical records.

The disadvantage due to having electrical medical information is that:• We will never know when the computer system might crash.• Anybody would be able to hack in to the medical records.• The medical records could be mistakenly deleted.

As people carry on with their life, problems will occur; different types of people will have different problems. Example, there are so many diseases in the world. But if we all share our problems together that we have, there might be a medicine or even medical information that a person might have, which will be able to cure other people, and our self. The information that I have learnt from breathing country is to:

• Support the right information when needed.• To help others by letting them, understand for what is right and what is wrong.• To also think about others, when help is needed.

Some ideas on, how you could be able to improve the performance. • Let the audience be involved with the performance.• Questions and answers at the end, about the performance.• More props are needed to give a clear image of the scene, and also the laptop has to be on while the actor is using

it.

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I found the performance of breading country helpful. It will support reasons, why we need medical information stored elec-tronically. Akhilesh Manandhar, Dunraven School

I have to say, I could not be more surprised! I was expecting some dull lecture where some boring people spoke to us for a couple of hours whilst we all fell asleep! And that definitely was not what we received! When I walked into the hall, I was wary of the keypads on the chairs but, once it had been explained us, I was completely at ease. I liked participating in the survey at the beginning because none of us had ever done anything like that before, it was interesting to see everybody's reactions.Then we watched the performance. I was speechless with amazement. The actors were so convincing and even though at the beginning, I got a bit confused, I picked up the story and thoroughly enjoyed it. The use of the computer screen was really effective. The actors and actresses played their part superbly and never lost focus. You could actually imagine the situation. It was a perfect combination of information about EPR and Lizzie's personal experience and opinion. I found it par-ticularly attention grabbing because I could relate to some of Lizzie's symptoms as I have experienced depression recently; and it properly began with the death of a close relative, although it wasn't to suicide. As well as this, I liked the fact that Liz-zie's symptoms were explained properly so we could all understand. However my criticism's for the performance would be to slow down slightly as sometimes, I couldn't catch what they were saying. After the performance, we had the debated discussion that included all the characters. I found this very well organised as everybody took an opinion in their stride and gave their counter-argument to it or gave more reasons why EPR should be used or not. The questions asked to us when we had to stand up if the answers applied to is was absolutely superb be-cause we had a laugh and find out about our friends and their opinions on the matter. After discussion, we re-took the small survey from the beginning and it was really interesting to see how many people agreed with the statements and why. Despite this, I think it would've been better if we compared results from before and after the performance with pie charts so we could see the difference. On the whole, a terrific insight into what's happening in the UK today! Samm Thornett

Breathing Country is a play that looks issues surrounding the new NHS Electronic Patient Record. It explores the issues and looks at the different aspects of the use of electronic patient records in medical research.It also helps the audience to interact with the play using the electronic keypad, which helps to see what people think of the idea. The play itself is well acted and is used to give a clear insight into this new idea.In my opinion, it was a very entertaining play and at the end of it, I made my mind up whether the patient records is a good idea or not. The play was not only acted well, but had humour, clear dialogue and possible scenarios which helped the audi-ence to make their mind up to.The drama also helped cause a debate with the cast and it's audience. The NHS Electronic Patient Record has it's benefits, as I learned from the play, such as helping for medical research and access to health care. The negative points is that it may be a big risk to our security. In my opinion, I thoroughly enjoyed the play. It was very entertaining as it looked at the modern-day issues, and you could relate to it. The fact it also got the audience involved and helped to interact with the audience also made this play enjoyable.Ziaul Hassan

I found that the production bought to light some issues to the watching students that they had never or even knew existed before the play. They told us off the NHS and their relatively new idea of making the patient’s records easier to find and gain access to all around the country. For example if you were on holiday in England and had injured yourself then using the EPR the doctors would be able to find out the different medicines you may be allergic to or previous medical problems you may have had quicker and easier then questioning the patients. This part of the play put this new idea in to a relatively positive light however they then went on to speak of its floors so as to keep the play non-biased. The floors were particularly explored in the play via Lizzy, the teenager who had been having frequent panic attacks for increasingly small matters. This problem had been recorded and put on to the EPR causing no problems until a medical research team wanted to use her anony-mous record as a part of a research project. Thanks to the EPR a letter was sent out to Lizzie asking for her permission. She was ashamed and angry that others were a wear of the fact of panic attacks and wanted to ask the person organizing the project how she found out about her problem. If however her record had not been online then it could still have been used with out upsetting any one as it was anonymous then no one would have found out. Also a memory stick containing many of

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the patient’s records was left on a train where anyone could pick it up and thousands of people’s data could have gone missing. I found that this play and debate was good because it helped young children to find out about partially what was going on in professions which they have had much experience with but have never found out about what was really going on. Also the play was all about electronics and the good points and bad points of relying on a computer but in the play aside form the NHS was a family torn apart by disaster and able to keep apart by computers. Both Lizzie and her father Richard practically solely, unless they were in the same room used text to speak to each other. I feel that this was also able to speak too much of the audience who use text and social networking sites such as facebook to speak to each other instead of phoning or even meeting face to face.There for I felt that this play worked well on many levels. The play bought to light to the audience issues that they never even knew existed, issues that they them selves had just bubbling under the surface and cleverly presented it to the audience through a play meaning the viewers would be more attentive then in a lecture. Finally I also found that the debate at the be-ginning and end worked well as the first one helped them find out their personal opinions and the second one made them think about the play and what they had found out. In conclusion I would give this production top mark and hope that they visit again to tell us more of the workings of the previously explained parts of society. Katie Rees-Williams, The Westgate School

The Breathing Spaces drama about the NHS patient record database was very real. It showed clearly the different emotions and feelings form different stereotypes of people and how inadvertently the NHS database would affect them.

The characters were very real. The young girl faced the most problems and represented people with information they deemed to be ‘personal and confidential’ which could be accessed by anyone with links to the database which posed a risk to patient confidentiality. This was a contrast to the father who was a businessman involved in funding the database. He was more interested in the cost – effective and the business element to it, so he did not notice how his family were also be-ing affected because of it, which showed a more personal side to the drama. The doctor was dealing with both father and daughter and she represented the people for whom the database would make aspects of their jobs and dealing with pa-tients easier and less problematic. There was also a computer hacker which represented the risk that no database is com-pletely safe, and that technology is increasingly faster and more inventive.

The interactive handsets made sure everybody had an opinion, and these were used before and after the drama to see whether people’s opinions had changed throughout the performance. These were good because they showed different people’s opinions were and why people though this. It was also clear to see which the majority answer was.

I thought the story line was good, although some aspects were slightly exaggerated for entertainment. I like the way that the entire NHS database was explained clearly at the start, and the characters all expressed reasons for their opin-ions on the database.

I also liked the smaller plot lines, such as the death of the mother and the boyfriend who was also a hacker. All of the sub-plots fitted together very efficiently and all the characters had strong links in the plot and when they were acting to-gether. It felt very real because the entire storyline could be easily true.

I enjoyed the drama. I am personally in favour of the NHS database because I think that it is much easier for people in the medical profession to access data and there would be the option to hide pieces for information that you did not want to be seen by everyone. Also, it is hard for doctors to see the patients history if they have moved hospitals whereas it would be much easier on a communal database.

My only other point could be that the similarities between the characters in the drama and on hospital based dra-mas may be purely coincidental; however the father and the daughter are closely related to the characters of Linden Cullen’s daughter Holly Cullen representing the young girl and Nick Jordan representing the father in the BBC1 TV series Holby City.Jessica Burrows, Westgate School

‘Breathing Country’ is a performance mainly about doctors talking about whether medical files should be put on a computer or not. One of the doctors has a daughter (Lizzie) who has panic attacks. For ages, she switches off everything and for the first time in ages goes back to reality by using Facebook and her phone again. This performance showed how it could be better to have medical records all on a computer and how it may not be better. The performance is mainly based around Lizzie and the doctors. It shows real emotions and was enjoyable to watch. I extremely liked how the performance was acted out with realistic type situations. I thought that Lizzie’s dad was a workaholic type dad who was more into work and spent less time with his daughter. I also found it good at the end of the performance when the actors came out and expressed their own opinions from the characters point of view on questions that we also answered in our own opinion. Overall, I would rate it as an excellent performance and the characters were great. If I could I would watch the performance again.

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Kyle Clarke, Merchants Academy,

I think 'Breathing Country' was a fantastic play. The actors were really good at acting, they didn’t laugh/smile or react when the audience laughed at a part of the play, and they didn’t make any mistakes. I personally enjoyed the play because I think it made people appreciate/understand more about the NHS, because teenagers don't tend to really take much interest in the NHS. It helped us to understand the use of "electronic patient records in medical research". It was clever how we got to answer questions, because it got us thinking about what we would actually do if someone used our medical records without asking us first. Now I think teenagers are more aware of "privacy and security" which will also help us decide on what is safer and ‘best’ for us in the future. The play was a very enjoyable experience, I feel the audience and myself learnt something new and I would definitely like to see another production again at school. Rosie Fender 10P, The Romsey School

Here are my thoughts about the ‘Breathing Country’ Performance that came to the Westgate School with the ‘Y Touring Company’. At the beginning of the performance I was a little confused as to what was going to happen, but this turned out to enhance the rest of the show as it gave me a feel of anticipation and I found that not only myself, but others were defi-nitely giving the actors their full attention. I felt that introduction to the show with the audience participation and quiz, was a really clever way to capture every ones interest and get the whole room involved, and to give the normally fidgety or talkative people something to focus on! As afore mentioned, I thought the opening scene was a little puzzling for everyone, and al-though it did introduce the characters and add a sense of mystery to it, it was largely held together by the excellent I.T slides, of Facebook etc, which helped everyone to relate to the characters with familiar images. During the performance there were several debates where the audience could again, get involved and share their opinions. This was another proficient technique which added more ‘flavour’ to the already diverse mixture of drama, modern issues, privacy and security. Another adept quality of the play, was that it really did get you thinking, and made you realise the impor-tant, and perhaps slightly extreme role that technology such as mobiles, pagers & any sort of laptop or computer plays in our lives! Moreover it made me consider my own privacy and safety when using any social networking site- in fact that evening I increased the privacy settings on my facebook as I realised that anybody could find out anything they wanted about myself, my friends and my interests. I thought that ‘Breathing Country’ also explored focal issues to do with mental illness. I did not before think of the difficulties that they could bring- for example embarrassment and panic attacks, such as the character Lizzie experienced. This helped me to understand the arguments against electronic patient records, and how some people feel that medical information is an incredibly personal thing and for some a delicate subject matter.So, to summarize, I definitely enjoyed the performance that Y Touring brought to us and I felt that the characters were very naturally, and expertly portrayed by a talented, competent cast (my favourite was Simon!). I also very much hope that the company return to us again with a different show because I am sure others would take pleasure in and benefit from one of Y Touring’s first rate plays.Suzy Cripps, Westgate school

I didn’t know much about the electronic patient record but breathing country theatre production really created awareness about the issue. It was serious yet also humorous added to the performance really got my attention and got me interested on that topic and made me take more interest in the whole debate on whether it’s a good thing to have an EPR or not. It was a great way of making people aware of the topic by performing a piece which relates to the EPR. It is so much better to do a drama act rather than handing out booklets or doing a presentation where you can easily get bored and not be inter-ested in the subject at all even if it concerns you.The debating was really effective as it engaged the audience by making them contribute to the performance. The use of electronic voting technology was really useful as everybody can have a chance to say what they think and ex-press the reasons to their opinions. But also change their mind to what they think due to some other strong views that someone else might have suggested. It was a nice and calm environment in which everyone can relax and enjoy the performance while gaining important informa-tion at the same time. Sana Nisar

I thoroughly enjoyed the performance of ‘Breathing Country’ we watched about medical files. I learnt a lot, and also, had fun watching it.

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I thought that the survey was very enjoyable, as it got the audience involved, and actually made me think about my views, and opinion of the things going on in the role play. I thought (even though it wasn’t specifically for our benefit), that the fact that the same questions were repeated again at the end, made us realise how naive we were about our medical files, before the production. Also, I liked how the people were bought back onto the stage, so we could see their views, as it helped us understand and learn even more. I think that how they stayed in their character, during this little interview, showed us people’s true emotions and feelings.I thought that the production itself was extremely enjoyable, and taught us all about different people (in different positions)’s feelings.As I have never been in Lizzie’s position, her situation has never really entered my mind. I feel very sorry for her, as she obvi-ously suffers from depression (like her mother), and panic attacks, and doesn’t know how to cope. I think that the lifestyle she had was very similar to the sort of lifestyle people our age currently have, so it really made you think about how so many people try to cope with difficulties in their life, while everyone else’s life just carries on. After seeing what she had been through, I can understand how she must have felt so annoyed and upset when she found out that other Doctors could see all her (private) medical information.Watching how Simon reacts to the whole situation made us think of how many people are trying to cope like this. Also, after seeing how easy it was for him to hack into Lizzie’s Medical Files, all our thoughts of the new electronic system being safer, and easier, were completely blown back down.The production highlighted all the pros and cons of the new electronic files, but didn’t try to persuade us one way or another. I liked the fact that they did this; they just gave us information we should know, but in a very entertaining way.I thought the screenshots from Facebook, and the pictures projected on the wall behind were a really good idea, as it at-tracted attention towards everything going on, on the stage, and also relates it to our age group. Also, the props used (blackberries, Apple Macs etc), were the sort of equipment that would actually be used, so it made it more realistic.I thought that the way the stage was laid out was very attractive, with the screen at the back. But, I did not understand what the numbers all over the walls were for. I know this is not very important, but it just puzzled me.To conclude, I thought it was successful in teaching and entertaining me, and would recommend it. I would gladly watch it again!Rosa Hicks, Westgate school

In this production the question of medical and personal information was asked and also the issues rose by the use of elec-tronic patient records in medical research. The play was based around a girl named Lizzie and her father Richard, depending on technology for their relationship, as well as for work and social events. The medical issue about online records was being debated by the characters, the general feelings of different perspectives. NHS worker (Dr Grieg) believing that online records would be useful to quickly find out about patients from everywhere linked into the system, but from the pressures of the job could be easily compromised, the view of Richard (company director) being the amount it would cost, the view for Lizzie (the patient) it being easy for being treated quickly and the minimal risk of the records being stolen or somehow damaged, and then Simon (in love with Lizzie) digital expert and does anything to learn more about Lizzie, being able to hack into the sys-tem by the mistake of the busy Dr Grieg.People were asked whether they wanted their personal medical records to be seen by everyone, which wasn’t openly ac-cepted, but the hypocrisy was that people didn’t mind everyone seeing personal information posted on Facebook. The main theme being why would it be better to post on Facebook, and not posting your medical record, because it would be just as personal. Other questions were asked like if we would like online medical records to be operated before and after, and the answers were generally more to the strongly agree/ disagree rather than a confused opinion, like at the beginning. The company interested me and fellow pupils in current affairs and help us voice our own opinions. It interested me in what I would like the NHS system to be like, and how I would like it in the future, if that is a possible career choice, in which the play also interested me in.The actors personalised the scenes with us so we could easily emphasise and also help us build and create our own opin-ions. The familiar settings really helped with us imagining what the experience would be like and, which we could anomously enter our answer to the database, so we would be saying our opinions, not a friends.

Pros Cons

Easier to access Could be hacked if security measures aren’t up to proper standard

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Pros Cons

Faster to access Faster for hackers to get personal information

Simpler to access Simpler for hackers, or unprofessional doctors

If the computer is vandalised or broken, it could be retrieved from another computer

Other not as professional people will be able to access and send out any of your details

Easier to contact patients on studies and proposals Scatty doctors releasing information without knowing

Easier to cover any personal information that may not be needed to be seen if wanted

In the case of a power failure it would be near impossible to retrieve the record and may out the patient in danger

Lizzie Corney, Westgate School

I think the production was good because it brought up issues that people regard as private. The play also stated out some important things that I should look out for in life e.g. your personal information being used for surveys. The play portrayed the good and bad points about modern technology. For example having every body’s heath details on line could lead to hackers getting hold of personal information like lizzie peace’s father (the person that invested into having heath records on line) who got a hacker to look up her health records. And having records on paper could be unsafe they could get lost like Dr Grieg who lost some files in a park. The play evokes the fact that having modern technology is good, although as we see in the play it also stops people from having a social life just like it did to lizzie and her father. I think that one of the messages of the play was that nothing is safe. Henry Mann, Westgate school

Regarding Breathing Country, which I watched on the 23/3/10I really thought this was a good dramatization of a very serious incident which I previously knew nothing about. The play added humour, an innovative design (with the inclusion of the projector as various computer screens) and a very serious message. Previously, I knew nothing about the EPR and just became very intrigued after the performance on how to get this created. I liked the fact that many things that we encounter in life were dealt with, like the information we share on social networking sites and our relations with friends, considering there circumstances. I was previously ignorant about something like this but the performance was that informative that I now understand why a system like this should/shouldn’t be needed. I myself now draw the conclusion that it should be invested in as recent bereavements in my family may have been avoided if the EPR was in direct use so that research could go into rarer diseases like T-Cell Lymphoma which has affected my families and my own life. So in conclusion, I really enjoyed the production and found it very thought provoking and despite the serious edge to the performance, I found it very entertaining. De-Shaine Murray, Age 15, King Edwards VI Five Ways School

First impressions of the performance were not good. We were told it is to do with the NHS and about our medical record – instantly making it sound boring. However, once we were actually in the theatre, everything changed. The stage had been set up with a huge board with a screen in the middle and part of the floor also covered. They were covered by a range of numbers which immediately made us think of technology and prepared us for the upcoming performance. Our seats also had a voting pad on it so we also had ideas of it being more like a game show but this was then cleared up once we got introduced to it all. The voting before the actors came out revealed our thoughts on medical records and the technology used was absolutely fantastic – showing the results of the entire audience in just a matter of seconds. It allowed us to get through the questions and see how people feel about certain issues without any delays. Questioning some of the people about their choice also made us look at why people might choose that specific choice.Once the piece of drama started, we did not expect what we saw. The actors were brilliant at playing their roles and made us feel a part of it when speaking directly to us. Their facial expressions and body language stood out as they made their

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points and made us think very carefully. They also used the space very well and did not just use a small area of what was available to them which allowed them to get close to all of the audience.

The characters also made the story hit the audience hard and left them thinking. They showed both, for and against, sides of the decision of implementing an electronic system and also showed what a person with a medical history would think. We saw how easy it was to have these records stolen and also saw how this may affect certain people.Overall, it was a brilliant performance and it made the audience get involved before and after the acting to help them think deeper. The chance to see how different people react to it shows all the sides of the story and allows us to see all the posi-tives and negatives too.Abu Bakr

The minute a teacher tells pupils that a theatre group will be coming in, the first thing we think is; yay, what lessons do we miss? And the second thing is time to sleep. I’m sure with Breathing Country we all thought the same thing... that is until it started.

As we all walked in the scenery caught us all by surprise, when we think Theatre Company we immediately think Shakespeare, horrible costumes, strange people prancing about trying to get us livelier. But this was different. Expect the unexpected people say. The electric blue scenery caught everyone off guard, and so did the vast amount of electronic de-vices.

Once everyone was settled and eager to listen to what was going to happen next questions came up on the large board and everyone was keen to see what we would be doing with the strange mobile phone like remotes. We answered various questions about databases, personal information to do with our NHS health records and things like this. After about 5 or 6 questions it was onto the performance. From start to finish the play kept everybody hooked and listening. I think this was because it was things we can relate to, with the technology, facebook, going out etc. This relates to I think everyone in that room’s life. The concept helped us understand more about what was going on in the news about the NHS and everyone enjoyed it. Learning and fun, the best of both worlds.

The acting from everyone in the cast was extremely believable to me Lizzie was a real person, and so was her dad and everyone else involved in the play. I really enjoyed their visit to our school, and hope they come again next year for the new, year nines!

I just want to say a BIG thank you to everyone who came to our school. I really enjoyed it and learnt a lot!By Rachel Connolly!

My Breathing country review. I would recommend this interactive production to any one that likes to be involved or enjoys serious plays. I loved the fact that at the beginning and the end you are asked questions and with complete privacy you answer them anonymously. These answers normally change after you have watched it because it is easy to understand and you find out loads of information in the production. Even with the astronomical amount of facts and opinions they still managed to get a little bit of humour across. Most of the information given was about health history records which I have never learnt or understood how impor-tant it is so I was glad that was the main subject. It was great to join the adventure with mysterious Lizzie, curious Simon, Doctor Janet and business man Richard. I especially enjoyed them walking around and connecting with the audience. The best part - I think - of the production was the fact that every one felt confident to participate in the debate. I know that I have never really been interested in the news or the NHS but after that outstanding performance I will be thinking more about my health records and what happens to them. These are the characters profiles:Simon: Simon is a seventeen year old boy who likes to hang around with mates and fancies Lizzie, however does not sure about there relationship.Lizzie: Lizzie easily gets worried about her common fainting when she is too stressed but Dr. Grieg does help her with that.Richard: Richard never wants to talk about his wife who committed suicide and is always questioning Lizzie, his daughter.Dr. Grieg: Dr Grieg tries to help Lizzie’s problems and is trying to get hold of all her patients documents and files.I loved the way that the whole story was linked it to popular social networking site, Facebook. They did this so that when two people were not in the scene at that time they might communicate through Facebook or to look at the very meaningful pic-tures that had been posted on there to show feelings or just what they did at a point in time. They also did a similar thing using email and text but when they did it you were still able to see them doing it because they all had laptops.

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We also had all our questions answered and so over all this production is incredible. The best thing about having your ques-tions answered was that the cast came out as there character and gave there over all opinions. If any one ever got a chance to go then I would defiantly point them in the right direction and get them to go.Alex Mackie

I really enjoyed the play and i hope you come back and do it again.I really enjoyed all the different points about NHS and how many different ways there are to keep your medical information.I never knew there were so many and when i go to the doc-tor i will ask him.I also liked the handsets they were really fun to use and they wer really different from what we normally do.I liked the way you showed how Lizzie had attacks and how she got them.The big screen at the front was different to and i like how you all used it when you were typing on your phones and laptops.I dont think there was anything you could've made better it was perfect.Thank you wery much for coming and i hope i win the ipod touch thank youyosaf chaudhry

heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy :)the theatre company came to fairfield high school todayy, i thought that the play was greatt and that the actors were really goood and made the play seem very real. also the effects were really good and make it seem even more realisticc. i learned aot from the play because i didnt know that the nhs were going to store records on computers and could show them to other peoplee annomonsly, it was really good and i enjoyed itt :Djenn quinn, fairfield high school for girls

Dear Breathing Country,I thought the play was really good! I thought the Quizdom was amazing how it connected to the computer, I also thought the special effects were really good like when Simon typed something into the computer it came up on the screen behind him. I was amazed. The story line was great, it made me think that I better had check my medical records as my GP might be us-ing them without my permission. When Richard was crying about his wife, other people were laughing and I didn’t find it funny at all. It reminded me of when my dad died just got to get through it together. And it will all get better. Other people were laughing at when Lizzie fell on to the floor and I wasn’t laughing at that either I think it is really serious that people have panic attacks and it’s very scary to experience something like that. I thought that the actors and actresses were amazing at what they do. It just looked like I was watching a programme. Vanessa Gregory, Fairfield High School For Girls Year 9 Pupil.

This was probably one of the most biggest wake up calls of my life. I have just recently watched the play yesterday afternoon and it has really helped me to understand more about medical documents and also mental illnesses. This is a huge help due to the fact the problems that my best friend is going through at the moment. My friend Richard, he isn't leaving the house any more, he isn't even going to school any more and this is just like Lizzie in the play. He doesnn't tell me much of what is wrong with him as he is also very secretive and all i want to do is help him. It realy upsets me too see him like this. I barely even see him any more and we would used to see each other everyday. I thought i was never going to find out what is wrong with Rick until i saw this play, all the things the Lizzie was going through is the exact same things Rick is going through. I thought " could this be?" it was like God sending a message to the insides of my brain! I am truley glad i saw this play, because now i am able to gather help from proffessionals to try and bring back Rick to his usual fun, loving self. I hope you have taken into account my recent problems and experience and will hopefully help me by sending a message back! Yours Sincerely,Oliver Riley

The session I experienced with the ‘Breathing Country’ on the ‘Electronic patient record’ issue really inspired me to open my mind to the benefits of this scheme. Prior to this talk I was unaware of such schemes; therefore I fully embraced this oppor-tunity to gain knowledge on this important matter.I appreciated the team leader’s enthusiasm as he explained and introduced the aim of the session well. He also spoke in a clear, coherent manner and his passion on this topic influenced my desire to listen. Furthermore, the use of actors was a very effective way in presenting the cause. It helped me to understand the seriousness of the electronic patient record and how it may affect an individual’s life dramatically.

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Although the matter discussed was serious the structure of the talk was conducted in an informal style and because of this I feel the message of the electronic patient record reached out to me and my friends. Through the acting I was visually aware of how the electronic patient record can have both a positive and negative effect on one’s life and so I was educated in an area that was alien to me before.Through the electronic questions we felt that the opinion of young people was regarded as important as the rest of the pub-lic’s. It is nice to know our opinion counts. The idea of the electronic patient record was conveyed well and personally I feel that it would be beneficial to put this scheme into practice. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the session I was more sceptical about the electronic patient record, as the idea of our medical records available to others made me feel uncomfortable. However, towards the end of the session I realised the necessity of the electronic patient record and how beneficial it could be to all of us in terms of finding new treatments and linking different symptoms. I realised the electronic patient record was not an attack on our privacy but an aid to researchers and doctors to find out many essential facts needed to enhance our chances of survival. ‘Breathing Country’ engaged us in questions, after the session I definitely learned to open my mind. The session made me aware of the changing dynamics in society and how this affects me. It raised serious social, moral, scientific and political questions regarding the NHS. Also, as I am studying History and Psychology as A level’s it enabled me to form ideas on how the world has advanced to new technologies. I am now in a position to make an educated decision on the question of the electronic patient record if the occasion arises. I fully appreciate the work put into the session and I have enjoyed taking my knowledge and discussing it amongst my family. I believe the program should be made more global in order to help other students understand the importance of the electronic patient record. Overall, I found the session was very stimulating and beneficial to me.Shahmima Akhtar

‘Dream Country’ was a well-produced, though provoking piece of drama from the Y Touring Theatre Company. It presented many ideas in a very easy-to-digest way, using the medium of a simple yet well thought out storyline.

While it was obviously a play that clearly supported the NHS database scheme, it did manage to hide this bias in parts and show the opposing sides of the argument in a fair light, which, realistically, was no more than could be expected from a play partially funded by the Health Service itself.One thing that I really got from the play was the near-immaculate research that had taken place. During the question and answer session at the end, the characters stayed perfectly in role, and could even spout off-the-cuff facts about what the NHS database could do. My own research on the website shows how extensively and pain-stakingly well informed the play, and cast, were, with information from GPs, Professors of Psychiatry, and others. The end result is a cleverly woven mix of the more personal side of the problem, as well as the more scientific issues.All in all, I would recommend ‘Dream Country’ to anyone interested in the NHS database, or even just in the Health Service in general, as it was informative, entertaining, and altogether brilliantJonathan Frere

7.7 Advisory Board Biographies

Gus Hosein Visiting Fellow, London School of EconomicsHe is a Senior Fellow with Privacy International and a Visiting Scholar at the American Civil Liberties Union. He specialises in technology policy and civil liberties.

Martyn Thomas FREngDirector and Principal Consultant, Martyn Thomas Associates.Martyn Thomas is an independent consultant software engineer specialising in safety-related and other critical computer systems. He was awarded a CBE for services to software engineering in the 2007 New Year’s Honours, and elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) in July that year. He currently represents IT on the Engineering Policy Committee of the RAEng.Martyn founded the software engineering company, Praxis, in 1983 and sold it to Deloitte and Touche in 1992, becoming an international partner in Deloitte Consulting. He left Deloitte Consulting in 1997 to return to working for himself. He now spe-

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cialises in the planning and assessment of large software intensive systems, software engineering, and engineering man-agement. He acts as an expert witness where complex software engineering issues are involved. Martyn works extensively with universities: he represents Informatics on the Vice Chancellor’s Advisory Board of City Univer-sity; he is Visiting Professor in Software Engineering at the University of Oxford, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and at the University of Bristol. He is a member of the UK Computing Research Committee (UKCRC) and he has served on the computing panels for two HEFCE Research Assessments. He has received honorary doctorates from City University, London and the universities of Edinburgh and Hull.

Simon Wessely MD FMedSci Professor of Epidemiological and Liaison Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, and Honorary Con-sultant Psychiatrist at King’s and Maudsley HospitalsHis 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 cohort are currently being followed up.

Marlene Winfield OBEDirector for Patients and Public at NHS Connecting for Health Marlene Winfield is Director for Patients and Public at NHS Connecting for Health. Before joining the NHS, Marlene was Head of Policy Research and Strategy at the National Consumer Council, working particularly in the areas of data protection, freedom of information, and civil justice. She was made an OBE in 2000 for services to civil justice reform. Marlene was a founder and trustee of Public Concern at Work, a free legal advice centre that helps employees and employ-ers deal with ethical dilemmas at work. For ten years, she was an adviser to the UK’s biggest ethical investment funds, Friends’ Provident’s Stewardship. For 15 years, Marlene ran a support group for women injured by a faulty contraceptive device (the Dalkon Shield), helping many get compensation from the manufacturer.

Dr Trevor Yellon General Practitioner, The Killick Street Community Health Centre, Kings CrossDr Trevor Yellon has been a GP for 7 years in Kings Cross. He is also a qualified trainer/teacher, teaching trainee GP's and medical students. His special interests lie in areas of psychiatry and sexual health. He has lived, trained and worked in North London for many years and knows the area well.

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Date post:	16-Mar-2016
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Theatre of Debate Electronic Patient Records

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