St John’s Supports Primary Playmaker
During 2024–25, St John’s College supported Open House for Schools, a pilot project with Oxford Playhouse to provide creative arts education opportunities to over 1,100 children from some of the least advantaged primary schools in Oxfordshire.
Open House informed and strengthened the Playhouse’s schools strategy and reinforced the belief that a multi-faceted learning programme, delivered across a number of years of a child’s primary education, will have the greatest positive impact.
St John’s is now proudly supporting the Playhouse in a strategic three-year Creative Transformation Partnership. Working with 2,000 children each year from state primary schools across Oxfordshire, we are committed to delivering an impactful and year-round arts access framework, backed up by in-depth evaluation and reporting.
Primary Playmaker Showcase 2026. Photograph by Andrew Walmsley.
Primary Playmaker is a key part of the Playhouse’s creative education initiative. Now in its eleventh year, this flagship scheme sees theatre professionals visit a dozen primary schools across Oxfordshire, working with around 400 Year 5 and 6 pupils per year. Through a programme of interactive workshops led by the Playhouse’s classroom facilitators, children are encouraged to play games, improvise, practice, and perform in front of one another, building their confidence as playwrights. By the end of the programme, each child has the opportunity to write their own play and share it with their peers.
" I have learnt that it is okay to make mistakes because people will still support me and believe in me " Daisy, a pupil involved with Primary Playmaker in 2026.
Primary Playmaker culminates in an annual showcase at the Oxford Playhouse, with selected scripts brought to life by professional theatre-makers on the theatre’s main stage. Pupils from all participating schools are invited to enjoy the plays created by their friends and peers. This year, more than 300 scripts were submitted, making it incredibly difficult for the showcase’s co-directors, Ben Newman and Lucy Findlay, to select just twelve for performance.
Primary Playmaker Showcase 2026. Photograph by Andrew Walmsley.
Representatives from St John’s, including Professor Kate Nation, Tutorial Fellow in Psychology and Director of Read Oxford —a research project that investigates how children learn and process written language — and Denise Cripps, Director of Communications and Engagement, were delighted to attend the 2026 showcase. They enjoyed a broad variety of plays, transporting them from magical antique shops to Antarctic igloos, through Loch Ness, and even as far as Mars.
The creativity of the twelve plays performed during the showcase, and the delight with which they were received by the Playhouse’s young audience, was testament to the transformative power of early years creative arts education.
" One child came into the first script writing session with 5 separate full-page mind maps she had made at home the night before about her story " An encouraging report from one of Primary Playmaker's Classroom Facilitators.
The College is particularly proud to be supporting Primary Playmaker in 2026, which saw the launch of the biggest campaign in a generation to encourage young people from across the United Kingdom to read more and discover the joys of creative writing. St John’s is enthusiastically supporting the National Year of Reading, hosting a wide-ranging programme of literary events throughout the year, including a literary festival during the Spring Bank Holiday weekend (23–24 May).
Alongside these new literary initiatives for 2026, the College remains committed to supporting and celebrating long-standing projects in the local community, such as Primary Playmaker and Oxford Open Doors in September.
Congratulations to all involved with 2026 Primary Playmaker programme, from the young playwrights to the brilliant actors who brought their scripts to life. We are already looking forward to next year’s showcase!