1、A children-centred education.

The DRE Centre (Beijing) puts the needs of children and young people first and foremost. The Centre is a social space for children, young people and their families to develop for themselves guided and supported by highly skilled professionals.

2、A mind of your own.

Our aim is not to indoctrinate the child or impose adult values on them. They are encouraged to develop ‘a mind of your own’. We do not to tell them what to think, but teach them how to think independently in order to create their own human values.

3、Human Values.

Human values are different from facts, they shape the kind of people we want to be and the kind of world we want to live in. At the Drama Rainbow Education Centre, we seek to nurture the child by enabling them to take responsibility for themselves and each other; develop emotionally and intellectually, to become empathic, build confidence and the ability to communicate, collaborate and cooperate, to reflect on themselves and society, and create their own values.

 4、The use of imagination.

The imagination represents a specifically human form of conscious activity that can lead the child towards the development of all the higher psychological and intellectual functions. It is also the source of creativity. Through the imagination we are able to know the world in a different way. We can reach beyond the present and our daily lives to envisage possible worlds. To be imaginative is not something distinct from being rational, but rather it is what gives reason flexibility, energy, creativity and human value.

5、Play and Playfulness.

At the DRE Centre, we develop the imagination specifically through play which is integrated into all our activities and courses, specifically the art forms of drama and theatre. The importance of play in this developmental process is often misunderstood or completely overlooked in contemporary society, even in education. This is not so at the DRE Centre, imaginative play is a serious matter and is at the heart of all our work. Further, play and playfulness can enhance the well-being of everyone, young and old.

6、Participatory Drama and Theatre.

In many respects theatre and drama are a development of structured play, with the added dimension of engaging the individual in social acts of meaning making. This relationship between the individual and the social, or self and society, is at the heart of the culture of education at our Centre. Our DiE, TiE and Youth Theatre courses are, also like play, as much about process than product. We focus on individual and social development, not on technical skills. All our drama and theatre-based courses and projects are highly participatory and also, again like play, focused on the emotional andintellectual development of the children. In DRE we use the art forms of drama and theatre as tools for learning. Not for how to be better actors like a conventional performing art school (although our students develop these skills as a consequence of participating in our course), but for learning how to be better citizens, and fulfill individual potential by nurturing critical thinking, enquiry learning and learning how to learn.

7、A creative Learning environment.

Children-centred drama and theatre learning requires a creative children-centred learning environment and creative teacher-facilitators. We place the highest premium on staff training and development. The role of the teacher-facilitator and artist at the DRE Centre is to use their experience, knowledge and drama, theatre, arts and educational expertise to enable the children to be active agents in their own learning. All activities are structured and social, and we strive to create a space for the child that is meaningful, artistic and playful in a high quality purposely designed children-centred space. A space, providing the warmth, comfort and security that the creativity we strive to nurture in our students requires.

8、A Critical Friend to Parents.

Being a parent is the greatest privilege an adult can have. It is also the most responsible and challenging role we can ever take on in life. Parents are vital to our culture of education and vision for the success of the Drama Rainbow Education Centre community. We strive to be a cooperative and inclusive friend to all our parent members in order to work together for the child’s successful development. We want to offer support and opportunities for all our parents to engage in this way of learning, to take what is useful about it into the home and into themselves. We will be a critical friend, however, in the sense that while we will work alongside parents to see how we can improve our practice in the Centre it is our duty to ensure that we remain children-centred and that we put their needs first and foremost and honestly to parents at all times. Being parents takes the rest of our lives, fortunately we are never too old to learn. Learning together is the most rewarding of journeys and learning to learn and life-long learning is embedded in our culture of education.