The work of Punchdrunk Enrichment has grown and developed over many years. We have made it our mission to make strange and surprising magical projects in schools. Bringing joyful and awe inspiring immersive learning into school communities. Engaging, growing and nurturing pupils’ and teachers’ imaginations and creative spirit. Making school feel more positive, giving purpose to learning and opening up a world of possibilities. Taking schools and teachers on playful immersive learning journeys.

Our practice has been informed, developed, delivered and grown by a huge amount of people. Whether teacher, director, writer, designer, performer or child. This practice is housed in the minds, hearts and memories of all who have experienced it. We thank them for being part of this journey. 

All Punchdrunk Enrichment projects require input from teachers and therefore have training embedded within them. Sometimes, this training is embodied in the experience itself; to experience immersive learning is to know and understand the impact of the work. Other times, this training is offered as CPD sessions or masterclasses. We construct this training with care and attention. We like to think that all who train with us enter into ‘The School of Enrichment’ a metaphorical space in an imagined world of Weevillania through which teachers and practitioners pass to access and deliver our work. With even this framing speaking directly to our practice. 

We love to deliver immersive experiences but know the most sustainable way for this practice to proliferate, is for schools and teachers and creative practitioners to embed it as an approach.  

We want to grow our immersive learning movement and offer our manifesto to all who wish to join us or continue on this journey.  We invite you to take these statements onboard, embody them in your approach to school and learning whether immersive or otherwise and to join the growing number of teachers and schools who value the transformative potential of immersive learning. 

The Immersive Learning Manifesto

• Immersive schools believe that children can’t be what they can’t imagine themselves to be. Immersive teachers let children see themselves in roles, and exercise their imagination too, allowing them to imagine the future possibilities for themselves.

• Immersive schools treat teachers as creative practitioners. This creativity should be nurtured and developed. Teachers should be given space and time to do so and be bold in their creation without fear of failure.  

• Immersive schools know that enjoyment and entertainment are as valuable as knowledge acquisition. Neither is mutually exclusive. Exciting learning takes place when they are in the service of each other; increasing motivation to learn and making the acquisition of knowledge and skills entertaining, enjoyable and purposeful.

• Immersive schools believe manifestation is powerful. Magic is real to those who believe it is real. The more you believe the more real the magic becomes. Investment in a belief in something increases your chance of manifesting it. This can be exercised through creative practice and extends beyond the realms of magic. 

• Immersive schools recognise arts education and arts based learning is a fundamental human right. Therefore, they should be embedded at the heart of school life and allow this approach to transcend traditional subject boundaries. Immersive schools seek to create whole school immersive projects that raise standards across the curriculum and engage your whole school as a learning community.

• Immersive schools value the shared experience of whole class and whole school learning. When we learn as communities, we grow as communities. We strengthen bonds between learner and teacher, and the communications between homes, schools and the wider community.

• Immersive schools know that children learn with all their senses and with their bodies too. Being part of a story helps you embody and remember physically and sensorily the narrative and associated learning. Immersive schools create experiences that actively engage our mind, body and senses. The experiences are at their best when this is built intentionally into a learning experience and is integral to it. 

• Immersive schools are ripe for transformation. Spaces can be reimagined physically, figuratively or mentally: classrooms, cupboards, playgrounds, corridors and more. The limits are only that of your imagination and immersive teachers make space to open up their minds to these possibilities. This changes the relationship with school for all involved. When school becomes a place of wonder, it becomes a wonderful place to be. 

• Immersive schools value play as a fundamental part of child development and know that children are at their best when they are playing. They recognise that teachers must be given agency to facilitate a playful environment as guides and passengers into playfulness. They are led by child curiosity and unafraid to be changeable and adaptable.  

• Immersive schools create learning experiences that put children at the centre of the experience making them the protagonist or hero of a story that happens to them. They create experiences where the learning of children is embedded within a narrative and where learning directly impacts the progression of experiences and narrative.

• Immersive schools see the inherent value in creating beautiful and complex experiences. This takes creative energy, a level of artistic enquiry and time. Immersive schools make time and space for this. This speaks to their care and attention to children’s education and a knowledge that this investment creates a high quality of experience. 

• Immersive schools put stories and narratives at the heart of education creating experiences where narrative and learning intertwine and interplay in the service of another. They make children’s learning the driving force of the progression of a narrative; giving children a sense of agency and palpable engagement, understanding that the impact of this can be powerful and transformative.  

• Immersive schools uphold that the quality of learning is just as important as quantifiable measures of success of learning itself. The benefits and impacts may not be easily measured or defined. This leads immersive schools to look outside and beyond the standard metrics.  

• Immersive schools understand that learning shouldn’t be about a fixed destination rather a preparation for an ongoing journey. Your mind is a map, your curiosity your compass and your imagination the limits of what you can discover. 

Peter Higgin, Artistic Director, Punchdrunk Enrichment.